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Are there any sporting teams or individuals from 20, 30,40, 50years ago that could..

sxt

Compete with the best of today... I know it's an unfair comparison, when you consider the improvements in understanding of strength and conditioning, recovery, nutrition etc. The financial riches which propels sports people and coaching to become incrementally better at everything as time goes by

I can't think of any off the top of my head?

Are there any sports where there has not been significant progress?

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LessOutragePlz

sxt wrote: »

Compete with the best of today... I know it's an unfair comparison, when you consider the improvements in understanding of strength and conditioning, recovery, nutrition etc. The financial riches which propels sports people and coaching to become incrementally better at everything as time goes by

I can't think of any off the top of my head?

Are there any sports where there has not been significant progress?

Darts,snooker or golf are what comes into mind for me.

Joe_ Public

LessOutragePlz wrote: »

Darts,snooker or golf are what comes into mind for me.

Not much into darts but both snooker and golf have undergone very significant changes so on the basis of the original question the old players would not simply be able to cope.

obby1

1980's MIKE TYSON would wipe the floor with todays heavy weight boxers.

salmocab

The training, technology and science has moved on too much, I do think that great teams would be great in most eras but then maybe certain players wouldn’t be given chances now that they would have in the past.
Current Dublin footballers would beat the great Kerry teams of the past out the gate if there was a time machine game but if they were around in the same era it would be completely different as they would have had similar training techniques and systems to come through.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I can only speak for the one sport I'm competitive in and that's Judo.

The Olympics has changed the rules of Judo so much since Judo was admitted into the games in 1964 that I really believe Judoka from even 15 years ago were/are far better and more technical than today.

Its probably the same with other combat sports like wrestling, boxing and TKD.

The Olympics destroyed my beautiful sport of Judo.

Joe_ Public

There are still a lot of athletics world records standing from the 80s and 90s so you’d have to think they’d still be competitive. Some of them might be a bit tarnished due to doping it has to be said though.

MrMusician18

Joe_ Public wrote: »

There are still a lot of athletics world records standing from the 80s and 90s so you’d have to think they’d still be competitive. Some of them might be a bit tarnished due to doping it has to be said though.

Some?!

cdeb

Bobby Fischer from 1972 would still be one of the top 10 chess players in the world today. And that's without computers. He was so far ahead of anyone of his time it was incredible

Joe_ Public

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Some?!

Yeah some. You got question marks about Jonathan Edwards or Mike Powell for example?

GetWithIt

Sebastian Coe. Only a couple quicker over 800m since the he set his world record in the 80s. It lasted forever in a seriously competitive event.

Arthur Daley

Think Maradona down to his fighting weight in 1986 could still be different class at a World cup today.

Senna in F1, would still be quick. Davis and White in snooker would be competitive, but not dominant for sure.

Richard Hillman

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Think Maradona down to his fighting weight in 1986 could still be different class at a World cup today.

Senna in F1, would still be quick. Davis and White in snooker would be competitive, but not dominant for sure.

Maradona wouldn't have been able to mentally cope with modern football. His way of coping with the pressure of the 80s were drugs and booze. Adriano springs to mind. Amazing talent but personal issues left him far behind the harder workers. You can't get through modern football on talent alone

Gwynplaine

Chicago Bulls of the 90's would beat any team of today.

Arthur Daley

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Maradona wouldn't have been able to mentally cope with modern football. His way of coping with the pressure of the 80s were drugs and booze.

Not certain about that. He almost single handedly dragged Argentina to 2 consecutive World Cup finals. Brought little known Napoli to 2 Italian Scudettos, where there was plenty of pressure on I'm sure. He lost the plot after the 1990 World Cup but he was a fine player able to shoulder the burden even in 1990.

Tin Foil Hat

Sergey Bubka in the pole vault.

Arthur Daley

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Chicago Bulls of the 90's would beat any team of today.

Used to rely on a bit of help from the Zebras if I recall correctly.

Richard Hillman

I don't think the standard of test cricket has progressed too much. Limited overs cricket has left the game bereft of opening batsmen.

