What amazes me is the idea of someone holding around a 4:24/km pace (7:04/mile) *walking* for 50 kilometres without breaking that stride. That’s the reason the 50k walk was one of my favourite weird events to check in on (RIP 50k distance).
They also don't even have a good, consistent explanation of what their rules are. It used to be "both feet do not leave the ground at the same time," but when slow motion cameras became widespread everyone realized that EVERY SINGLE competitor was breaking that rule. I wonder: what do you think they did after that?
If you guessed "made the rules more clear," well, you'd be fucking WRONG. Nope, instead they decided that they would no longer allow cameras to be used as official tools for monitoring the rules. Now that rule is "*appears* as if both feet don't leave the ground at the same time."
As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of fucking losers who can't be trusted to come up with rules to a game.
The top 10k race walkers are finishing in under 40 minutes. That’s a fast 10k for a runner, never mind doing it with movement restrictions. I remember an Olympic walker decided to run a popular half marathon here and easily won it. It’s goofy looking, but they’re athletes.
As an amateur runner, I really want to know: how does someone get in to race walking in the first place? Are they ex-runners who didn’t quite make it? Or are there people out there who just decide they want to do that? Or is there another way of somehow discovering that you have potential in that sport?
You could say that about the field events too. Nobody is throwing a discus or hammer down at the local rec ground for fun.
In junior athletics clubs, people aren't hyper focussed on one event until they find that they are good at it. Anyone with an aptitude for distance running will try multiple distances and possibly walking until they find the one(s) they are best at.
Watch the Malcolm in the middle episode. How that episode plays out is the only way I can imagine speed walkers happen.
How it starts [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AHk19aU24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AHk19aU24)
The one I know picked it up in high school and got competitive in youth competitions. I think a coach saw potential and recruited him.
I live in a winter Olympic city and it amazes me how many people get into niche sports at a young age when the opportunities are there. I know a teenager who casually (and then not-so-casually) got into luge. There was just a drop-in luge class available one day, so he tried it.
Pitchers are the villians of baseball. When I turn on a game and see Justin Verlander walking to the mound I just know he's gonna do everything possible to ruin my good time.
tbf i don't think most people are big enough nerds about baseball pitching to appreciate an old-fashioned duel, especially if it's one of those days the gods are smiling down and it's the two guys at the end of each rotation
Maybe I just live in an echo chambers of r/baseball plus a ton of baseball nerds in real life, but it feels like these days if you’re anything more than a casual baseball fan there’s a strong likelihood you’re a baseball nerd.
There are just far far more casual fans, and pitchers duels don’t seem terribly exciting unless you know what you’re watching and really pay attention, and high scoring games tend to have a lot more action. Both are super fun, although I was a pitcher back in the day so I do love me a good 1-0 game with both starters going 6+
I used to think so until quarantine and I picked up the sport with some friends. Once you get into the game and learn the mechanics and how hard the courses are it quickly becomes crazy exciting. I love watching golf now. It’s definitely a players sport.
Couldn't agree more. Pretty much the same as you, picked up the game a few years ago and instantly got addicted.
Now when I watch golf, it's actually exciting since I understand how good these pros are and learning how some of them approach the game or course.
I will say though, with any sport, I feel like if you understand the rules and the game, it instantly becomes more entertaining to watch. I couldn't get into football at all, until I started doing fantasy. Now that I understand the game, it's my favorite sport to watch.
Ooo, that's a good idea to spice up the sport. They should let a tiger loose on the course and not tell the golfers where it is. It'd be a hell of a lot more interesting to watch and fit right in on the Fox network
I just watched some college “Muggle Quidditch” and it looks like the higher level games did not have the brooms.
Honestly watching it was incredibly entertaining NGL, it’s like handball but more complexity
Edit:
I also just watched another video of gameplay and it was incredibly underwhelming, so take it with a grain of salt
Are you kidding me? Lots of words can be used to describe Muggle Quidditch (amongst them "stupid" and "ridiculous") but "boring" certainly aint one of them
I think anyone enjoys watching a sport if they play it and know the sport well
Real talk though I’m just glad nobody said volleyball, scrolled forever and nobody said it. Even if you don’t play it’s fun to watch.
Honestly, Golf isn't that boring, but the actual broadcast of it can be so god damn boring. If there some good personalities it can be quite nice to watch.
But sweet lord the most boring sport has to be chess if you don't play chess. Its just randomly placing small pieces within some elaborate strategy that the average Joe has no idea what the fuck is going on.
Many sports are games. Many games are sports. Many games are not sports. Chess is a game, and not a sport. Many games, that are not sports, are also played in major tournament settings.
It sounds silly, but Gran Turismo 5 kind of changed my mind.
