CC Skills Athletics

Base athletics includes an overview of human performance biology, in particular stamina, fitness, and skill. People who specialize in athletics become physical trainers. By adding sub-skills in particular sports, characters can become competitive in that sport, including amateur and professional status, as well as coaching.

At five (5) points worth of Athletics, characters may choose a particular sport and begin focusing points into that sub-skill instead, which does count for sport-specific training, diet, technique and strategy. Skills in particular sports may translate into operational skills when called upon for discrete tasks such as *throwing* or *catching*, *punching* or *kicking*, *tumbling* or *tackling*.

## **Sports**

### **Aquatics**

* The earth's surface is 70% covered in water. Knowing basic water treading and swimming counts for the first 10 points of aquatics, after which characters may choose to put points into the following sub-skills. Several of these skills are stock-in-trade of special operations sailors and soldiers, including British SBS and US Navy SEALs.
	+ Swimming: At upper levels, competitive swimmers.
	+ Swim Rescue: Lifeguard skills; requires a minimum of 25 swimming skill.
	+ Diving, Board & Platform (cliff or helicopter)
	+ Diving, Free (Skin)
	+ Snorkeling
	+ Water polo (and similar). This will boost a characters PC by a minimum of 5 points.
	+ SCUBA (Self Contain Underwater Breathing Apparatus): sport, open-circuit; including wet-suit diving.
	+ Closed Circuit Rebreather: diving without the tell-tale bubbles.
	+ Mixed-gas/tri-mix diving: for deeper/longer technical diving.
	+ Dry-suit diving: control and behavior of diving in a dry suit (usually in cold water).
	+ U/W Search and Rescue: Including grid and low-visibility.
	+ U/W Photography: includes underwater equipment handling, lighting and optics. Also needs complementary photography skill.
	+ Commercial diving: includes the hard-hat helmets.
	+ HAZMAT diving: for the well-paid and short-lived.

### **Dancing**

* An essential for certain undercover operations and basic civilized dating, the major categories are their own specialized sub-skills, including:
	+ Ballet (for fitness, life story or deep cover)
	+ Jazz (for performance)
	+ Drill (for performance)
	+ European partner ( Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, polka)
	+ Latin partner (salsa, merengue, flamenco, samba, conga)
	+ American swing partner (Charleston, jitterbug), etc.
	+ Folk: everything from Irish Jigs to Mexican hat dances, to sword dances, square dancing, country/line dancing, disco/go-go dancing, etc.

### **Endurance Sports**

* Long-distance running: Half-marathons to ultra-marathons. Generally, the higher the endurance, the lower the strength.
* Cross-country skiing.
	+ Cross-training with rifle skills opens athletes to biathlons (and cold-weather/arctic troop backgrounds from all over the world).
* Long-distance swimming.
* Long-distance cycling.

### **Gymnastics**

* Professional level may specialize with particular apparatus.
* After 15 points of gymnastics, may sub-skill into Parkour (urban evasion running).

### **Mountaineering**

* Begins with basic hiking, low-level navigation and non-technical (no-rope) rock climbing. This is the essential alpine skill of mountain warfare.
	+ Specialized sub-skill: Technical Climbing & Rappelling.
	+ Specialized sub-skill: Rope Rescue. Includes setting up belays, bridges, and deploying litters over vertical space and body recovery.
	+ Specialized sub-skill: Snow & Ice Climbing.

### **Orienteering**

* Competitive outdoor navigation, with map and compass.

### **Parachuting**

* The counterintuitive act of jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Base skill counts for standard sport-type jumps, with a wide enough definition to standard military Airborne jumps. At 25 points, a character may qualify for HALO/HAHO parachuting, if appropriate for their background. These are separate and specialized sub-skills and usually only taught by and to militaries, though instruction can be found commercially.
	+ High-Altitude Low-Opening (HALO)
	+ High-Altitude High-Opening (HAHO)

### **Team Sports**

* Any of a number various sports that will be used for recreation or competition. This may be a character hobby, a form of fitness, a former profession, or a cover for infiltration. Choose:
	+ Baseball
	+ Football, American
	+ Football, World ("Soccer")
	+ Hockey
	+ Rugby
	+ Tennis
	+ etc.

### **Track and Field**

* The fundamentals of athletic performance and the foundation of the Olympics: track and field. This includes running, jumping, and throwing.

### **Zero-Gravity Movement**

* A rare skill for contemporary campaigns, this is the astronauts ability to suppress 0-g nausea, as well as move in microgravity without crashing into every wall or equipment bank.