How Does Sex Affect Sports?

The notion that sex and sports don't mix is probably as old as athletic endeavor itself. No one is actually certain when and where the practice of carnal abstinence before "The Big Game" began, but reference to it is made in the Old Testament. That holy book carries passages of warriors being advised against going into battle immediately after marriage. It further suggests that neighbors of a newlywed couple should pitch in and help the groom with his chores, assuming his husbandly duties must have sapped him of his vigor. Sound advice.

Throughout the years, the sport which has adhered most religiously to this anti-sex doctrine has been boxing. In Mendoza's Modern Art of Boxing, published near the end of the 18th century, the author warns the would be fistic to "Be sure you take care to avoid excess either in food, wine or women." Captain Robert Barclay, a strongman, fighter, and boxing patron of the early 1800s, revolutionized the boxer's training regimen. He was a firm believer in the benefits of regular bowel movements, sucking raw eggs in the morning, and avoidance of the old in/out, "The sexual intercourse," wrote Captain Barclay, "must vanish and be no more heard from within the first week of training."

A Round in Bed Before a Round in the Ring

Boxers have generally followed the "no-nookie" rule while in training for fights… but there have been exceptions. One of the most notable of these was the "Pittsburgh Windmill," Harry Greb. At the height of his career in the mid-1920s, Greb held both the Middleweight and Light-Heavyweight championships of the world (the latter having been snatched from the powerful hands of Gene Tunney). Pound for proverbial pound, Greb was one of the best barroom brawlers who ever stepped through the velvet ropes. In addition to his victory over Tunney and his domination of the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions, Harry reportedly had a couple of training bouts with Jack Dempsey in which he greatly embarrassed that legendary champion.

Greb was a notorious boozer and womanizer. His bouts in bars and bedrooms all over the country are very nearly as famous as those he had in the ring. It was a matter of practice for Greb to partake in healthy doses of both booze and broads on the eve of important fights. And, he was interrupted on more than one occasion in the act of humping some all-too-willing woman in his dressing room, mere moments before the opening bell.

Of more recently renown champion prizefighters, none was more devoted to sexual abstinence in training than Muhammad Ali. While Ali's voracious sexual appetite is legend, he apparently always managed to stick to a strict sex-diet during the long, arduous weeks of training. At this training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, Ali and his wife-of-the-moment slept in separate log cabins. Camp residents swear that nocturnal visits between the two cabins were highly rare, if at all.

Said Ali in comparing the training methods of old with those of his hay-day, "There ain't but one way to train. Running is the same, punching the bag is the same, jumping rope's the same, resting and going to camp, following the dietary laws… Clean living is the same. It's grueling, it's rough, it's agony."

Presumably for Ali, the "clean living" was the greatest agony of all.

In sports other than boxing, sex-and-training taboos are far less prevalent, However, many football, basketball, and baseball coaches still attempt to seclude their players during the first few weeks of the new season. Curfews are routinely exercised as much to keep players "out of the saddle" as in the sack at a certain hour, and avoidance of sex on the eve of the game remains a common practice. Though most coaches will claim not to discourage their players from having sex before "The Big Game," a good many of them—particularly the "old schoolers"—still believe carnal indulgence to be harmful to performance. Some of the players themselves, mindful of the coach's feelings, will abstain. Better to get some action on the field and then some again after a big win, if you know what I mean.

No Frisking for Football Players

The ex-girlfriend of a still famous, but aging, pro football wide receiver was surprised and dismayed at how their sexual activity declined drastically during the season. When not in training, they enjoyed sex at least four or five times a week, but once football season started, the stud jock could barely get it up one night a week. The girl remained frustrated from July through September.

"When it first began to happen," she says, recalling that nearly sexless stretch, "I just assumed that the practices and games wore him down physically to the point where he didn't have any energy for sex left. But he seemed to have lots of energy for partying and everything else. I was reasonably sure he wasn't getting 'it' somewhere else."

She asked around and did some research on the subject of sex during training and found out that, yes, it was a common practice years ago, though not widely followed today. She decided to conduct her own little experiment that very Saturday night.

"Another thing I noticed was that we never—I mean never—had sex the night before a game... even though he often came to bed with a big hard-on sticking out of his shorts. I'd start trying to initiate something, but he'd say he was tired and roll over. One day, I got up the nerve to ask him about it, and he eventually gave me this story about how sex made him weak, and that he needed all his ‘juice' for the game. I had never heard that before. I thought he was kidding and started laughing my head off. He got really upset and didn't talk to me the whole next day."

"He was tense and nervous, as he always was the night before a game. It took awhile, but I finally convinced him that smoking a joint might relax him and help him to sleep. After we finished the joint, I put on one of his old football jerseys with nothing on underneath... He always got turned on when I dressed like that. I pretended to be straightening up the apartment, making sure that I did a lot of bending over with my back to him, so he could see my ass.