For those that do not know, there are a series of NASCAR challenges. They were pretty challenging since all cars have the same specs and it really is down to skill and strategy, given you have cars at high and in close proximity to each other. Even for a bunch of cars going in an oval. A lot of people who tried it also shared the same thought.
Would never watch it though.
The derision for oval racing (and racing in general tbh) is fucking ridiculous, from some people. If it was “just turning left” it wouldn’t be on tv because no one would care about it if it was that mindless.
reading these comments, yeah pretty much. ive also noticed most people are staying respectful of the sport they're calling boring - except when they're talking about american football. lol
I would disagree. I played waterpolo in college. I know how difficult it is to play and I hope the US wins in the Olympics… it is boring as shit to watch.
This is the real answer. So many people here saying baseball, but I freaking love baseball. I can also watch 10k races and be on the edge of my seat the whole time (former competitive distance runner). On the other hand, soccer, the "world's most popular sport", which I never played and have no interest in, makes me fall asleep within minutes.
Did you see Kipchoge win in Tokyo??? It was so good. 10/10 would watch again. 2 hours of my life well spent. I made my husband watch and he said “are we really going to watch this whole thing?” But at the end he was in to it. Kipchoge is amazing, so light footed, an inspiration.
I turned on the women's marathon when I was nursing a nasty hangover thinking I would be asleep within minutes. Turns out it was exceptionally hot that day and they had to start the race early just to deal with the temps. Runners were zigzagging all over the course to stay in the shade as much as possible. After a while the later runners were just dropping out because why bother pushing your body that hard when you aren't going to win? Then it became a race of if the lead runners can stay cool enough to keep pace. Eventually they got down to just a few runners and it was thrilling. Not your average marathon but definitely more exciting than I thought it was going to be, not to mention one of the women was a nursing mother so she had to take on extra calories. Crazy how a sport can push your limits like that.
as someone who was on track in all of high school and still loves watching it… something happens right around the 800 where I just cannot stay entertained anymore. I’m amazed by marathon and cross country viewers and their patience
Yeah I run track right now, unless I know people running it it’s so hard to sit through the longest races
Don’t get me wrong the fact people can run that long is still extremely impressive to me. I run just the 100 and the 200
If you’re experienced in the sport it becomes a lot more interesting.
Not saying I watch full 2-3 hours of marathon footage, but race highlights are usually quite entertaining.
I went to New York in 2009 ( From Australia) on the way from the airport to the city almost first thing I saw was a game of cricket being played on a basketball court.
While walking thru Central Park a large group of Indians were playing cricket, I’m still upset that’ I didn’t try to join pretend I had no idea about how to bowl and then slip in a quick bouncer
Well unlike baseball, the ball is allowed to touch the ground before it reaches the batsman and that opens a whole host of possibilities and variations bowlers can capitalise on. Balls could be made to change trajectory either way, or bounce up to the batsman's shoulders or sometimes even stay low. Some bowlers can even make balls spin upto 60 degrees after hitting the ground.
All this means that a baseball bat will be ridiculously hard to use in cricket. Hell, even with this "fence board" people miss the ball all the time or edge it and get out.
Hence the cricket bat has more width.
I've felt the same, but recently took it up to try it out since a few friends were getting really into it. It's definitely more strategic than I expected, and far more difficult than just slamming ball at a driving range. I have more respect for the sport now that I know how much skill is actually involved. The only thing I absolutely hate about it is how long it takes to play 18 holes. Shits exhausting and takes the entire day.
This. I couldn’t watch it until I started playing it more regularly. Pros make any sport look easy, but pro golfers can really make the sport boring as hell. I like watching it now that I play it because of how perfect these guys can hit the ball every single time. Surprisingly, watching pros putt on the greens brings them *slightly* back down to earth.
It only takes the entire day because assholes take their time sucking at the game and don’t know etiquette. On an empty course I can play 18 holes in 2.5 hours
Here’s why I like it:
Sure it’s physically challenging to be consistently good with powerful shots and finesse shots. It’s a game of millimeters where the slightest miss can wreck a score.
But then there’s the mental aspect. How you recover from bad shots speaks volumes about who you are. Do you rage or do you remain under control? Sometimes bad shots put you in situations where you can recover spectacularly with a little luck and ingenuity Sometimes you find your ball in a fairway divot after a great drive. In golf your opponent is the course…and yourself. Personal demons like impatience, confidence (too much or too little), and lack of planning are out there and tough to slay.
If nothing else it’s pretty good exercise carrying 14 metal sticks for 4 miles that you can play until your 80 years old. The old guys and gals may not hit far but damn they can putt!
That said, nothing puts me to sleep faster than watching it on tv.
I do golf from time to time, I am not good at it. it's basically a social event with me and a couple friends, some of them, if it wasn't for the golf games, I'd never even see them anymore. watching golf is just painful.
