The 5 best up-and-comers A.K.A the High Five

Among the tens of thousands of athletes entering the realm of professional sports, many stand out due to their excellence. But there are five who possess exceptional stamina, power, fight, muscle tone and a whole lot of heart. I've categorized these athletes into 5 categories, strength, power, agility, balance, and flexibility. Here goes (I'm super excited, if you can't tell.) Oh, and I've borrowed the definitions for these terms from http://www.brianmac.co.uk/conditon.htm. Their nicknames are used to protect their cause (see below).

Strength - the extent to which muscles can exert force by contracting against resistance (e.g. holding or restraining an object or person). The athlete who possesses this attribute in abundance is RaleighRob. Seen here doing back squats, you can tell he's concerned about both upper and lower body conditioning. But obviously not simply with the intent to look ripped. He's working towards entering the upcoming summer olympics in London for weightlifting in the lightest possible weight class. Not only that, he's pushing 40 but looks incredibly young. Way to go RaleighRob you've proven that sports are the fountain of youth!

Power - the ability to exert maximum muscular contraction instantly in an explosive burst of movements. The two components of power are strength and speed. (e.g. jumping or a sprint start). Our champion of power, Don, is pictured here coaching figure skating to another fine athlete. Misplaced stereotypes say figure skating isn't a masculine power sport, but until you've seen Don explode into a quadruple lutz on the ice, you simply don't know power. Period.

Agility - the ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in rapid succession in opposing directions (e.g. ZigZag running or cutting movements). The most agile of the group is Skul. Pictured here playing lacrosse (the most demanding of agility sports), Skul excels on and off the field with sucessful DJ endeavors. And, he tells me he's a level 58 elite rare mob skeletal mage found in Stratholme which I don't understand, but apparently is some new sport that nobody even knows about yet, not even me. Ingenuity and agility. He has it all.

Flexibility - the ability to achieve an extended range of motion without being impeded by excess tissue, i.e. fat or muscle (e.g. executing a leg split). Ray (short for Ray-Anne) is a world-renowned fitness yoga and pilates instructor. It's no surprise she takes the flexibility prize on this one. An important thing to note about Ray is that she exudes confidence in all she does and has more heart than any of us. Truly inspiring.

Cardiovascular Endurance - the heart's ability to deliver blood to working muscles and their ability to use it (e.g. running long distances). Earl is a true champion. He runs like the wind, and for incredibly long distances. That's not all that's long about Earl. He also has a long track record for winning races. Earl practically invented the 3 minute mile and keeps pushing the envelope, athletically.

A common interest of these superior athletes is the website they actively participate in. It's called http://www.sportssuck.org/ but don't let the name fool you. Some inside information about the site that most people (thankfully) don't know, is that the site is meant to lure sports haters and single them out for what I would call a strong, dedicated bullying regimen. They pull out the wimps, and then teach them a lesson. Although not a required element of being a jock, the bullying is prevalent in our sport enthusiast culture, a phenomenon these athletes are singlehandedly ensuring the continuation of. But don't spread that around, or it defeats the purpose. Instead, if you see them in the locker room, just linger a little longer on the high five and knowing glance you share, or give them an extra obligatory butt spank, and tell them it's from me. These guys are truly a credit to their craft and they stay in character perfectly, no matter what comes at them.