What are the easiest Sports?

Brendan Flowers

What sports does everyone think are the easiest to learn and excel at? Take for example all the sports in the Boards Sport forum, which of these would be the easiest to learn from scratch and become really competitive in? Soccer and Football require such amazing technical skill that I think they can be ruled out. Motorsports at the highest level requires participants to be at peak physical fitness (with G-forces alone being very severe) that it wouldnt be easy master. A lot of Athletics also demand you be at the peak of your physical best. Sports like snooker and darts require someone with extreme precision that I doubt it'd be too easy to master either of these.

So thats just a few that I would rule out. But I still dont know what I'd consider the "easiest". Maybe bowling? Im sure someone will disagree with that though! I suppose it also depends on if a person is just naturally talented at something.

*Putting this in AH as its a general question and it'd be good to hear from non-sporty people. Mods, please move if there is a more suitable forum!*

GenieOz

They all have certain parts to them that are going to be difficult to come close to mastering. If they didn't then more people would be professionals at them.

jimgoose

Everything that is called a "sport" is difficult to master. That's the joy of it. However, most of them are also easy to just participate in and enjoy. That's also the joy of it. :cool:

BrokenArrows

Surfing of the couch variety

The Aussie

Any "Sport" that is played in a Pub....

SEPT 23 1989

Crazy Golf

Micky Dolenz

Walking.

morninwood

E-sports

danniemcq

The Aussie wrote: »

Any "Sport" that is played in a Pub....

I dunno the 100m dash to the loo while holding one hand over your mouth and the other over your arse takes some practice,

not to mention the hurling in the smoking area, the hurdles over stool with 4 pints and the old favourite the race you to the floor face first.

Tombo2001

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

What sports does everyone think are the easiest to learn and excel at? Take for example all the sports in the Boards Sport forum, which of these would be the easiest to learn from scratch and become really competitive in? Soccer and Football require such amazing technical skill that I think they can be ruled out. Motorsports at the highest level requires participants to be at peak physical fitness (with G-forces alone being very severe) that it wouldnt be easy master. A lot of Athletics also demand you be at the peak of your physical best. Sports like snooker and darts require someone with extreme precision that I doubt it'd be too easy to master either of these.

So thats just a few that I would rule out. But I still dont know what I'd consider the "easiest". Maybe bowling? Im sure someone will disagree with that though! I suppose it also depends on if a person is just naturally talented at something.

*Putting this in AH as its a general question and it'd be good to hear from non-sporty people. Mods, please move if there is a more suitable forum!*

The easiest to learn is probably running. But not easy to excel at it.

How easy it is to excel at a sport depends on how many people play it.

Handball is a technically difficult sport, probably much much more difficult technically than say Gaelic Football.

However it would be easier to become one of the top 3 handballers in the country than one of the top 3 footballers.

Noxin

Tiddlywinks

maximoose

Watching the curling in the Winter Olympics the other day

Ok, the person who launches the stones needs to have some skill in judging the depth and weight of each throw - but the two sweeping the ice, surely any clampet with a brush can do that?

bear1

****... does wonders to the arm and wrist

johnr3

Maybe warcaby

castletownman

Football. A load of men kicking a bit of leather around a field...And sailing, a load of men in a big boat floating around in the sea! And shouting, a load of men going around shouting!

Friend Computer

maximoose wrote: »

Watching the curling in the Winter Olympics the other day

Ok, the person who launches the stones needs to have some skill in judging the depth and weight of each throw - but the two sweeping the ice, surely any clampet with a brush can do that?

Which is a bit like saying any clampet can kick a ball - which they can but it, obviously, misses certain nuances when talking about it as a professional sport. In the case of curling it's how fast and how much is done, the whole principle is that it melts the ice, allowing the stone to slide further, so you don't want to have too little friction and overshoot the mark or too much and fall short.

Guy:Incognito

castletownman wrote: »

Football. A load of men kicking a bit of leather around a field

Why don't you go do it then? Sure they pay them €100,000 a week. One season should see you set up for life.

SpaceCowb0y

Sport **** (dependant on sex)

Oranage2

Gaelic football looks easy enough, just catching and kicking a ball, pretty basic skills.

Darts pool snooker I think if you practice a lot you could get decent though probably not pro level.

Running is another easy one, basically just moving your legs as fast and you can.

There are some easy enough sports when you think about it.

dub_skav

SpaceCowb0y wrote: »

Sport **** (dependant on sex)

Do you mean dependant on gender or dependant on uninterrupted training?

seamus

Motorsport is a funny one. I've no doubt that those at the elite level are bloody good at what they do, but the financial barriers to access motorsport are so huge that most likely there are people out there who would absolutely destroy the top drivers, if they had the same opportunities.