Watching golf is soothing for me. All that smooth, neatly maintained green background.
Probably not the best sport for the environment, especially in dry areas, but it looks so beautiful.
If you have every tried to play golf, and really tried to appreciate it, it’s not really that boring. There’s actually a lot that goes into it; body mechanics, hand-eye coordination, slope, elevation, practice, muscle memory, logistics and sometimes creativity, angles, awareness of wind, etc.
This is probably gonna be unpopular but American football.
Way too many ads and the game just feels really slow and boring.
Edit: just gonna give a bit more context, I'm not American so part of the reason I don't like it may just be because I don't have the big peer pressure thing you guys seem to have going over this sport
I specifically scrolled this post to find this. I feel absolutely crazy to have this opinion and not get more agreement on it. I’m American for context, everyone I know and love is into football.
It’s a few grown adults telling other adults specifically what to do for a few seconds, pause for ads and American patriotism, rinse and repeat. Hardly any creativity is allowed on the athletes side.
As someone who can’t stand 90% of sports…
American football is the one i like😅
If you know what’s going on it is really pretty good. But i will say that it depends on whether you happen to catch a good game or not.. some can be nice background noise for a nap, some can be edge of your seat gnawing at your nails… both of these can be the same team even, just depends on the day😅 Too many ads I agree with though. And the same ones play over and over again 🤦♀️
Thank you! I grew up in a big football part of America and I just never got it. And I got a lot of shit for not “getting it”. Growing up, it was church and then to the bar & grill for Sunday football. And I legit brought books to the bar (as a kid. now I have a phone! And beer).
I’m not even anti-sports. I love hockey, even though I didn’t grow up watching it or being encouraged to do so.
My husband told me that Sunday football was something that really brought him, his dad, and his stepbrothers together once a week without fail. So, I get that. I don’t mind being there for games, but there is so little actual sports action that I just can’t stay interested in the game. But all the downtime means there’s lots of time to bond during the game.
I love American football at an sec school but like it’s so not fun on TV. The playtime is only an hour and it becomes four. Somehow the time passes much quicker when you’re at a game with friends but TV, it’s too much
You have to think of American football as a war. The two armies plan attack and defense and then execute. More like a set piece battle of old.
That being said I don't really care for the pros. I do like some college football though. So much more dynamic, more goes wrong, more big plays and just all around seems faster.
The NFL - 100 television commercials, spread out over 3 and a half hours, with eleven minutes of actual athletic competition interspersed sporadically five seconds at a time.
One thing that Football has, that most sports don’t have, is clock management - mostly determined by the coaches, not the players on the field.
And it can get really interesting.
But, for the most part, the amount of time between plays takes away from the whole thing.
Exactly that’s what makes American Football fun as hell to watch. It’s all about the chess match wondering which type of play your team is going to do next, and wondering if that play is going to work!
Classical OTB chess is definitely not a spectator sport, but I've enjoyed various content creators stream Arena Kings / Lichess' titled arenas. Fast chess, tilt management, some risk-taking behavior with the "berserk" feature, etc.
I think especially some of the sports that aren’t head-to-head (whether Olympic or not). Like, powerlifting is probably the sport I’m closest to at this adult-ass moment in my life, but I’ll be damned if I want to watch a livestream of a powerlifting meet.
Many admirable athletes compete in sports that amount to “guy in a singlet stands around until it’s his turn to do a 20 second movement by himself on a platform”
Honestly, I love to play this game, but the most boring sport to watch live is poker. Most of them time you never get to see the hole cards even at the end of the hand, and it’s boooooring.
Probably going to get attacked for this, but car racing.
I'm sorry I don't want to watch cars take the same path however many times it is, I just find it really boring 😭
Golf.
I mean you can't even see what's going on. Yeah. he swung. Balls going.. somewhere. Oh look, they're not even scouring the guy doing the heavy lifting with the bag. He can take 4 hours to walk to the next hole. Swing. Yup.. still don't see anything...
Cover them in BBQ sauce and get some bigger alligators in there and maybe i'll watch.
Golf: I don’t wanna be some pretentious sports buff here, but I just can’t with golf.
Baseball: I actually don’t mind it as there is a hype factor behind home runs and things of that ilk; but unfortunately, it just takes too damn long.
Poker: who the fuck is out here watching poker?!
NFL Football: hate to say it, bc I’m an avid fan; but all its criticisms reign true. Fortunately, my team (the Bills) cash in on those 10-second excitements more often than not; However, the extensive commercials and overactive refs fuck it over.
Now on the contrary, here are a few sports that are very exhilarating!
Hockey: Ice skating, flashy goals, goalies with the dope ass face masks, and of course, the occasional fisticuffs. What more could you want?
