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Your video, I may have found athletes more inept that myself, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Freedivers are incredible athletes. Watching someones overcome an involuntary breath response is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen

I wonder if they add the glove-impact sounds in after the fact.

I think we can owe the quick knockdowns to thinner gloves in the era, but it's interesting to me how less built and physically-extreme the athletes are while still seeming nearly as fast and agile as athletes today.

That's awesome. Since 13 is typically the middle-to-beginning of puberty for girls and, assuming she has control of her 70mph fastball (probably) and can field too, I'd bet she'll be hanging tough with the boys for another three to five years at least. It will be very interesting to see where it takes her.

Kudos to her for enduring the obstacles, putting in the hard work, and most importantly for setting an excellent example for future generations.

I would like to see a shift in the general public's interest towards sports where finesse, coordination, and mental acuity can totally supersede brute strength and speed. Unfortunately, race car driving is the only competitive sport that immediately comes to mind, but surely there are others.

edit: Oh, and I apologize for using this as a soapbox, and I don't mean to detract in any way from her accomplishments or to imply this newscast or SI is evil, but as a counterpoint, I also always feel a little disgusted when the media (with their Nike, Reebok and Gatorade funding) draws a direct analogy to gender equality through athletics. It's a dangerous straw man... but meh, not everything on TV and magazines is responsible for solving serious social problems. It's just entertainment, so I'll shut up about it now.

I never sent in a tape. No exciting video for them to show. I walked up, like I said. Were there cameras? Of course. Am I attractive? Of course. Was I broadcast? Of course, it's a tv show. Did I finish and win the money? No I didn't and I'm a DI college athlete.

Your point as usual is useless. There is very specific types of people who can do this. NFL players tried again this year and failed. But I guess they aren't some of the greatest athletes are they? Crossfit? Crossfit is absolute shit especially to use as a standing point for people who you think can do this course.

Your point is anyone can do this. No. They can't and thats why no one has. Why do you go give a try? Maybe you can bore it to death by talking to it.

Not certain how legit this site is but it looks real to me.

http://ninjawarrior.info/participate.html

Scroll down to the American one and it says to send in a tape, sell yourself, make it exciting. Sure seems like it's about the Television show and not the best athletes to me.

Whatever you say, but my point still stands. She's not the greatest athlete that can do this, there are many many women that can do this.

Wait...did they have cameras on you? Were you broadcast? Are you attractive? There are several layers...you can get in line for American Idol, that doesn't mean anything for the actual SHOW.

Like I said, she's there for a reason.

She was pretty good at that but I think we need to remember that this is a Television show. She was cast in this show, so she's attractive, and she had connections to get an audition. Yes an audition.

Not taking anything away from her athletically but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a girl in the Crossfit competitions who couldn't smash this course pretty handily. It's just that they didn't book the audition.

Still really neat, hope she beats the Vegas one.

My 2 cents -- I think "throws like a girl" refers more to the *form*, not the 10% or 20% or whatever speed/distance disparity between men/women when throwing.

And form can be learned, as shown by the mythbusters clip above.
The point is, we socialize young men to learn correct throwing form whereas we discourage young women to learn correct throwing form. Once that correct throwing form is learned, is there still a 10%, 20%, or 30% difference in speed/distance performance between men/women? Sure, just like there is with most athletic feats. But again, that (relatively small in the scheme of things) disparity is not what "throws like a girl" is referring to.

Although I do think that women's rights still have a bit of a long way to go, this particular video is kinda bullshitty...

They refer to physical activities ("run like a girl", "throw like a girl", "fight like a girl", etc), and also about the moment when those expressions change meaning.

It usually changes meaning when boys develop during puberty, and become faster and stronger than girls. It is an insult, but it's not exactly a lie... women, are for the most part, slower and weaker physically speaking.

"Why can't run like a girl also mean win the race?". It can, if you're running against other girls, but the fastest girl would not be able to run faster than the fastest boy. Period. It's not a matter of equality or justice. It's a matter of biology. There is a reason why there are gender based competitions. Because it wouldn't be fair to put female athletes against male athletes (in most sports. there are a couple of exceptions obviously). That's also the reason why women's sports are usually not as relevant.

Women's rights activists need to focus more on social issues and less on biology. Unless they're thinking about tampering with genetics, men and women will always have differences, and there's little that can be done about that.