The same is true of course of other sports such as golfing or cycling, but the barriers to these sports are typically cultural rather than financial - you can still play golf or cycle with €50 of equipment, but you can't get involved in motorsport without thousands of euro of investment at a minimum.

The fact that so many celebrities go on top gear and put in serious times on the track goes to show the untapped talent that's available which can only be realised with the cash to back it up.

Of course, "excelling" at a sport is a relative matter. How good you are at a sport is relative to the elites. So someone who "excels" at a sport is by definition not far off the elites. And since elites by definition are a small group in a tough to achieve position, then "excelling" in any sport is inherently difficult.

Which means that as mentioned above, your ability to become one of the top sportspeople in a particular field is more down to numbers than the sport itself. The less popular the sport, the easier it is to be one of the best.

SpaceCowb0y

dub_skav wrote: »

Do you mean dependant on gender or dependant on uninterrupted training?

both:pac:

pickarooney

Tae Kwon do. Everyone I know who has ever tried it has a black belt. And some of them are extremely unfit.

Akrasia

I think I would make an excellent Skeleton.. eh player?

If only I had an olympic bobsled course to practise on every day.

raze_them_all_

pickarooney wrote: »

Tae Kwon do. Everyone I know who has ever tried it has a black belt. And some of them are extremely unfit.

don't you mean buy kwon do

jimgoose

pickarooney wrote: »

Tae Kwon do. Everyone I know who has ever tried it has a black belt. And some of them are extremely unfit.

It's not just me then? As I thought, every second knobjockey has a black-belt in that thing these days? I was awarded Shotokan Shodan nearly twenty years ago in Dublin and by furk I'll never forget it - the Japs nearly killed me, and that was just the grading!

ManofStraw

maximoose wrote: »

Watching the curling in the Winter Olympics the other day

Ok, the person who launches the stones needs to have some skill in judging the depth and weight of each throw - but the two sweeping the ice, surely any clampet with a brush can do that?

What a sweeping statement :pac:

Shedite27

Would have to be bowling, darts or pool.

Don't think any of them require much alterations to physical conditioning, low barriers to entry, just requres a lot of time. I reckon if you gave up your day job and went playing any of them fulltime you'd have a better chance at getting "world class" than any other sports.

jimgoose

seamus wrote: »

Motorsport is a funny one. I've no doubt that those at the elite level are bloody good at what they do, but the financial barriers to access motorsport are so huge that most likely there are people out there who would absolutely destroy the top drivers, if they had the same opportunities...

Mmm. I dunno, though - Gordon Sheddon, who legend has it is the current Top Gear "Stig", started racing Ford Fiesta bashabouts in 1999 and now does British Touring Car. Granted kids from actual disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to get into something like soccer, which certainly involves less "overhead".

ScumLord

seamus wrote: »

Motorsport is a funny one. I've no doubt that those at the elite level are bloody good at what they do, but the financial barriers to access motorsport are so huge that most likely there are people out there who would absolutely destroy the top drivers, if they had the same opportunities.

Motorsport is deceptive, there's a hell of a lot more to it than just driving the car. You have to know the car inside and out, know what it feels like when it's working and know how to pick out problems when it's not working. You need to understand the art of setting up the car chambers, suspension, aero, gearing. the race is maybe 10% of the work a race driver has to do.

eyescreamcone

The easiest sport to excel in are the sports with the fewest amount of participants.
Look at minority sports with expensive equipment - anything equestrian for instance.

Look at rugby where NZ are looked on as gods - population 4.5 million
It would be impossible to win the football world cup anytime in the future with such a low population base.

Some people target sports like hockey and cricket where it is a lot easier to get an international cap than in the more popular sports.

Rowing/tennis/golf

RoboRat

Cricket, you spend half the time scratching your arse... same applies to baseball.

ScumLord

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The easiest sport to excel in are the sports with the fewest amount of participants.

Like boxing and MMA?

PizzamanIRL

Pool/Snooker/Darts

Easy to practice. You don't have to be in shape. It's just up to you to practice enough

pickarooney

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The easiest sport to excel in are the sports with the fewest amount of participants.
Look at minority sports with expensive equipment - anything equestrian for instance.

Look at rugby where NZ are looked on as gods - population 4.5 million
It would be impossible to win the football world cup anytime in the future with such a low population base.

Some people target sports like hockey and cricket where it is a lot easier to get an international cap than in the more popular sports.

Rowing/tennis/golf

Maybe 7s rugby. Carlin Isles just took it up one day after missing out on a sprinting qualification and basically walked (ran) into an international team.