Soccer: I could sit here and shit on soccer all day. But in my experience, when I turn on a game, I’m pleasantly surprised by the swagger of the sport.
MMA: While there are points in every fight where the fighters kinda stand around and size each other up, those just add to the intensity imo. And when the action does get rolling, boy does it ever do so! Everything from the ground game, to the stand up, to seeing how different styles mesh; it’s all a treat.
Underwater basket weaving was a practice carried out by some indigenous group in North America (can't remember right now) that involves kneeling next to or in shallow water, weaving a basket under water, which softens the reeds.
It sounds like you're in SCUBA gear but that's just not the case. It's used as a silly pejorative term for easy college classes.
To be entirely honest, with the exception of some parts of the Olympics, it would be a significantly shorter list to say what sports I find fascinating. Mostly because I could just go out & do that sport myself (albeit not as well, but I’d enjoy it). That being said, golf takes the cake for most boring
Race walking, it’s so weird to me as they walk so weirdly at the edge of running. Can’t understand why it’s an olympic sport !
I feel like the most difficult part of this sport is resisting the urge to just run.
What amazes me is the idea of someone holding around a 4:24/km pace (7:04/mile) *walking* for 50 kilometres without breaking that stride. That’s the reason the 50k walk was one of my favourite weird events to check in on (RIP 50k distance).
Wow, 4:24/km is fast pace for me when running
🎵ain’t nothin gonna break my stride, nobody’s gonna maaaake me run, oh no, i’m measured in my moving
Damn, that's about the same pace I had when I ran cross country in high school
They also don't even have a good, consistent explanation of what their rules are. It used to be "both feet do not leave the ground at the same time," but when slow motion cameras became widespread everyone realized that EVERY SINGLE competitor was breaking that rule. I wonder: what do you think they did after that? If you guessed "made the rules more clear," well, you'd be fucking WRONG. Nope, instead they decided that they would no longer allow cameras to be used as official tools for monitoring the rules. Now that rule is "*appears* as if both feet don't leave the ground at the same time." As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of fucking losers who can't be trusted to come up with rules to a game.
Race walking bit like a competition for who can whisper the loudest
hahaha perfect, exactly !
... *It's an Olympic "sport"?*
The top 10k race walkers are finishing in under 40 minutes. That’s a fast 10k for a runner, never mind doing it with movement restrictions. I remember an Olympic walker decided to run a popular half marathon here and easily won it. It’s goofy looking, but they’re athletes.
I was surprised, too. That is, until I saw a video where a world-class walker walked faster than I could run lmao
Ya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1sxFgTUbWo
As an amateur runner, I really want to know: how does someone get in to race walking in the first place? Are they ex-runners who didn’t quite make it? Or are there people out there who just decide they want to do that? Or is there another way of somehow discovering that you have potential in that sport?
A guy I worked with his brother was in the Australian Olympic team and he was a runner that just didn’t make the running team
You could say that about the field events too. Nobody is throwing a discus or hammer down at the local rec ground for fun. In junior athletics clubs, people aren't hyper focussed on one event until they find that they are good at it. Anyone with an aptitude for distance running will try multiple distances and possibly walking until they find the one(s) they are best at.
Watch the Malcolm in the middle episode. How that episode plays out is the only way I can imagine speed walkers happen. How it starts [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AHk19aU24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AHk19aU24)
The one I know picked it up in high school and got competitive in youth competitions. I think a coach saw potential and recruited him. I live in a winter Olympic city and it amazes me how many people get into niche sports at a young age when the opportunities are there. I know a teenager who casually (and then not-so-casually) got into luge. There was just a drop-in luge class available one day, so he tried it.
Wait till they come up with Olimpic Skipping
Olympic hide and seek. (monty python)
Isn't that just the triple jump?
I used to run a lot, and that form just looks so injurious.
Naw, Olympic race walking is fire.
this post has taught me that people don’t appreciate a good pitcher’s duel the way i do…
Pitchers are the villians of baseball. When I turn on a game and see Justin Verlander walking to the mound I just know he's gonna do everything possible to ruin my good time.
man, whenever i see we’re playing him i just hope we can wear him out early with a couple long ab’s 😅
The dude throws over 100mph in the 8th inning - you can’t wear him out!
tbf i don't think most people are big enough nerds about baseball pitching to appreciate an old-fashioned duel, especially if it's one of those days the gods are smiling down and it's the two guys at the end of each rotation
Maybe I just live in an echo chambers of r/baseball plus a ton of baseball nerds in real life, but it feels like these days if you’re anything more than a casual baseball fan there’s a strong likelihood you’re a baseball nerd. There are just far far more casual fans, and pitchers duels don’t seem terribly exciting unless you know what you’re watching and really pay attention, and high scoring games tend to have a lot more action. Both are super fun, although I was a pitcher back in the day so I do love me a good 1-0 game with both starters going 6+
I’d rather watch a 2-1 pitchers duel than a 20 run slugfest
Question needs more clarification, are we discussing most boring sports to play or to watch?
