Regardless of whether your sport requires teammates or is a solo affair, it helps to have a community.

You need people to push you, to compare notes with and to swap tips or advice with. What if your immediate circle of friends doesn’t always share you enthusiasms? This is where these sports social networks can step in. These networks range from a nice bit of extra info to growing communities of like-minded people. Communities that might help you get that little extra bit of encouragement or information that pushes your game to the next level.

Here are five of the best sites on our sports social network radar to get you started.

SportsLobster

SportsLobster is your one-stop shop for sports networking. The website is completely tailored to your personal preferences, it requires you to fill out a questionnaire of the sports that you are interested in, from ping pong to horse racing. Then, it takes this information and matches you with like-minded individuals, who would make up part of your “fan feed.” The website also takes it a step further and locates these people with similar interests for you whom  recommend you follow. After this, you personalize your profile that goes into the social network. The website is reminiscent of a mini-Facebook but exclusively concerned with sporting events and fans.

SportsLobster also allows you to predict sport results, see live scores, write articles, voice your opinion, create and join groups as well as the social media staples such as connecting with other fans and sharing photos and videos with others. The website design is minimalist and clean, no muss and no fuss, just a simple, easy-to-follow website specifically geared toward your sporting interests.

Courts of the World

New to the area and looking for the best streetball court? Or maybe you’re just tired of playing at the same local park and want to explore new courts, with new pick-up games and players? This sports social network makes it easier for you to find a new court to play on.

This is especially handy for the traveling baller. Maybe you’re away from your home court on business. Rather than get in your rental car and wander the streets aimlessly, plug into their app and find a pick-up game near you. Users can make profiles, study other players, ask other ballers for info or share information themselves.

This is another great example of how social networking takes something that’s already out in the world, information, courts, opponents and makes it more accessible by plugging you in.

I Love Climbing

I Love Climbing is clean, has an easy-to-use interface, and a nice aesthetic. Most importantly, it let’s Adrenalists know about great places to climb all over the world. Other climbing networks provide useful information but are disappointingly difficult to use. ILoveClimbing however, has a graceful, vivid and intuitive platform.

Have you ever gone rock climbing in El Salvador? What about in Russia or Madagascar? If not, chances are someone else has, and they just may have uploaded pictures and info about those climbs on the platform. Before you take off on an international trip, take a look at this site and get some ideas.

You might climb all your life, but you can’t hit every spot. This sports social network lets you browse other people’s pics and see what climbing is like in other countries and environments.

All in all, I Love Climbing is a great place to sign up.

Football Career Network, Fieldoo 

Find, and be found. That’s what Fieldoo promises, and this sleek sports social networking website gives you the tools and the visibility for you to meet your soccer goals. With soccer’s massive worldwide fanbase and plethora of players worldwide, this website makes it possible for you to separate yourself from the crowd of millions of other players. Part LinkedIn, part matchmaking website, the website allows you to create your own user profile and connect you with other players and sports agents. This online portfolio allows enables you to list your specialties and skills as well as help you keep track of your accomplishments that set you apart from the crowd. .

Fieldoo serves as a liaison between the player and the agent and allows them to see what’s out there. The website allows players to find and be found by agents and vice versa. The search engine feature allows you to what you are looking for, be it a Defender Central Left from Angola or a Attacking Midfield from Russia or Goalie from Brazil, the search engine is completely customizable. You can even search by player’s age.

On the website, you can create your own network and also sync it to all your other social media accounts. Fieldoo puts you at the steering wheel of your own career. It’s up to you to decide what you with your potential.

Daily Mile

This Daily Mile is a site sports social network that really focuses on the social aspect interaction of networkingits user base. Less about raw information or classifieds, Daily Mile seeks to create a sense of community, where people can push each other to their personal bests.

You can post your routes and times. Your friends comment, encouraging you to keep going, and also suggesting strategies and new routes. You can also set up routes and compete with your friends, running a virtual race, even if you work at different times and have trouble actually coordinating a time to run together. It seems really simple, but that’s kind of the point, this site isn’t about the extras, it’s about the actual community, building it up, and using the power of social networking to drive your own personal improvement.

Also cool is the bara “running” tally on the home page that give gives the total number of miles run by members, when we last I checked it stood 118,154,034, that’s a hell of a lot of miles, but that’s the power of social networks–pooling together all adds up to a lot of miles, and a lot of support.

Know any other awesome sports social networks that should be on this list? Let us know @DegreeMen or in the comments below.