Chances of Becoming a Professional Athlete

[HoosierBoy]

ADDITIONALLY, ball buster OP, many of us get $$ for college from football...which obviously isn't pro ball but it helps us pursue our careers with more financial help....f off if you want to bring your negative attitude to the rest of us

It's not being negative, it's being realistic. I think the point he was trying to make is that it's foolish to bank on having a career in the pros. Even if you ARE the most genetically gifted, most committed athlete, one major injury can pretty much do it for you. In that case you'd better have an education.

[kkjackson90]

You gave the chances out of everyone in America to make it as a pro.

You should subtract all the people in the world that don't want to be an athlete and then only use the people that bust their ass and will give whatever it takes and have the right body to do it and the odds will be a lot higher than what you gave us.

After that take out alot of the guys who bust their ass and train hard but don't train smart, not many people make pros off their own practice and work alone, which leads to my next point. Next cut out everyone trying to get there by themselves (EVERY pro athlete has had PLENTY of support/funding/boosting from their friends and family to push them beyond the norm.) this includes the handful of coaches who most likely spent alot of their time with that player, polishing their game in whatever sport they play in.

[chucksoon202]

On Average:
- 549,500 kids play basketball in highschool.
- 157,000 of them are seniors.
- 2.9% of those kids get to play college ball as there are only 4,500 freshman positions across all divisions.

In the NCAA:
- There are 15,700 players
- 3,500 are seniors
- 44 players get drafted (and not all of them play college ball these days)
- 1.3% of those seniors get drafted into the NBA

So in total:
- 2.9% of all high school seniors in the US play in the NCAA
- 1.3% of all college seniors in the US play in the NBA
- 0.008% of kids playing highschool basketball in the US will get drafted



that's for the nba I'll try to find other sports.

[RenegadeRB]

Just put it this way if your good your good and if you ant you ant, and if your good then ur going to have a better chance then most poeple will. Word by me!!!!!! lol

[teriyakisaki]

Your calculations are way off. You're only calculating the chance of any random person in the U.S. is a professional athlete at the present moment. That doesn't take into account living persons that are future or past pro athletes.

So let's calculate something else. Chance that someone has been involved in pro sports in their life time.

Firstly, lets assume the average career is 4 years (because of injuries and lack of talent, most don't have long careers). If the average life expectancy is 78 years, that means they spend 5.12% of their life as a pro athlete. Meaning you're not factoring the 94.88% of people that are past or future pro athletes. Since 100/5.12 = 19.53, that's the number you need to multiply your calculation by.

So .00565% x 19.53 = .1103%, which is roughly 1/900. That's how many people will be pro athletes in their life time.

k?

youre retarded. youre assuming have a destiny to be a pro athlete. this deals more with your religious beliefs than it does actual fact, but your calculations just dont mathematically or scientifically make sense. theres way too many variables involved in the way youre looking at it.


put it this way. theres only 1 or 2 people tops at the average school to get a d1 or 1aa scholarship every year, if any. thats at your average school. even from that point, they have to start at the college level to even be considered. yes, theres special cases like if you go to USC where even backups get drafted, but even then its only a handful of people get drafted each year from each top team in the nation.

so first it averages only about 1 or 2 people from every highschool in the nation in any given sport only get college scholarships of some sort or even go on to play at the college level. then from there, not only do you need to play, but you most likely need to start to get any sort of recognition to even be considered for the draft. this is all assuming youre playing at a top notch d1 program. yes, if you play d2 or 3 theres a chance to get drafted, but its highly unlikely depending on the sport. even if the 1/900 chance is correct, thats still pretty ****ty odds. if you go to vegas and bet on a team or sit at a slot with those odds, youre a fool.

[texlonghornz2]

hey where do u play?
i currently am also a d1 player and there are some redicilious athletes i play in the big east and im awe stricken
i came in from a national powerhouse highschool where we have had 2 all americans in the past 2 years and were gonna have another 1 this yr and i played on national tv 4 times in highschool and i dont party that much but YOU WOULD BE INCREDIBLY SUPRISED if you didnt think college or pro athletes dont party are u kidding me some people are just born to play certain sports there just natural they can smoke and drink and still beat you no matter how hard you work its reality
but go for your goal
id like to make it to the NFL but i dont think my chances r to good ive already made it 3/4 the way there but still college football is hard pro has go to be unbeliveable

[RenegadeRB]

If ur in the bigeast then what D1 college to you go two i know them all i am from west Virginia.

[Ace50]

what are the chance for playin for a crappier league tho?

like the German American Football League
or France American Football league
or even the Korean Football League
Japan American football league

It must not be hard, cuz in the 2007 Ifaf World CHampionships, Team USA won with a team consisting of D-1a and Ivy League players, and they beat the other countries leagues which consisted of thier best players.