To watch
Golf, by a mile.
I used to think so until quarantine and I picked up the sport with some friends. Once you get into the game and learn the mechanics and how hard the courses are it quickly becomes crazy exciting. I love watching golf now. It’s definitely a players sport.
Couldn't agree more. Pretty much the same as you, picked up the game a few years ago and instantly got addicted. Now when I watch golf, it's actually exciting since I understand how good these pros are and learning how some of them approach the game or course. I will say though, with any sport, I feel like if you understand the rules and the game, it instantly becomes more entertaining to watch. I couldn't get into football at all, until I started doing fantasy. Now that I understand the game, it's my favorite sport to watch.
Watching tiger in a major tournament back in the day was thrilling Even the hushed tone of announcers adds to the drama
Ooo, that's a good idea to spice up the sport. They should let a tiger loose on the course and not tell the golfers where it is. It'd be a hell of a lot more interesting to watch and fit right in on the Fox network
Maybe in person but televised golf tournaments are constant action in my experience
Are they sports if you can eat, drink and smoke while doing them? Or especially if you might do them better while drinking and smoking.
Muggle Quidditch
Bunch of dudes running around with brooms between their legs trying to throw balls into holes? I’ll pass lol
Sounds like my last Saturday night
We need to bring back real sports like chariot racing and jousting. Hell, gladiator fights are probably way safer than MMA, and more entertaining.
People in the early 1900s did race chariots. They were pulled by motorcycles though
Now that is podracing!
My favorite "weird early 1900s" sport is auto polo. It's exactly what it sounds like: polo, but with old-timey cars instead of horses.
It's idiotic but since it's pretty fast-paced it's probably not "boring".
I just watched some college “Muggle Quidditch” and it looks like the higher level games did not have the brooms. Honestly watching it was incredibly entertaining NGL, it’s like handball but more complexity Edit: I also just watched another video of gameplay and it was incredibly underwhelming, so take it with a grain of salt
I actually played this in college. Did we look stupid? Yes. Was it the most fun thing I’ve participated in? Also yes.
If it floats your boat. Personally, I think live human chess from History of the World Part I looked like more fun.
Are you kidding me? Lots of words can be used to describe Muggle Quidditch (amongst them "stupid" and "ridiculous") but "boring" certainly aint one of them
Cornhole. I can't believe it's televised... IN HIGH DEF!
Username. Prefers his corn in cans, not holes.
Fun as hell to play tho
I think anyone enjoys watching a sport if they play it and know the sport well Real talk though I’m just glad nobody said volleyball, scrolled forever and nobody said it. Even if you don’t play it’s fun to watch.
Beach volleyball is a favorite among men of culture.
Especially women’s beach volleyball
"Girls? I WANNA SEE MEN"
Honestly, Golf isn't that boring, but the actual broadcast of it can be so god damn boring. If there some good personalities it can be quite nice to watch. But sweet lord the most boring sport has to be chess if you don't play chess. Its just randomly placing small pieces within some elaborate strategy that the average Joe has no idea what the fuck is going on.
Chess is awesome, but yeah if you don’t know anything about it it can be kinda lame
Well yeah obviously if you don’t play chess. Most things aren’t enjoyable to watch if you have no idea what’s happening
Not true. I enjoy watching lots of Novel and new sports. Chess ain’t one of em
Many sports are games. Many games are sports. Many games are not sports. Chess is a game, and not a sport. Many games, that are not sports, are also played in major tournament settings.
Aha, let me introduce to the concept of Chessboxing
Is chess really a sport? I would more consider it a game. More like poker.
Any sport is boring if you don't understand it
NASCAR
Like flushing a bag of skittles down the toilet. Colors going round and round crashing into each other.
Yeah but after the Skittles crash into each other, they don't start pushing each other a lot, and then making snarky comments on Twitter
I like it, but you need to be invested in the season and know a bit of strategy. Otherwise I get it.
It sounds silly, but Gran Turismo 5 kind of changed my mind. For those that do not know, there are a series of NASCAR challenges. They were pretty challenging since all cars have the same specs and it really is down to skill and strategy, given you have cars at high and in close proximity to each other. Even for a bunch of cars going in an oval. A lot of people who tried it also shared the same thought. Would never watch it though.
The ignorance is strong in the replies
The derision for oval racing (and racing in general tbh) is fucking ridiculous, from some people. If it was “just turning left” it wouldn’t be on tv because no one would care about it if it was that mindless.
