<p>I've noticed that students who are athletic tends to be more successful in whatever they are doing. They are usually socially honed and are well-liked. They seem to be street smart as well. What do you guys think? Does being athletic makes you more successful?</p>
<p>I'm not sure it's just because athletes are "naturally" inclined towards success, but more that playing a sport teaches you A LOT of things that you miss or dont get much of in a school/social setting. For starters, playign a sport teaches you persevearance, motivation, dedication, a drive to win, time management, and especailly interpersonal skills (if ur on a team). All these things are qualities that most people see as necessary in a "successful person".</p>
<p>I really, really hope what the OP said isn't true....</p>
<p>Sports teach you ALOT about confidence.</p>
<p>Sports (in hs) are an easy way to popularity and likeability, but I doubt that being athletic is the key to success. Yes, sports do somewhat develop the athlete's social skills, yet it doesn't necessarily mean that the athlete will be "honed and well-liked".
Maybe I'm just saying that because I've never played a sport in my life, but I still believe it to be true.</p>
<p>It depends on how you define "successful". In your context it appears that being successful (in high school) is to be well-liked or to fit in well socially. I would say quite a few on CC wouldn't necessarily agree with that.</p>
<p>Being athletic and mobile is shown to give you more energy. it is also shown that every part of your body functions better and more efficiently.</p>
<p>The more you exercise, the more blood travels to your brain, the more oxygen your brain cells receive, the more endophine your body creates, the better you feel. Also, you can branch from the more oxygen your brain cells receive to the denser neurological "webs" created in your brain, the faster and better you think. So both of the end results should help one attain a more successful life for almost any definition of "successful". Thank you, thank you very much.</p>
<p>I agree, kids who are athletic and play sports AND are smart and get good grades tend to be better prepared to be successful in college and afterwards. Not to mention they also have a better time in high school.</p>
<p>I'm going to have to say yes to the OP. Athletic smart kids are basically awesome and lucky as hell.</p>
<p>Being athletic helps in a lot of ways. Besides being the obvious things, like confident, able to think fast, etc, athletic students are also in better shape. Being in better shape and healthier does help them out a lot in the long run.</p>
<p>Yes, but the OP didn't say "athletic and smart" students are more successful in life. Of course having the benefit of being athletic and intelligent is a good combination, but what about those who are just athletic, as the thread title affirms?</p>
<p>Ummm, good question, but refer to my post (#8) and I am sure you can deduce your answer.</p>
<p>Not really. Having more blood circulating through your brain is only momentarily, and though regular exercise may increase oxygen capacity, it doesn't mean it'll make you significantly smarter overall. Smartness isn't a <em>direct</em> result of exercise.</p>
<p>Obviously you did not read the post with much attention. As far as intelligence is of concern, I'm not going to spend time looking up the articles I read, but if you google it, I gaurantee you'll find articles about new research that shows exercise indeed does directly increase intelligence, and not temporarily. As I said in the post above, increased oxygen allows denser neurological "webs" to form, this is obviously not temporary, it is permanent. And this increase in density allows the thought process to be more efficient and overall much better. As a matter of fact, I think this was like a cover story of either The New Yorker or Time a few months ago.</p>
<p>As far as feeling good is concerned, exercise obviously forms dopamine and endophine, which makes you feel better temporarily, and it forms muscles and burns fat which makes you feel better on the long run.</p>
<p>I'm not going to try and argue about how exercise increases intelligence, but I can probably say it's not the most effective method, because then if people really wanted to increase their intelligence it would have been common knowledge to hit the treadmill every day. But going back to the topic, it did say only "athletes", and athletes aren't the ones most noted for their intelligence (bluntly speaking, and I'm not trying to offend anyone), rather they are known for their physical stamina, although they DO tend to be "socially honed and well liked" in high school. Going further, having denser neurological webs doesn't necessarily mean success in life. There are a lot more factors that play into it.</p>
<p>I don't know about this, but you seem to have been holding some sort of grudge against me ever since that discussion on whether or not Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova should be considered models or tennis players, which is a bit unreasonable.</p>