The Korean National team lost 77-0, to the USA team that consisted of college players. The korea team had their best players.

http://wc2007.info/index_e.html

[jay jay]

I wonder how many people there are that could have made it, but gave up because so many people told them it what the chances were. I say play for the love of the game and aim for the top. Enjoy chasing the dream. If you don't chase it it'll never happen. To me trying your best and failing is much better than giving up before you know. Try your best and see just how close you can get, maybe you'll make it. It's much better than wondering for the rest of your life what could have happened if only you tried.

Even if you fail, working so hard for so long will develop a work ethic, discipline, and focus that will translate into everything else you do in your life.

[kkjackson90]

I wonder how many people there are that could have made it, but gave up because so many people told them it what the chances were. I say play for the love of the game and aim for the top. Enjoy chasing the dream. If you don't chase it it'll never happen. To me trying your best and failing is much better than giving up before you know. Try your best and see just how close you can get, maybe you'll make it. It's much better than wondering for the rest of your life what could have happened if only you tried.

Even if you fail, working so hard for so long will develop a work ethic, discipline, and focus that will translate into everything else you do in your life.

EXACTLY.

Rejection/Failure>Giving Up/Regret ALWAYS.

[roid_monkey]

that is the ONLY advantage of being a canadian football player, cfl teams have to have 22 active canadians on there roster. i'va always wanted to play football and i would love to play in the cfl.

[DieHollywoodDie]

I wonder how many people there are that could have made it, but gave up because so many people told them it what the chances were. I say play for the love of the game and aim for the top. Enjoy chasing the dream. If you don't chase it it'll never happen. To me trying your best and failing is much better than giving up before you know. Try your best and see just how close you can get, maybe you'll make it. It's much better than wondering for the rest of your life what could have happened if only you tried.

Even if you fail, working so hard for so long will develop a work ethic, discipline, and focus that will translate into everything else you do in your life.

would you rather "give up" or have severe joint problems and general bodily destruction at a premature age in addition to having your studies weakened?

[kkjackson90]

would you rather "give up" or have severe joint problems and general bodily destruction at a premature age in addition to having your studies weakened?

Man, stop trying to discouraging people from going after their dreams, how can you say that it's better to give up and still have your manhood intact? Don't answer that. Let us dreamers live our lives with happiness and you go live your miserable "risk-free" Testosterone-lacking life. Men take risks, and you sound SOOOO androgynous for telling us we shouldn't.

[luke47]

wow maybe you wont

[e-bay]

u mad?

Why do you care if people dream? Who cares if you get dissapointed, its life, you learn a lesson. Atleast they have motivation to get better, and put some purpose in life.

[suzuki_76]

On Average:
- 549,500 kids play basketball in highschool.
- 157,000 of them are seniors.
- 2.9% of those kids get to play college ball as there are only 4,500 freshman positions across all divisions.

In the NCAA:
- There are 15,700 players
- 3,500 are seniors
- 44 players get drafted (and not all of them play college ball these days)
- 1.3% of those seniors get drafted into the NBA

So in total:
- 2.9% of all high school seniors in the US play in the NCAA
- 1.3% of all college seniors in the US play in the NBA
- 0.008% of kids playing highschool basketball in the US will get drafted



that's for the nba I'll try to find other sports.

I know ill never go pro in anything, but these statistics are the reason we play sports. To beat the odds, to be better than everyone around us...

Would it really be pro sports if 100% of people got to play. Its for the best, and thats what athletes compete to be.

[destined4gr8]

you just keep supporting my point: if you are going pro, you most likely will know it before college.

So then why do base the calculations on chance of becoming a pro athlete if the total population cannot be a factor in the ratio you are trying to make???

regardless..if you believe what you say then i wont be shy to tell you..your an ***hole. For children wanting to become a professional athlete is typically why they join a sport and try to become better. its called competition..and you really have no clue on being a professional athlete because you are basing your numbers on just the major leagues in each sport.

I am a professional athlete..i get paid to play my sport and i laugh at people like you who have no clue what hard work and determination can do for your career..and i love it when i run in to people like you when i go home and shove it in their face at what ive accomplished and how they are 40 yrs old with a family and a job they hate..but im 18, could buy there house and make more than they do every year (=

[Reps n Sets]

ARE YOU AWARE:
there are only ~17,000 professional athletes in the United States and with a total census population of ~301,139,947.

thus you have a .0000565/1 chance of becoming a professional athlete.

WHAT THIS MEANS:
you have a .00565% chance of becoming a professional athlete. chances are you will not become one, you will not be paid anything for your sport, you will not even make the minors...so stop aiming for such high goals or comparing yourself to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc. If you aim for such things you can pretty much only be crushed. Instead remember: it's about fun and your health.