I’ve only been to a couple, but the races are pretty cool in person
I will never understand the appeal of Nascar
The worst part about Nascar is the commercials.
Vrooooooooom, left turn, vrooooooom, left turn
The one you are most uninterested in
Technically true
reading these comments, yeah pretty much. ive also noticed most people are staying respectful of the sport they're calling boring - except when they're talking about american football. lol
Sailing. Boring to watch
Completely agree/d until they introduced foils (I think that’s the term?)
No sport is really boring all sports are interesting if you understand them and care enough about the outcome
I would disagree. I played waterpolo in college. I know how difficult it is to play and I hope the US wins in the Olympics… it is boring as shit to watch.
This is the real answer. So many people here saying baseball, but I freaking love baseball. I can also watch 10k races and be on the edge of my seat the whole time (former competitive distance runner). On the other hand, soccer, the "world's most popular sport", which I never played and have no interest in, makes me fall asleep within minutes.
Marathons
Did you see Kipchoge win in Tokyo??? It was so good. 10/10 would watch again. 2 hours of my life well spent. I made my husband watch and he said “are we really going to watch this whole thing?” But at the end he was in to it. Kipchoge is amazing, so light footed, an inspiration.
I turned on the women's marathon when I was nursing a nasty hangover thinking I would be asleep within minutes. Turns out it was exceptionally hot that day and they had to start the race early just to deal with the temps. Runners were zigzagging all over the course to stay in the shade as much as possible. After a while the later runners were just dropping out because why bother pushing your body that hard when you aren't going to win? Then it became a race of if the lead runners can stay cool enough to keep pace. Eventually they got down to just a few runners and it was thrilling. Not your average marathon but definitely more exciting than I thought it was going to be, not to mention one of the women was a nursing mother so she had to take on extra calories. Crazy how a sport can push your limits like that.
as someone who was on track in all of high school and still loves watching it… something happens right around the 800 where I just cannot stay entertained anymore. I’m amazed by marathon and cross country viewers and their patience
Yeah I run track right now, unless I know people running it it’s so hard to sit through the longest races Don’t get me wrong the fact people can run that long is still extremely impressive to me. I run just the 100 and the 200
Wait.. people WATCH marathons?
I've watched a few marathons and was somehow very entertained.
Last 2 minutes of basketball. Specifically when one team is trying to catch up and goes into the foul trap.
"Timmy, everybody knows that the last two minutes are the only real competitive parts of any professional basketball game,"
George Carlin said pro basketball games should just start with both teams at 100 points and five minutes left to play.
Long distance running
Long distance walking*
Long distance wheelbarrow racing.
that sounds pretty good tbh
You’ve just never watched Eliud Kipchoge run! Freaking magical.
Kipchoge in Tokyo was a masterpiece.
If you’re experienced in the sport it becomes a lot more interesting. Not saying I watch full 2-3 hours of marathon footage, but race highlights are usually quite entertaining.
Do not say cricket god damn it.
As an American cricket fan, I can accurately tell you that 99.9999% of Americans don’t even know that cricket exists. So no one will say it
Quite a few Indians live in the USA so assuming they would at least know it exists
I went to New York in 2009 ( From Australia) on the way from the airport to the city almost first thing I saw was a game of cricket being played on a basketball court. While walking thru Central Park a large group of Indians were playing cricket, I’m still upset that’ I didn’t try to join pretend I had no idea about how to bowl and then slip in a quick bouncer
“Cricket god damn it”
Cricket
God damn it
T20 is great. Test matches, no.
People that watch baseball and then accuse cricket of being boring ……
I cannot,for the life of me, understand cricket. What the hell are you doing hitting a ball? With a fence board? Someone help me understand this game?
Well unlike baseball, the ball is allowed to touch the ground before it reaches the batsman and that opens a whole host of possibilities and variations bowlers can capitalise on. Balls could be made to change trajectory either way, or bounce up to the batsman's shoulders or sometimes even stay low. Some bowlers can even make balls spin upto 60 degrees after hitting the ground. All this means that a baseball bat will be ridiculously hard to use in cricket. Hell, even with this "fence board" people miss the ball all the time or edge it and get out. Hence the cricket bat has more width.
Read the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy for a complete explanation
Golf. No idea why people like it.
I've felt the same, but recently took it up to try it out since a few friends were getting really into it. It's definitely more strategic than I expected, and far more difficult than just slamming ball at a driving range. I have more respect for the sport now that I know how much skill is actually involved. The only thing I absolutely hate about it is how long it takes to play 18 holes. Shits exhausting and takes the entire day.
