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

swimming in a sea wrote: »

those East German girls in the Athletics from the 80's still hold a lot of records

I wonder why😁

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Schumacher
Senna

Ali
Tyson

Pele
Maradonna

All would be great in any era.

Pele you must be taking the piss ,

Go look at tape of Pele,
90% of the time he walked around the pitch as they all did in the his day, His go to move was a shake of the leg while standing still,

There was a documentary recently about the 1000 goals he clamed to have scored and most where playing non league games and charity games,
Plus he played for one of the only pro teams in Brazil so they one weekly 9-0 or more,

Football has moved on so much now he wouldn't get a game in a championship team in his prime to say other wise is loving the romance of the game and not looking at it logically,

Compare video of him and his goals to Messi and its like a different sport,

BattleCorp wrote: »

I have to agree with the above.

Yes, Pele was good for his time. If Pele was around today, training using today's methods, he would be a gifted player.

But take Pele as he was then, and transplant him into a modern team, I doubt he'd be able to get by many players. All players are much faster now, including defenders. They would also have far more stamina than Pele would have had. A transplanted Pele from 1965 would probably be a liability in todays game.

He wouldn't play for a division one team if you took him as he was
,
Honestly just look at the tape , the games is so different the skill level was laughable compared to today , athletic level not even comparable for hundreds of reason's

The pitches where shocking, balls heavy as hell and rules not enforced like today , Its basically a different sport impossible to compare players from Pele time to this and unfair on them to ,

Woke Hogan wrote: »

Auld lads love to imagine that the sporting heroes of their youth were tougher and stronger than the modern equivalents. The reality, of course, is that almost any athlete from 20-30 years ago in virtually every sport wouldn't have a hope against someone from today's era.

Footballers today start going to the gym at 15, the likes of Maradona probably only ever went to the gym to try to lose a stone before a major tournament.

People always fall back on the old Chopper Harris thing, that the big baddies of the past would kick todays player off the field.

Fact is, magically drop Ronaldo onto the field in the 1966 FA cup final or world cup final, and he would instantly be the fastest, fittest and most developed player on the field. I'm sure defenders would try to kick him, because damn sure they aren't keeping up with him in any other regard, but I suspect most of their time will be spent chasing shadows of a player they aren't fit enough or fast enough to catch.

On the flipside, drop Pele onto the field in this years FA cup final? Natural talent my ass, he wouldn't get a sniff of the ball, it would be 21 very fit and disciplined professionals and one daytripper, he would stick out like a sore thumb.

Woke Hogan wrote: »

It's laughable, really. Maradona was a spent force at 31. Ronaldo is two years older than that and he's still tearing up the Italian league.

Whenever my kids ask about the best players of my era, I just tell them they were a joke compared to today and to appreciate the guys we have now.

Drugs. Different types obviously but they're both at it.

Thinking more about the question in relation to Golf and the question of no significant progress.

There has been none.

The increase in prize money in Golf makes a potential career as a professional a very attractive prospect for talented players. With the more attractive financial aspect it has encouraged more talented players to take a shot in the Pro ranks. 30, 40, 50 years ago you would need to be a highly skilled golfer to even break even. For many brilliant golfer's a touring career stayed a dream. Top earners would have been the 1%. A successful used car salesman would have earned the equivalent of your middle of the pack tour Pro in the old day.s

There is this distance crisis in the modern game. Pro's hit the ball too far! etc. Being capable of carrying the ball 300 yards off the tee is no longer the outlier in the game it once was. You were a freak if you could do that in the persimmon/balata days. In the past decade, it has quickly become a necessity. With that as a pre-requisite comes a more capable pool of incoming young professionals for whom, with the aid of trackman radar, tailored equipment coupled with drive and desire them hitting 300+ yards is standard practice. For me that explains how 69 players now average over 300 in driving distance.

You win the Masters in 1988 and you got a cheque for $183,000. Win it now and you get $2 million. Quite an increase in 30 years. Gary Player once won $175,000 during a skins game in the early 80's. He was actually shaking with disbelief that he'd won so much money. It was more than he'd ever won in a single full season. A middle of the field tour pro can earn that for having a Logo on their hat today.

Per OP, Are there any sports where there has not been significant progress?

In 1948, Ben Hogan's scoring average was 69.30. In 2016, for all the discourse about technology and the ball, Dustin Johnson's scoring average was 69.17. A negligible improvement in 68 years. Statistically from a scoring perspective one could say there has been no significant progress at all. Of course there has been course lengthening, deeper rough, faster greens to mitigate the distance increases but the scoring averages align in the professional ranks. That correlation indicates that the changes to courses are now standardised, they have successfully made today's scoring averages align with historical tour averages.

The ball is actually standardised as well. Any new improvements can't breach a set speed off the clubface on the 'Iron Byron' machine. Clubheads themselves have by rule maximum coefficient of restitution i.e. trampoline effect which any new clubs cannot break in order to comply. That has lead manufacturers to produce clubs which increase forgiveness instead of raw distance which is prohibited. Whereas the long hitters of the past could bomb the ball far, there was the consoling idea that accuracy would be compromised. Today we see the top players hitting it long and accurate with more forgiving clubs. The Iron Bryon machine hit's the ball perfectly every time. With the attractiveness of prize money, with more and more motivated players fine tuning their game to hit the ball to closer and closer to that perfection, Golf today, is a game that a Pro or amateur from 50 years ago would be incredulous at yet their scorecards would be more or less the same.

Boxers /thread


Most top professional boxers of the past would absolutely destroy every weight division of today.

In defence of Best there seems to be too much focus here on him past his prime (>26 or even earlier), if you do research on Best before he went off the rails he was an exceptional trainer both physical and skills so I'd be in no doubt he'd thrive today, there'd be less showboating but he'd still be a great player.

Woke Hogan wrote: »

Turning up hungover. Yeah, exceptional trainer.

That didnt happen until his mid 20's. the post was referring to the period before that.