Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?
outsideonline.com
outsideonline.com
I have a running theory that many become interested in endurance sports as adults because they actually don't know how to play other sports. So in a way, these endurance sports are the so-called "easy" way in because they don't require the skill refinement that more skill-based sports require like basketball, martial arts, etc. So these endurance sports are actually the low-hanging fruit of sports or on-rails sports in a way. I'd love to see stats on how many of these sports are started as adults. I am not demeaning the endurance sports at all, but I would seriously guess from my observations that this is the case of getting involved in them. Endurance sports are also ones that one can stretch into later life easier.
And I think another thing is that once one starts in these endurance sports, it becomes an obsession of tinkering and "getting the gear" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3SFqV0hMyo), which can get quite expensive. You gotta make sure you got the right shoes, clothes, bike, bottles, earbuds, glasses, etc., and there's endless tinkering of workout and eating strategies. I feel it's just different than grabbing a glove to go play softball, having a basketball and shoes to play basketball, a racket for tennis or badminton, or just having a dobok for taekwondo or whatever else uniform for a martial art. Gear obsessions for ball sports or martial arts really only go so far. Endurance sports sort of favor tinkering of the body and gear because of the timelines in the sports and the idea, real or perceived, that every bit of gear matters. So participants in these sports become obsessed with this tinkering, which is obviously enabled by certain socioeconomic factors.
Whereas with running I just put on shoes and leave the house.
I know a number of very successful people who were not at all sporty in their youth but have taken up endurance sports as adults.
Playing team sports subjects you often to losing and it's also often pretty hard to improve objectively. Also if you haven't played a fair bit of sport in your youth it's probably hard to get good at them. Team sports are also hard in that training and games are on a schedule that may be hard to combine with work and family life.
With endurance sports you can work hard to improve your personal times.
Also many team sports are pretty bad from an injury point of view as you get older. Explosive speed and even the contact of football (soccer) or basketball can be an issue.
It'd be really interesting to see detailed stats about adult sport involvement vs income.
that’s the only theory notable enough for mention and just so happens it paints endurance athletes in a negative light…
How about this theory, those who don’t take up endurance sports don’t have the mental strength and dislike the meditative quality of them and instead favor short term gratification and rewards.
Of course that’s accurate for a subset just like the first theory was but a very gross generalization
But in general I find endurance fitness is a broadly applicable skill that can take you to a lot of interesting places, geographically and psychologically. I find a lot of rich triathletes are gear and finishing time-obsessed and miss out on the spiritual or aesthetic aspects.
Like I also alluded to and someone else mentioned, certainly the more skill/team/ball sports can take their toll over the years. I myself have transitioned to taekwondo, which you can sort of manage to be more or less "impactful". There is also a personal bias in my generalization in that I personally simply get bored when taking walks, running, etc. Hiking can be okay depending on the destination. I simply enjoy the beauty of dynamic movement, which is why I have become rather drawn to taekwondo.
You are comparing doing vs playing. In some languages there are two words for sport. One for game/competition and one for physical activity. Obviously there is physical activity in game but my point is: do not try to find game when there is not one. Anyway I have other anecdote. I've played sports since childhood but got bored with repetitive games and stayed with endurance sports because they offered excitement from new environments. It was not something I discovered as an adult. Running was basically second thing I did after I had learned walking.
There is obviously expensive gear with all those bikes/skis etc. But running really is low-hanging fruit of sports. Just tie your shoes, open the doors and you can just start.
It’s akin, I guess, to bodybuilding. You’re building a well-oiled machine (you). You’re tweaking your training plan and seeing how you respond. You monitor your resting HR and see it go down as you get fitter. It helps to go do the sport someplace picturesque.
While it’s true that you can spend any money on a bike, I bought my best bike for £180. Running is even cheaper, I buy a pair of shoes every 18 months or so for about £100 and that’s more or less it.
I say this as a competitive age group (not elite) runner that has not found a way to translate the required discipline into my work life.
1) They don't. 94% of rich people surveyed say they hate endurance sports. Or, 2) Because they love all sports. Rich people have time and money for sports. Poor people don't. And endurance sports are sports. Or, 3) They don't. We asked rich people to rank their favorite sports. Endurance sports were scattered randomly in the ranking. Or, 4) They don't. We define how much rich people like each sport by the average income of its participants and found that sailboat racing was most liked by rich people and playing tag on a playground was least liked. Or, 4) We define what rich people like this way: we surveyed one rich group and one poor group and ranked each sport by the percentage difference in participation by rich and poor. We find that the sports rich people like most (surprisingly, more than tennis or golf) are polo, yachting, and big game hunting.
You'd be surprised how many poor folks have tons of self-discipline and endurance - almost all miners, for starters...
>but maybe they got rich because they were able to maintain focus on their goals.
Family, education, connections, lucky breaks, friendly favours, and a standard work ethic and "focus on their goals" (which you can found on myriads of poor people) did it for most.
Definitely, good luck is always a factor. But don't discount how hard people in leadership positions have to work. Tech seems to have more variability, but go look at consulting or finance and anyone who is successful is paying a real price for how much they work. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it takes serious discipline, the same kind that keeps you going in endurance sports.
Surely there are rich people that have a cushy life, but they're not the ones who are endurance athletes.
I also know some milioneres and they either don't care much and drop work on others or care and also do sports to unload. Those who don't are usually fat (eating from stess). This is my anecdotal experience.
IMO first strat is best as luck is dominating factor anyway.
Once you get into your forties and fifties you can't compete or even play in many sports against people in their twenties due to fitness/energy and it may be hard to commit to a specific evening for a club night every week.
Running, Cycling, Swimming can be done at anytime, can get you outside, can be easy on ageing joints, and you can compete against/compare your performance against yourself (how much did I run last week?, how fast did I do my morning circuit compared with last month?). They are also pretty good aerobic exercises that let you live longer.
I participate in ultra endurance cycling. (1200km is my record!)
Most of the athletes are older, some participating into their 80s. It's a very time intensive sport so it's very hard to do with a young family. It's possible to do with just a bike so you see lower middle class people, but you'll also see upper middle class people with flashy bikes and all the gadgets.
It's hard, but mainly mental. Once you figure out the logistics it's just pedaling over and over and enjoying the scenery and either conversation or solitude depending on the ride.
The fact that rich (white) people spin the issue as "psychology" is simply another example of their disconnect.
Sad. But true.
In other words, if Bezos - or any lesser multimillionaire - wishes to delegate something, he delegates it.
The non-rich don't have that luxury, and this is exhausting.
The selection has something to do with needs of the group, but has also large random factor.
Phil Knight for example used to go for a 6 mile run every time he had a big decision to make, and anecdotally, I know a disproportionate number of endurance athletes who are also very successful in their careers.
1. They missed out on high school sports and are circling back for the experience.
2. Fear of death. If I can do Death Valley to Whitney Portal, surely death is far from me!
3. Because they can. Most of us have joint issues or some other malady that keeps us from doing it.