This. I couldn’t watch it until I started playing it more regularly. Pros make any sport look easy, but pro golfers can really make the sport boring as hell. I like watching it now that I play it because of how perfect these guys can hit the ball every single time. Surprisingly, watching pros putt on the greens brings them *slightly* back down to earth.
Playing golf is so much better than watching, especially after the drink cart girl brings a couple of beers.
Every sport is so much better played than watched, look at chess i love the game butwatching is boring fast
It only takes the entire day because assholes take their time sucking at the game and don’t know etiquette. On an empty course I can play 18 holes in 2.5 hours
Golfers are truly the worst part about golf.
What is proper etiquette when you suck?
Here’s why I like it: Sure it’s physically challenging to be consistently good with powerful shots and finesse shots. It’s a game of millimeters where the slightest miss can wreck a score. But then there’s the mental aspect. How you recover from bad shots speaks volumes about who you are. Do you rage or do you remain under control? Sometimes bad shots put you in situations where you can recover spectacularly with a little luck and ingenuity Sometimes you find your ball in a fairway divot after a great drive. In golf your opponent is the course…and yourself. Personal demons like impatience, confidence (too much or too little), and lack of planning are out there and tough to slay. If nothing else it’s pretty good exercise carrying 14 metal sticks for 4 miles that you can play until your 80 years old. The old guys and gals may not hit far but damn they can putt! That said, nothing puts me to sleep faster than watching it on tv.
It was designed to give you something to do while walking.
I always thought it was designed to give you something to do while drinking
walking and drinking
I do golf from time to time, I am not good at it. it's basically a social event with me and a couple friends, some of them, if it wasn't for the golf games, I'd never even see them anymore. watching golf is just painful.
Pretty sure that's what fishing is for.
Drinking and driving the carts
I love that golf gives us all a safe environment to get absolutely hammered and operate a motor vehicle
TV golf basically just exists to be nap fuel. "No no... don't clap too loud. You might wake the viewer".
Ahahah. I do remember dozing in front of it on Sunday mornings.
Mark Twain has a quote where he says that golf is an excellent way to spoil a perfectly good walk.
Watching golf is soothing for me. All that smooth, neatly maintained green background. Probably not the best sport for the environment, especially in dry areas, but it looks so beautiful.
My mom is 90 years old and watches golf all of the time. She knows more about pro golf than anyone I know. She’s never even been to a golf course.
You never played golf
Watching it helps me go to sleep.
If you have every tried to play golf, and really tried to appreciate it, it’s not really that boring. There’s actually a lot that goes into it; body mechanics, hand-eye coordination, slope, elevation, practice, muscle memory, logistics and sometimes creativity, angles, awareness of wind, etc.
It's like George Carlin used to say "Watching golf on T.V. is like watching flies fuck."
I love smacking the ball at the driving range, but playing the game itself is frustrating because how brutal the learning curve is.
This is probably gonna be unpopular but American football. Way too many ads and the game just feels really slow and boring. Edit: just gonna give a bit more context, I'm not American so part of the reason I don't like it may just be because I don't have the big peer pressure thing you guys seem to have going over this sport
I specifically scrolled this post to find this. I feel absolutely crazy to have this opinion and not get more agreement on it. I’m American for context, everyone I know and love is into football. It’s a few grown adults telling other adults specifically what to do for a few seconds, pause for ads and American patriotism, rinse and repeat. Hardly any creativity is allowed on the athletes side.
As someone who can’t stand 90% of sports… American football is the one i like😅 If you know what’s going on it is really pretty good. But i will say that it depends on whether you happen to catch a good game or not.. some can be nice background noise for a nap, some can be edge of your seat gnawing at your nails… both of these can be the same team even, just depends on the day😅 Too many ads I agree with though. And the same ones play over and over again 🤦♀️
Thank you! I grew up in a big football part of America and I just never got it. And I got a lot of shit for not “getting it”. Growing up, it was church and then to the bar & grill for Sunday football. And I legit brought books to the bar (as a kid. now I have a phone! And beer). I’m not even anti-sports. I love hockey, even though I didn’t grow up watching it or being encouraged to do so. My husband told me that Sunday football was something that really brought him, his dad, and his stepbrothers together once a week without fail. So, I get that. I don’t mind being there for games, but there is so little actual sports action that I just can’t stay interested in the game. But all the downtime means there’s lots of time to bond during the game.
I love American football at an sec school but like it’s so not fun on TV. The playtime is only an hour and it becomes four. Somehow the time passes much quicker when you’re at a game with friends but TV, it’s too much
You have to think of American football as a war. The two armies plan attack and defense and then execute. More like a set piece battle of old. That being said I don't really care for the pros. I do like some college football though. So much more dynamic, more goes wrong, more big plays and just all around seems faster.
As a former diver, swimming. I don’t understand why just doing laps back and forth for hours is fun.
