For many athletes, being a part of a sport means hours of long practices dedicated to honing skills within their chosen sport. However, not everyone understands the complexity of different sports. Here we have athletes bust myths about each other’s sport:
WATER POLO – HORSEBACK RIDING
Julie Heninger (11): I think that water polo is actually super easy. Players basically just float there in the water.
Jane Thorpe (10): Water polo is really tiring and takes a lot of endurance. Plus, the sport takes a lot of conditioning for one to be considered good at it. Water polo involves a lot of strategy.
JT: Something that I’ve heard about horseback riding is that you just sit there on the horse and kick it when you want it to move.
JH: There’s a lot more to horseback riding than just sitting on the horse. Balance is a really important thing. Also, there is steering and controlling which direction the horse is going in. There are different cues for different speeds. Kicking is actually not a cue that you use to make a horse go faster. It is only used when the horse is being bad. I would also like to add that horseback riding does not actually hurt the horse. This is another misconception.
TENNIS – GOLF
Bridget Chantharath (11): People with long arms are better at tennis.
Celina Yang (11): No, everyone can play tennis and be equally good. Arm length doesn’t determine the strength or talent of a player. You just need to train yourself on proper tennis technique.
CY: I’ve heard that a golf player doesn’t need to move much, so it’s not a tiring sport.
BC: Actually, golf is a sport that involves a lot of walking. You have to carry your bag around, which can be around 20 pounds. Also, during tournaments, you can’t use a golf cart to move around.
SOCCER – FOOTBALL
Mohammed Tazi (11): “Football is an easy sport because yu get 45-second breaks between each play after just running for five seconds in each play.
Gavin Lounsbury (11): The reality is that you are getting hit by 300-pound lineman and 220-pound five-star dudes every day and every game. Even with all the practice that comes up to it, the game is what really matters and you learn a lot in practice. In reality, it’s super tiring out on the field because you have so many things to remember and focus on, especially when you have the defense that is trying to destroy you and vice versa with the offense. Football is a hard sport even if you get a break between each play.
GL: Soccer requires no technical skill or ability.
MT: Soccer is hard because it requires a lot of technical ability to play the game and to not get tackled. We pass a lot in training and play a lot of rondos, which is where one player is in the middle and everyone has one touch to play the ball around him. That enhances the technical ability of each player, which is crucial in a game.