Sports you do not "get"

[TightEnd]

Its really down to what you are brought up watching with Rugby

For me RL is start, run straight ahead, tackle, stop, start again, kick it away on the 6th tackle

RU is phases of play these days, but has learnt much from RL defences

RU definitely is affected as a spectacle by a baffling rulebook, not the game it was to watch when I first got into it. for example 5 minutes to reset a scrum three times is a nonsense. then again the RL "scrum" is an affront to manhood. Makes me cringe every time I see it

 

[Ant040689]

Not a big fan of Matball.

[Mark_Porter]

Bowls

People stand on a lawn/carpet and throw big balls to try and get close to a little ball at the other end.

After they throw, they run down the length of the hall gesticulating watching their ball curve next to the little ball at which point the audience cheers.

At the end of all the intricate throwing the other person lobs a ball down as hard as he can and whacks all the other balls into the little ditch at the end. Swap sides, and go again.

Pointless

[TightEnd]

Curling

Teams of 4 have two giant Ice hockey pucks each with a handle on

Whatever the first three in the team do is completely irrelevant, as the only goes that matter are the last stones thrown by the skips who curl last

Particularly pointless are the "guards" thrown by the earlier players about half way down the rink, which do nothing to guard the "house"

Might as well just play singles, two stones each, closest to the bullseye wins

[Teacake]

Used to hate rugby at school when I was 10 or so.  When they don't let you kick penalties any kind of infringement results in a scrum so you get about a hundred per match.  I used to be hooker, and just spend the game suspended in the middle of the scrum held up by the two rhinos who played as props hoping for the best and aiming not to end up in the massive puddle a few feet below me with all the rhinos on top of me.  

Bleak memories.

I think any sport that involves regularly having a man's head near your arse crack/ putting uour head near a mans arse crack deffo has issues.

Au contraire my friend, at least we are secure enough red blooded heterosexuals to not have to sweat whether we might end up liking it! I worry about some of those footballers that fall over at the touch of a feather though  

Look at what a scrum does to your ears, is that not a clue that there's something far wrong with it before you even begin to think about heads up arses!

[nirvana]

Test cricket, Rugby Union, Pub games and fishing as a spectator, MMA, Baseball, Polo

Excellent choice in MMA imo, watching 2 blokes beating the livin crap outta each other - totes ridic

[Jon MW]

League > Union and I grew up in a middle class family down south.

Union just doesn't flow enough and is dogged by penalties that the vast majority of fans couldn't give an opinion on whether the ref was right or wrong to give it that way. These penalties then decide a lot of tight games, farcical state of affairs for a spectator sport.

Union >>>>>>>>>>> League, and I grew up in the middle of Rugby League heartland.

For some reason the stop-start nature of League pisses me off massively.  However, I'm not averse to stop-start games in general, as I adore the NFL, which is as stop-start as it gets.  It's just that Rugby has an alternative version that doesn't suffer from this.

I'm the other way round with rugby.  I find union too stop-start, and too many interruptions in the play.  The ball is in play 75% of a league game, 50% of a football match, and 33% in a union game (can't remember the source for those stats, but they seem pretty accurate - stand to be corrected though).

A good game of union is good.  A bad game is bloody awful.  A poor game of league is still entertaining and worth watching for me though.  Guess it's often what you're brought up watching.

Interesting article with some stats:
http://www.voxy.co.nz/sport/nrl-vs-super-14-differences-game-and-players/971/28136

I didn't watch any rugby until I went to university so I don't know where that would stand with Tightys pretty reasonable description of it depending on what you were brought up with.

But obviously stats don't tell the whole story, for example a lot more tackles in rugby league doesn't really relate to the entertainment factors as Greekstein already suggested

... Ooooh I just got tackled so I'll wriggle around like a fish thats just been pulled out of water and then give the ball for my team mate to do the same.
...

I'd class all kinds of racing in the same boat - running, cycling, swimming, rowing... - if you don't care about the results or the individuals or teams involved there's nothing much to get excited by. If somebody comes from a long way back it's mildly interesting and overtaking is mildly interesting but any sport involving two or more objects moving along a line can only really be made interesting by external factors like whether you support one of them for whatever reason.  Or crashes - crashes always makes racing interesting 

[Jon MW]

The stats are pretty interesting though, in particular the question of why Rugby league 'feels' like it's more stop start when the ball is in play for so much of the time.

It's hard to find a big set of data to look at but I found something interesting from Australia.

Last year a Rugby Union game was massively criticised for being deathly dull and part of that was 50 stoppages.
But somebody compared it to a Rugby League that Australia played around the same time - which the League fans had no problem with - that had 600 stoppages.

There might not always be that big a difference and it would be handy to find a data source covering a number of games but I think that seems like the basic problem with it; it doesn't matter if they can restart the game within a few seconds the point is that the game gets continually interrupted. If you 'see over' those tiny stops it seems like the game flows smoothly but if you notice them all it's often just a bit dull.


- - happy to re-assess if a data source comes to light which contradicts this theory

[kinboshi]

They're not 'stoppages' though, there's still something going on when someone is tackled (the defence wants to wrestle them to slow them getting up, the attacker often wants to play the ball ASAP so that when the ball is played there are gaps in the defensive line where defenders haven't got back the 10m and markers aren't square, etc.

If you're not a fan of league, you're not going to understand what's going on - so you see it as stoppages.  Obviously though, the game hasn't 'stopped' as if the player drops the ball, knocks on, etc., then they are penalised - so the game is continuing.  A stoppage should surely only be when the ball is not in play?

[bobby1]

Basebell seems a good pick , I mean I've been to baseball games and I will probably go again but it is really just rounders for druggies isn't it?

[gouty]

I don't get how people can enjoy watching test cricket. 20/20 is just about tolerable but I can't stand watching test cricket.

But on the flip side I enjoy watching golf which I know lots can't stand.

Hehe. I am the polar opposite of this. I can watch any day or session of a test match yet don't even watch ODIs or 20/20 s on telly let alone go along.

[Karabiner]

Rock-climbing, what a waste of energy.

A good round of golf beats that hands-down.

I don't get how people can enjoy watching test cricket. 20/20 is just about tolerable but I can't stand watching test cricket.

But on the flip side I enjoy watching golf which I know lots can't stand.

Hehe. I am the polar opposite of this. I can watch any day or session of a test match yet don't even watch ODIs or 20/20 s on telly let alone go along.

Me too.

[Woodsey]

Basebell seems a good pick , I mean I've been to baseball games and I will probably go again but it is really just rounders for druggies isn't it?

I used to go and watch the Red Sox a bit when I lived over there and it wasn't bad actually. I found NFL the worst to watch live, it all happened so quick with breaks in between each play that is was easy to miss so much, especially as they are quite good at concealing the ball, its deffo better on TV with the benefit of replays etc.

I would never watch basketball on telly, but live its pretty exciting to watch actually, probably the best of the US main sports. Went to watch a couple of college games too and they were still excellent quality.

[kinboshi]

Here's a question for union fans.  Do you enjoy watching Sevens?

[The Camel]

Agree with everything said about Rugby union.  I simply don't get it.  Also cannot really watch basketball although I do bet on it a lot.

On Poetry - So you don't like If by Kipling Keith?  Or are impressed by the way Wilfred Owen is able to express the horrors of war so succinctly?  I don't sit around reading poetry but it is a lot more than simply rhyming couplets.  At its best it can express ideas using language better than almost anything else imo.

Only when read by Mike Bassett.