Of course, when you're an incredibly gifted athlete like Israel Folau or Sonny Bill Williams you can make a lot of sports look easy by taking them up and becoming proficient overnight.

RainMaker

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Pool/Snooker/Darts

Easy to practice. You don't have to be in shape. It's just up to you to practice enough

Maybe not as easy as some people think!

Sorry about the Daily Mail link, but it's an interesting story!
Former executive at Childline - Justin Irwin, gave up his day job to concentrate on playing darts full time: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510504/The-charity-boss-quit--darts-champion.html

check_six

At the last summer Olympics two lady rowers won gold for Britain. I should look up some of the precise facts, but essentially they had answered an ad looking for tall athletic women to compete in rowing. They were picked from the applicants and only started rowing in 2009, or 2010. So they went from ad in a paper to picking up a gold medal in two years.
I would have thought it would have taken a bit longer than that to become world beaters, but I suppose Britain are a dominant nation in rowing, so I suppose they had all the coaches and facilities ready to go from the start. This would make it a good bit easier for the individuals chosen. Also, they were picked for their very high athletic capacity to begin with. I still feel sad for the poor sods in second place who had trained their whole lives to get to an Olympics to get beaten by a team who had sort of 'gamed' the system.

Maybe, you too could win world level honours, if you are already genetically predisposed towards one of the less major sports, and you have a massive support organisation, and a bunch of money behind you. Otherwise... it's not easy to beat years and years of practice and a bag of talent at *any* sport.

check_six

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The easiest sport to excel in are the sports with the fewest amount of participants.
Look at minority sports with expensive equipment - anything equestrian for instance.

Look at rugby where NZ are looked on as gods - population 4.5 million
It would be impossible to win the football world cup anytime in the future with such a low population base.

Some people target sports like hockey and cricket where it is a lot easier to get an international cap than in the more popular sports.

Rowing/tennis/golf

The Uruguayan football team did alright at the last world cup. Might do pretty well next time around too. Won it outright back in the day, twice.

Population? 3 million.

rustedtrumpet

Wrestling, its fake to begin with

Rhys Essien

When the hell was golf,snooker and darts a sport?.Shur some of those lads are nearly obese.

I thought a sport is where you might break a sweat and you have to be in fairly good physical shape.

eyescreamcone

ScumLord wrote: »

Like boxing and MMA?

Olympic boxing is a good one as the really top boxers do not compete at this level

check_six wrote: »

The Uruguayan football team did alright at the last world cup. Might do pretty well next time around too. Won it outright back in the day, twice.

Population? 3 million.

I had realised that Uruguay had won it twice, way back in 1930 &1950.
That is why I said in future.

Uruguay or any similar sized country will never win the world cup again.
Countries of such a size are lucky to qualify...as we know only too well.

eyescreamcone

Rhys Essien wrote: »

When the hell was golf,snooker and darts a sport?.Shur some of those lads are nearly obese.

I thought a sport is where you might break a sweat and you have to be in fairly good physical shape.

You thought wrong!

RainMaker

Rhys Essien wrote: »

When the hell was golf,snooker and darts a sport?

They are all on Sky Sports - they must be sports!!

Rhys Essien

eyescreamcone wrote: »

You thought wrong!

Will we include playing cards and throwing rings as sports so?.They are called games not sports.

RainMaker

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Will we include playing cards and throwing rings as sports so?.They are called games not sports.

It's possible to be both e.g. a game of football...

4zn76tysfajdxp

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Uruguay or any similar sized country will never win the world cup again.

Bold statement.

eyescreamcone

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Will we include playing cards and throwing rings as sports so?.They are called games not sports.

pontoon or poker?

check_six

eyescreamcone wrote: »

I had realised that Uruguay had won it twice, way back in 1930 &1950.
That is why I said in future.

Uruguay or any similar sized country will never win the world cup again.
Countries of such a size are lucky to qualify...as we know only too well.

Well, they did come third in 2010, so that's not a bad return.

eyescreamcone

check_six wrote: »

Well, they did come third in 2010, so that's not a bad return.

Third is a long way off winning it.

But very good for a country with such a small population.

Remember they have missed out on plenty of tournaments in recent times too.

RidleyRider

For anyone who thinks running is easy to master, it's not. There's a technique to everything to get you to a pro level but, if it's just recreational most things are easy to get a grip of once you're not a complete simpleton.

Rhys Essien

RainMaker wrote: »

It's possible to be both e.g. a game of football...

You know what I mean.How do you compare an elite athlete/footballer with an obese darts player/golfer/snooker player.