"When I sat down next to him on the sofa a few minutes later, his the crotch of his pants looked as if it were ready to burst at the seams. I bent over and started giving special attention below his belt. He tried to push me away, but I wouldn't move, and gradually his 'no-nos' became 'yes-yeses.' We did it fast and furious right there on the couch. It was great sex, though we only did it for about half an hour. I wanted to make sure I didn't tire him out too much.

"He was upset the next morning—not really at me, more with himself. That afternoon he had one of the worst games of his pro career. He dropped passes, missed blocks, and got run down from behind by a linebacker—a linebacker! I felt terrible. I wouldn't say that that one thing killed our relationship… but I know it didn't help."

According to a report published by the American Medical Association's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Sports, sexual relations on the night before an athletic contest should not have any detrimental effect on an athlete's performance. However, while there was no evidence to indicate physical effects, that does not rule out the possibility that there might be emotional side effects from a previous night's sexual bout. Obviously, if a particular athlete believes that sex before "The Big Game" is going to adversely affect his performance on the field—as was probably the case with our wide receiver—it will.

The only other connection the Committee discovered was that the fact that any significant lack of sleep brought about by the athlete's sexual adventure might very well affect his performance in the next day's game. Or, as Casey Stengel, the infamous former manager of the New York Yankees so succinctly put it: "It isn't sex that wrecks these guys, it's staying up all night looking for it."

Not to mention that the pent up testosterone can make him more competitive. With the release that usually follows sex, the male may not be as angry, aggressive, and agitated. The extra hormones in his body may aid him to run faster, hit harder, and be more ready to compete.

Big Win in Bed Doesn’t Mean a Big Win in the Game

During my own athletic days, I played football and lacrosse… and did a considerable amount of playing the field as well. I frequently drank and screwed on the eve of a game, generally finding that the abuse of the former was what actually fucked me on the field the next day. Occasionally, however (if I had been particularly fortunate on a given night), I would also have sex on the morning of the game. On these occasions I never performed well in the afternoon. I found my legs would always turn leaden and/or rubbery, and could scarcely carry me through one quarter, let alone four. Also, my reflexes seemed somewhat dull, and my head full of cobwebs.

These days, the extent of my athletic involvement is daily running (not "jogging," thank you; I have my pride). My wife and I usually make love on Sunday mornings, which never fails to shoot hell out of my Sunday morning run. If we've made love Saturday night though, a Sunday morning run is no problem.

A pro hockey superstar agrees with me: "I remember one Sunday afternoon, I had sex a few hours before game time. My legs were so rubbery that I didn't know what I was doing out on the ice. It was the worst game of my career. There is no way that you can recover two hours after making love." But Dr. George Sheehan, the high priest of the world of runners disagrees. "My personal experience," says Sheehan, "has convinced me that peak performance in middle- and long-distance races is possible within hours of sexual activity." And Dr. Craig Sharp, England's chief medical adviser for the 1972 Olympic games offers two cases where runners performed outstanding feats shortly after having had sex: A middle-distance runner set a world record in the Olympics, reportedly one hour after making love; and an English miler ran a four-minute mile.

I still wonder what they might have done, had they not been so engaged before their races.

Athletes Get More Ass

Whether or not sex really does affect athletic performance (it seems clearly a matter of individual experience), athletic involvement apparently does affect sexual performance. Though there has been even less scientific research done in this area than in the effects of sex on athletic performance, the unofficial verdict is that the better shape you're in, the better lover you are.

The eminent sex researcher, Dr. William Masters (of the Masters and Johnson tandem), has an educated opinion on the subject, even though he has not formally conducted studies. "A person who is physically fit," says Dr. Masters, "invariably functions more effectively sexually than a person in poor shape. Sexual function is a physiologic process, and every physiologic process works better in a good state of general health than in a poor one."

The wife of a noted marathon runner found, after barely one year of marriage, that she had acquired a sudden devotion to running herself. Before her marriage she harbored a marked dislike of athletics; the only physical activity she engaged in with her husband—aside from bedroom games, that is—was an occasional Sunday afternoon bike ride. But before long, her daily mileage running the roads totaled not that much less than her husband's.

Why the sudden love of running? "I really had no choice," she said. "It was either get in shape and stay there, or face the possibility of a broken marriage. After years of running, my husband had become a sexual athlete of Olympic proportions. He just wore me out in bed. I couldn't keep up with him! But, you know, in getting in shape, I've done myself a great favor. Sex is much more enjoyable for me now, too. My orgasms are better, and more frequent, and I can go all night long. I won't ever be a champion marathon runner, but I'm a damn good marathon love maker.

"Saw a bumper sticker the other day while I was out running, 'Marathon Runners Keep It Up Longer,' it said. You'll get no argument from me… nor my husband."