Jim's advice to "follow your passion" is, IMHO, a terrible idea and is, perhaps dangerous and destructive career advice. But who could expect Jim to suggest anything else, seeing as how he became highly successful doing what he loves?

How many people do what they love, but never achieve success? Probably far more than those that do, except we never hear from them, because they're never selected to give commencement speeches at universities...

This is particularly pernicious in tournament-style fields where there are only a few big winners in comparison to the many many losers (e.g., media, athletics, startups, etc.).

These students would be better advised to "Do what contributes" (i.e., focus on the beneficial value created for other people and not just to satisfy one's own ego). People who contribute the most are often ultimately the most satisfied with what they do — and eventually find their way into fields with high remuneration (i.e., tend to make the most $).

Sadly, advising people to focus on others rather than oneself is not all that popular, especially given the endemic narcissism that characterizes modern culture (and, to be sure, much of what's behind Jim's own 'performances'). Focusing on what is best for others, rather than oneself, requires us to delay gratification (and short-term happiness) and perhaps even toil for many years to get the payoff of contributing value to the world.

Too often, people follow their passions into fields that are simply too competitive for where their skills are in those things. Instead, one should "do what contributes" — follow the thing that provides the most value to others.

In other words, "Follow your effort," "Don't do what you love, love what you do," and other suggestions to adopt a more complicated if more realistic calculus of doing what you're good at so long as it gives you some amount of satisfaction.

IMO, the best commencement speech of the season is the one delivered by Adm. William McRaven, the head of U.S. special operations, at the University of Texas, who said, "You can't follow anything until you've made your bed."

The best argument against Genetics vs Perseverance that I've seen is Randy Moss vs Jerry Rice. Moss is taller, faster, and just has greater natural gifts than Jerry Rice. Why don't we call Randy Moss the GOAT (Greatest of all Time)?

Perseverance. Rice had that over any natural athlete that came to every NFL camp he went to. Rice was there before everyone, weeks before, and left later. He'd win a superbowl, wait a week and then right back to training. He's the best there was because Genetics doesn't do everything, just watch GATTACA.

But why don't I shut up. Calvin Coolidge said it better than I can.

http://zenpencils.com/comic/40-calvin-coolidge-never-give-up/

Perfect solution for non-athletic people!

Great. I tried Crossfit and I thought it was actually quite cool for a bit. However I had specific goals and Crossfits main problem is its unwillingness to adapt.

Here's the idea, you go in and you're given a notebook to track your progress (at the place I went to at least). You tell them your goals and write them down, then you record the workouts you do and the time you do them in ect.

Time: They time how fast you can go through various workouts which seems fine. Until you are doing things badly because you are trying to speed through them, and there's not a lot of reason to try and be FASTER every time. It makes sense to me to limit a workout to say 20 mins, it does not to try and beat your time of doing the same workout by 30 seconds or so. It just leads to sloppy reps and injuries.

Goals: Your goals btw don't matter. It's just a bunch of "I wanna be fitter" usually. My goals were very specific though because they had to do with my chosen profession (soccer referee) and the fact that I really don't care how much I can lift or what I look like.

Looks: They try to make this about fitness, it's all about being able to do MORE WORK. Being fit is it's own reward and being an athlete throughout life is what's cool. On this idea they refuse to have mirrors. I remember having mirrors growing up having Tae Kwon Do classes. Why were their mirrors? So you can look at what you are doing and adjust your form accordingly, they're a great took. The same goes for high school in weightlifting. You can look at yourself lift in the mirror and adjust how you are doing it. Instead they have people there correcting your form, often I found doing a bad job of it and in my case even debating with each other how I ,with heavy weights on my shoulders, should be lifting things. Yeah they don't want you admiring your body or something, the principle is stupid because SOME PEOPLE are there just for vanity and they have mirrors at home. I am there so I can do these things right like I know how, a mirror helps me with that.

Crossfit is a good idea, but I would like it to be less like the rigid religion I found and more flexible to what those paying would like. I'm not paying to join a cult, it's a club of fitness and I can do more leg lifts while you're using the kettlebells.

So who's gonna help me start a gym that'll be an answer to those Crossfit gyms. That are a bit less intense and a bit more focussed on making the gym fun and productive on your terms rather than theirs? Kickstart It!