Dhhhss wrote:
For mma its the opposite imo. Ufc is the only major sports league i can think of where guys who pucked up the sport in their twenties are still present (not many but some).
I would say hockey is up there. Your average person cant even skate let alone handle the puck
Get rid of MMA, that is not a sport. It looks like 2 little kids fighting!
Figure skating. Seems very physically, mentally, and technically challenging. Fans who watch on TV are fat women who have never played a sport their lives.
Oh, over here it's HUGE
Matti the Axe Nykanen wrote:
Spankbaby wrote:Ski jumping
The OP was referring to sports with fans.
Shillac wrote:
I think if you took a random spectator from the crowd of football/basketball game and subbed them in they would look bad but not a million miles away from the pros.
In a typical diamond league meet, a random spectator would look like a complete idiot if they raced a 1500m. I think maybe track, tennis and boxing have the biggest talent gaps.
Don't we see this in every major marathon? We get coverage of the leaders then they cut to the hobby joggers.
Skeleton/luge/bobsled.
Football - NFL players get concussions and career-ending injuries all the time. An average fan would probably die from blunt force trauma when they got hit. Or internal bleeding after their ribs break.
Basketball - half the NBA players would dunk on or over an average fan (like LeBron James has done in a playoff game or Vince Carter over that 7 footer in the Olympics).
Hockey for sure. The majority of fans in the USA have never even played the sport and can't skate, let alone have the other skills required to play the game.
With the other big sports like football, baseball, basketball at least most people played these at a competitive level in grade school. They'd have some basic skills etc.
jerzy wrote:
Track fans would look better than in most sports because there is no technique involved. It's just a matter of how many times they would get lapped, depending on the race.
Put some random guy on the high bar in gymnastics, high dive, downhill ski course, figure skating, etc. and they would look ridiculous at best, or end up in the hospital.
Running is a skill, look at how hobby joggers run compared to a relaxed elite at the same pace. You can see the engine of a runner by the gap.
ok....now here is one way to look at it:
in baseball i could play right field with some form of ability, heck even with a few at bats you might at least draw contact.
In basketball, i would at least make them guard me, if they didnt I would surely score from deep.
Football same thing... the avergage male athlete could run passing routes and if they decided to not cover me I would at least catch a pass.
Team sports with multiple positions could be played and you could at least pass and dribble or go get a grounder and throw it to someone else.
Even golf, i can at least par holes in which pros par holes. you arent playing the player, you are playing the course.
Its the individual head to head sports especially contact sports where you get crushed, injured or you cant do one thing to compete.
I'd have to second (or third) motogp. Most fans ride of course but they can't touch the fine motor skills (pun intended) and sheer balls that the top guys have. Check out The Isle of Man TT for an example of insane guts. One tiny mistake and you die.
The Fan wrote:
All of them.
This is the correct answer. An average fan of any sport would look completely stupid playing alongside or competing with the elite athletes of that sport.
Using basketball as an example, the talent gap between NBA and college is huge. The talent gap between college and high school is huge. The talent gap between high school and the open gym pickup games is huge. The average basketball fan probably couldn't even hold his own in an open gym pickup game.
80s kid wrote:
Skeleton/luge/bobsled.
Given that virtually no one ever even tries those, I highly doubt the top guys are particularly talented, just more talented than the other handful of people in the world who also try them.
And don't come back with, "Oh, you just try it. You'd kill yourself." Yeah, I probably would. But if even 1% of the world's population were to try, I guarantee you some of them would be better than today's top guys.
Snail racing. Any of us would be totally out of place in one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9892tAngxwg
By far the biggest gap between fans and competitors.
Greyhound racing. The athletes are running almost 45mph. No one in the stands is capable of running anywhere close to that fast.
Gymnastics
The real question is which sport do fans think has the biggest talent gap between fans and athletes . Track is one of the few sports that has an objective standard of greatness. I know that if I ran a mile against an Olympic medalist I'd get lapped about 900 meters in. Fans of sports with a subjective standard ( which is just about everything else) don't have a realistic grasp of the disparity in talent. The number of fans who think they could score on Lebron James in a game of one on one or hit a 100 mph fastball I'd ridiculous .
+1
Hiya folks wrote:
Deadman Running wrote:I'm guessing you've never been to a NASCAR race.
I've never seen an athlete at a NASCAR race.
Shake and Bake!!!!!!!
Hounddogharrier wrote:
... I know that if I ran a mile against an Olympic medalist I'd get lapped about 900 meters in. ... .
Not in Rio, 2016.
The smallest gap between fans at an event and the athletes is track.
Runners watch track meets.
The biggest gap is hockey.
How many American hockey fans that go to NHL games have ever played ice hockey?
I'd look like a fool lacing on the skates and trying anything with the puck.
So would almost anyone in the stands.
The only actual legitimate way of calculating this is measuring the number of "levels" between an average spectator and a pro.
In other words, take the average spectator, figure out what is the least skilled
athlete it would take to beat this spectator at whatever sport 95% of the time, then follow the chain until you reach the professional level and count up how many times you moved up.