I play water polo and there really is no professional league (at least in the USA, there is a good paying one in Europe but no one cares) thus players are playing in general just for the love of the sport. That's why I love water polo. Too many football players, etc. think they can make the NFL and don't realize there are only 32 teams.

There's so many things wrong with this...

[Miketago]

Numbers don't mean anything. Most of the time its who these athletes getting drafted into the NFL or NBA/recruited into the D-1 colleges know.

[destined4gr8]

[QUOTE=DieHollywoodDie;63650361]ARE YOU AWARE:
there are only ~17,000 professional athletes in the United States and with a total census population of ~301,139,947.

thus you have a .0000565/1 chance of becoming a professional athlete.

WHAT THIS MEANS:
you have a .00565% chance of becoming a professional athlete. chances are you will not become one, you will not be paid anything for your sport, you will not even make the minors...so stop aiming for such high goals or comparing yourself to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc. If you aim for such things you can pretty much only be crushed. Instead remember: it's about fun and your health.

I play water polo and there really is no professional league (at least in the USA, there is a good paying one in Europe but no one cares) thus players are playing in general just for the love of the sport. That's why I love water polo. Too many football players, etc. think they can make the NFL and don't realize there are only 32 teams.[/QUOTE

...just like the statistic i heard that when you pee, if you shake it more than 3 times its playing with yourself..so 99% of all men beat it when they piss, thus you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting aids while using a urinal..but if it has a urinal cake its only a 1 in 10 chance..

[Marcoccia]

ARE YOU AWARE:
there are only ~17,000 professional athletes in the United States and with a total census population of ~301,139,947.

thus you have a .0000565/1 chance of becoming a professional athlete.

WHAT THIS MEANS:
you have a .00565% chance of becoming a professional athlete. comparing yourself to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc.

As you said above NFL, NHL, etc those are what male sporting leagues. SO now your number of ~301, 139, 947 is now down to half of that. Then you have to add(or in this cause subtract) in the number of people who are not athletic or care about making it to "the bigs" So there your number is now in half yet again lets say. Now say were in college how many player want to go big compared to the ones who are using sports to get an education that number is now down 75% and really this is a decent base number give or take a person has a 1 in 56 463 740 chance of going to the pros. This number is much lower in reality once it's broken down to high level athletes and rec players.

[squat4speed]

wow maybe you wont

strong bump
strong 1st post

[iLiRaM]

Never know til' you try.

[dgcoats]

If it was easy, no one would give a ****.

[Rachafella2001]

You're obviously alright with being mediocre and not trying your best and going all out to reach your full potential. You're most likely not going to make anywhere in your sport so you should just quit now so you don't get hurt... what kind of ****ing loser advice is that? You keep letting statistics be excuses as to why you aren't going to make it, while everyone else here keeps busting their ass and doing everything they can to make it as far as they can go (may not be to the NFL or NBA or MLB but who cares).

Not to mention that these sports and experiences of working hard and breaking barriers that we never thought we were able to reach help mold us for into people we become as adults. You can have whatever losing attitude you want but don't impose it on us trying to bust our asses and go as far as we can.

[watchandsee23]

This is an old thread. But guys forget this guy. He's a pathetic walk-on Polo player, that feeds into the numbers because he's already selling himself short.

[monatu]

why the **** would you make a post like this?

If you have no ambition, fine, but no need to come here and **** on people who are striving to play Pro (and no, I'm not - I know I will never go further than Amateur)

[roid_monkey]

I wonder the chances of becoming pro are if you have a 10'6" broad jump. They percentage of pros out of people with 10+ foot broad jump and a 35+ inch vertical probably increase when you just calculate every person in america

[NFLBound_09]

The odds of any one individual becomming a pro athlete next year can be calculated as follows:
Number of pro positions which will be offered next year / Number of athletes competing for those positions.

Taking the population of the whole of the US as the denominator will give you a rediculously small percentage because it takes into account non-athletes. But a young athlete hoping to go pro is not competing with the entire population of the US- they are not competing with bed-ridden old men, or babies who can't yet walk. In fact the average athlete hoping to go pro is not competing with anyone bar other athletes.

I think the exercise is a little pointless though, becomming a professional athlete is not a matter of pot luck, it's not a matter of percentage chance - it's a matter of who puts in the work day after day, month after month, year after year. Coaches don't draw a lottery of the entire US population when looking for a new tallent- they look for athletes already playing the sport at a lower level who show enough talent and promise to compete at the next grade.

Even if the odds are low, you're better off aiming ****ing high than aiming low. If you aim ****ing high and miss you are at least going to go pretty high. If you aim low the best you will do is hit your bullseye.

THREAD CLOSED.

GJDM.

[csauce16]

Didnt Mention Minor Leagues, Farm Teams,,,they Are Still Professional Athletes, Except On A Different Level