Bowling too. There are not many bowlers with 20+ games averaging lower than 25. Whearas in my youth the game was full of them.

A lof the best batting averages were from yesteryear too. In times when batsmen didn't wear helmets and had to bat on uncovered pitches.

Limited overs cricket is on a totally different level though. Players of yesterday may have been able to adapt but the standards are through the roof from the time I started to watch 20 years ago

Richard Hillman

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Not certain about that. He almost single handedly dragged Argentina to 2 consecutive World Cup finals. Brought little known Napoli to 2 Italian Scudettos, where there was plenty of pressure on I'm sure. He lost the plot after the 1990 World Cup but he was a fine player able to shoulder the burden even in 1990.

Yeah but he wouldn't have had the help of keeping the drug testers away

Hammer89

LessOutragePlz wrote: »

Darts,snooker or golf are what comes into mind for me.

Eric Bristow won the World Championship final with an average of 99.66 in 1985. Last month, Jeffrey de Zwaan averaged 106.09 in the second round - and still lost. That should illustrate that the standard of darts has risen massively down the years.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Not much into darts but both snooker and golf have undergone very significant changes so on the basis of the original question the old players would not simply be able to cope.

That said, snooker's "Class of '92" (Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams, all of whom turned professional in 1992) continues to dominate today, despite being in their 40s. Williams beat Higgins in last year's world championship final, and no player in the game can touch O'Sullivan when he's playing well.

M.T. Cranium

I imagine Pele would get signed somewhere.

weemcd

Bo Jackson

Joe_ Public

Hammer89 wrote: »

Eric Bristow won the World Championship final with an average of 99.66 in 1985. Last month, Jeffrey de Zwaan averaged 106.09 in the second round - and still lost. That should illustrate that the standard of darts has risen massively down the years.

I’m not a darts fan but I have heard that the wires on the boards are thinner now, thus making it easier to hit the trebles. I can’t say exactly how true this is but with Barry hearn involved I have no problem believing it.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

Hammer89 wrote: »

Eric Bristow won the World Championship final with an average of 99.66 in 1985. Last month, Jeffrey de Zwaan averaged 106.09 in the second round - and still lost. That should illustrate that the standard of darts has risen massively down the years.

Gary Anderson won the final in 2016 with a three-dart average of 99.26. Adrian Lewis won in 2012 with a three-dart average of 93.06. Both lower than Bristow in '85.

Joe_ Public

Octavia Proud Quicksand wrote: »

That said, snooker's "Class of '92" (Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams, all of whom turned professional in 1992) continues to dominate today, despite being in their 40s. Williams beat Higgins in last year's world championship final, and no player in the game can touch O'Sullivan when he's playing well.

Yeah fair point. Snookers a funny game I guess, older players always held sway up to the 80s until hendry and then those others you mentioned completely changed the landscape. It has stalled now I think because not enough young people (in uk anyway) are taking up the sport and a lack of new talent is glaring. It hasn’t really followed the linear development you expect from most sports.

Richard Hillman

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Sergey Bubka in the pole vault.

All of those field events seem to have very longstanding records. The pole vault was broken recently incidentally (2014)

High Jump 1993
Long Jump 1991
Triple Jump 1995
Shot Put 1990
Discuss 1986
Hammer 1986
Javelin 1996

Similar in the women's. They do have those Flo-Jo records though.

I think there may a lot more at play though :pac:

eagle eye

Richard Hillman

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I’m not a darts fan but I have heard that the wires on the boards are thinner now, thus making it easier to hit the trebles. I can’t say exactly how true this is but with Barry hearn involved I have no problem believing it.

The wires are a lot thinner. Even my board at home would have thinner wires than the board's of the late 80s to 90s

Joe_ Public

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Yeah but he wouldn't have had the help of keeping the drug testers away

Whatever about the drugs I imagine one benefit Maradona would enjoy is not being kicked and slashed out of a World Cup by the butcher of bilbao and however many other hatchet men roamed football pitches untrammeled back in the day. I think that may have contributed, in some small way, to his copious drug taking.

artanevilla

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Yeah but he wouldn't have had the help of keeping the drug testers away

You don't think that happens now?