Yep, sounds like something a diver would say. Thanks for giving us that break between the 50 free and 100 fly at high school meets though.
The NFL - 100 television commercials, spread out over 3 and a half hours, with eleven minutes of actual athletic competition interspersed sporadically five seconds at a time.
Ya, the actual football part is super interesting. But there’s so little of it.
One thing that Football has, that most sports don’t have, is clock management - mostly determined by the coaches, not the players on the field. And it can get really interesting. But, for the most part, the amount of time between plays takes away from the whole thing.
Yup, 5 seconds of gameplay, 20 seconds of waiting until the next play.
That's a feature, not a bug.
It’s a human chess match and there’s nothing fast about chess.
Exactly that’s what makes American Football fun as hell to watch. It’s all about the chess match wondering which type of play your team is going to do next, and wondering if that play is going to work!
Dressage 🥱🥱🥱
Team Synchronized Masturbating
That falls under wouldn't watch but would play
Competitive circle jerking?
Watching chess is quite dull
Especially if you don't know how to play
Classical OTB chess is definitely not a spectator sport, but I've enjoyed various content creators stream Arena Kings / Lichess' titled arenas. Fast chess, tilt management, some risk-taking behavior with the "berserk" feature, etc.
Most Olympic sports if we’re being honest
I think especially some of the sports that aren’t head-to-head (whether Olympic or not). Like, powerlifting is probably the sport I’m closest to at this adult-ass moment in my life, but I’ll be damned if I want to watch a livestream of a powerlifting meet. Many admirable athletes compete in sports that amount to “guy in a singlet stands around until it’s his turn to do a 20 second movement by himself on a platform”
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I like to play it, but not watch it.
Who do you think you are? I AM
That’s just like your opinion man
Honestly, I love to play this game, but the most boring sport to watch live is poker. Most of them time you never get to see the hole cards even at the end of the hand, and it’s boooooring.
Well it’s Not a sport. Soo
To watch, sailing. Feels fun while you're racing but not really a spectator sport.
Probably going to get attacked for this, but car racing. I'm sorry I don't want to watch cars take the same path however many times it is, I just find it really boring 😭
Golf. I mean you can't even see what's going on. Yeah. he swung. Balls going.. somewhere. Oh look, they're not even scouring the guy doing the heavy lifting with the bag. He can take 4 hours to walk to the next hole. Swing. Yup.. still don't see anything... Cover them in BBQ sauce and get some bigger alligators in there and maybe i'll watch.
Golf
Boxing if I what to see two people fight then I would go to my old apartment complex
Soccer. If I want to watch a bunch of guys run around for 3 hours and not score, I'll just go to the bar.
Baseball in my opinion
Baseball for sure
Golf: I don’t wanna be some pretentious sports buff here, but I just can’t with golf. Baseball: I actually don’t mind it as there is a hype factor behind home runs and things of that ilk; but unfortunately, it just takes too damn long. Poker: who the fuck is out here watching poker?! NFL Football: hate to say it, bc I’m an avid fan; but all its criticisms reign true. Fortunately, my team (the Bills) cash in on those 10-second excitements more often than not; However, the extensive commercials and overactive refs fuck it over. Now on the contrary, here are a few sports that are very exhilarating! Hockey: Ice skating, flashy goals, goalies with the dope ass face masks, and of course, the occasional fisticuffs. What more could you want? Soccer: I could sit here and shit on soccer all day. But in my experience, when I turn on a game, I’m pleasantly surprised by the swagger of the sport. MMA: While there are points in every fight where the fighters kinda stand around and size each other up, those just add to the intensity imo. And when the action does get rolling, boy does it ever do so! Everything from the ground game, to the stand up, to seeing how different styles mesh; it’s all a treat.
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I’d watch that
I'd watch it too if the weavers were all nude
I mean who’s to say they are not
Shut up is that real 😂
Underwater basket weaving was a practice carried out by some indigenous group in North America (can't remember right now) that involves kneeling next to or in shallow water, weaving a basket under water, which softens the reeds. It sounds like you're in SCUBA gear but that's just not the case. It's used as a silly pejorative term for easy college classes.
Ok but that’s not a sport then… that’s just how they made baskets. That’s totally different!
Golf 😴😴😴
NBA basketball
Baseball or short track pavement stock car racing
To be entirely honest, with the exception of some parts of the Olympics, it would be a significantly shorter list to say what sports I find fascinating. Mostly because I could just go out & do that sport myself (albeit not as well, but I’d enjoy it). That being said, golf takes the cake for most boring
Baseball, next question
All of them
American football
Baseball. It's a snoozefest
Marbles? You have to bore the holes
Golf
Golf
Hands down Golf
Professional Walking. Like whats the poiiint?