Maybe if he started as a kid. Not anymore. His body is geared towards a completely different purpose and he is not used to real physical contact. The transition would be way too hard/take too long. Upper body is also underdeveloped. Flexibility is probably also pretty limited.
Now at 29 years of age, a transition is pretty late, but honestly, the movements in MMA and fighting sports in general are fairly simple and this is not an affront against martial arts.
As for the "underdeveloped" upper body: i don't know man, nothing is as overrated as being muscular in MMA.
Strength and conditioning are important, but some of the best fighters aren't that muscular at all.
Flexibility is something one can work on and i don't think the flexibility of Van Dijk is bad at all.
Yeah the majority do, but the people who vote for the most prestigious individual award in Football aren't just casual fans, what makes the exceptions to the cause I wonder.. Seemingly the more intelligent Defenders are higher perceived than the aggressive ones, Cannavaro was a the last defender to win it in 2006 who was known for his intelligence and pace, I believe Dan Dijk should have won the last one but he came 2nd who is known for similar attributes(though much taller), but a more aggressive arguably world class CB's like Vidic, John Terry maybe Carragher would never be considered because they don't fit the classy "Balon D'or CB" requirement imo.
Hard to say, both can be negated based on how well the team is doing, defenders and attackers can be equally negligible depending on the circumstances, though I suppose the saying is "The best defence is a good offence" lol. Depends on philosophy greatly though I guess, some managers prefer one type of player, some another.
I know what you mean, but with all due respect, most footballers aren't thaaaat smart either, since being good at that sport doesn't require you to be a critical thinker/intelligent.
Agree about the intelligent defenders being preferred, but i understand that, plus those defenders are usually good at passing etc. too (Cannavaro, Lahm, etc.)
Yeah of course both can be negated! I think i should have put it like this:
I think there'll always be more defenders as good as Van Dijk etc. than there'll be attackers as good as Messi etc. you know?
But again, i could be wrong here, who knows, lol.
I always found the games I felt most lost in and least effective were the games I played as an attacker in a full 11 team, 5 a side is different cos everyones doing everything, but you can play out on the wing and get like 3 touches in a game and they could all just be passes back to the player you got the ball from, where as when I was playing as CDM or CM I found myself to be far more involved more often which in turn made it easier as I felt more involved thus more comfortable in the games.
That's fair and i agree.
I wasn't talking about impacting the game via what i did with the ball though, but solely about understanding where i had to be; finding free spaces always felt very natural to me, whereas i was way more overwhelmed the more defensive my position was.
He said
"The injury I suffered to my eyes last year was a career ender. In total I lost about 40% of my vision, but I wanted to see what one more hard fought battle was like with the new eyes. It was clear to me last night that it’s impossible for me to compete at this level anymore. I just can’t lock on to a moving target like I should, and with 40% of my vision practically gone... it’s chaotic to (say) the least."
Though I don't personally believe the outcome would have been much different with him prior to his injury.
Oh, alright, fair enough.
Now that you mention it, Gaethje said his eye surgery had a crazy impact too for him in MMA, but then again, these things probably all differ; Lentz and Gaethje *might* have had poor vision overall, whereas Bisping *might* have had great vision, but limited to one eye, you know?
I remember seeing a dude who was like roller skating around in roads fully blind, and he'd learnt how to do sonar with his mouth and vibrations bouncing back to him, was amazing really.
That's absolutely insane if true, holy shit.
I know that when people lose on of their senses, the other senses get some kind of boost and a really noticable one at that, but what you mentioned sounds like some Daredevil shit, haha.
