Sports Pointless sports

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Illinois Nazi said:
I just hope that at least the poor guy got some of his money back.
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to be honest so do i. it's pretty funny seeing someone that deluded and naive, but he actually looks like a decent guy and i hate when you see good guys come up with a stupid idea and it just about ruins them financially.

maybe it's just me but it seems to happen to nice guys a lot more than dickheads - though there are certainly plenty of dickheads who have ruined themselves over the years. no pity for them.
 

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NarklesHelmet said:
Walking owns this thread. It is such a pointless sport that it is incredibly frustrating to watch. Thay have this really ugly style going on when they walk as well. There are actually JUDGES who stand next to the course and give out warnings for people who aren't walking!? It is just so wrong.
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Yeah Walking gets my vote, so pointless they all cheat
 
Admiral Afterworld said:
Sailing. Boring as s**t to watch and you need to be a rich prick to get remotely near the elite level.

No surer sign Christmas is over and the media needs cheap filler than "Hey let's pretend people care about the Sydney to Hobart!".
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It's exciting to watch if you're intimately familiar with what's going on. Not really a spectator sport though. Fantastic participation sport. Not a single other sport out there that requires the wide-ranging degree of skills sailing does to be successful. You need athletic fitness, knowledge of fluid dynamics, knowledge of local conditions, knowledge of meteorology, knowledge of your boat, mental strength, strong mathematical skills and extreme tactical acuity to get anywhere near winning a major competitive race.

Most sports require a lot of money to get to the elite level, it's just a question of whose money it is. Sailing doesn't get a lot of sponsorship/government assistance compared to other sports so most of the participants are self-funded to one degree or another. In reality, a lot of elite sailors are not especially wealthy - like many athletes, they just have families willing to make sacrifices for their sporting careers.

The best thing about sailing is that there are so many different classes and types of boats that you can continue to sail and be competitive at the very highest level your entire life. Optimist dinghies are so small they can really only be sailed by children - the world champion is usually 14 years old. On the flip side, a 65 year old John Bertrand took third place at the Etchells World Championships last year.

Gough said:
Rugby League man, why would you play League when you can play the game they play in heaven?
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League is great. It keeps all the people who like League away from Union.
 
Miqar_Baqfhied said:
Rugby Union. Diabolical sport.
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has fallen so far behind it's not funny.

10 years ago it was such a better sport. in fact it's 10 years pretty much to now that the efficient forward play and extremely good kicking of england pretty much led to the game where it is now. the first 8 or so years of professional rugby where good to watch, with teams running the ball more and throwing it around. some of the NZ-Aus clashes of the late 90's were spectacular. That 39-35 Kiwi's winning test at Homebush stadium was one of the best sporting events i've ever seen.

But England, with their very good but very boring world champion 2003 team turned it back to the bad old days. And when they made the world cup final in 2007 with a s**t team (at least I could respect their 2003 team for being good), but the same boring efficient game plan, it was pretty much the nail in the coffin. The only team worth watching now is the All Blacks, but barely anyone can put up a fight against them.

From an Australian perspective it doesn't help that the Wallabies aren't that great anymore (although they're better than they get credit for), but it's not just that. If it was that then there wouldn't still be so much love for cricket and a desperation to see Australia get back to number 1. Case in point the 2010 Tri Nations was a rare period of recent times to watch good professional rugby but Australia was well off the pace. The same people, myself included, who loved the Wallabies just couldn't give two shits about them now.

But if anyone ever doubting what rugby union could be go watch a first grade game in sydney or brisbane. A very good standard, but the players don't have the fitness level of the professional's, so the defence opens up as the game goes on allowing more freedom and room, and the kicking isn't as good so that aspect of the game is significant reduced. Went to 3 games last year and they were probably the 3 best games I've seen since that Tri Nations I mentioned.
 

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Reckon that's a bit harsh Black Thunder. The game was in dire straits for a while, but the gradual adoption of most of the major elements of the Stellenbosch laws since 2008 has improved the game significantly. The Wallabies are still rubbish but I quite enjoy watching the game these days, the balance between forwards and backs has been redressed quite a bit.
 
Caesar said:
Reckon that's a bit harsh Black Thunder. The game was in dire straits for a while, but the gradual adoption of most of the major elements of the Stellenbosch laws since 2008 has improved the game significantly. The Wallabies are still rubbish but I quite enjoy watching the game these days, the balance between forwards and backs has been redressed quite a bit.
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Everyone has their different tastes but pretty much every time I watch rugby now I end up switching over to something else around about half time. If memory serves me right the game against England on the recent NH tour was pretty good, and there was many tries. The Super Rugby final where Queensland beat Canterbury was a top quality game as well and there was only 2 or 3 tries.

But yeah, meh. I find it such a shame. Playing rugby was a huge part of my teenage years. I'd watch 4 or 5 super 12 matches a weekend, would never miss a test match unless exceptional circumstances.
 
Pistol Shooting @ the Olympics

Claudia+Verdicchio+Krause+Olympics+Day+2+Shooting+JfZGtwBuFYBl.jpg


They look like cyborgs with futuristic guns. That's not Pistol shooting....


This is Pistol Shooting

western_showdown.jpg
 
Black Thunder said:
Everyone has their different tastes but pretty much every time I watch rugby now I end up switching over to something else around about half time. If memory serves me right the game against England on the recent NH tour was pretty good, and there was many tries. The Super Rugby final where Queensland beat Canterbury was a top quality game as well and there was only 2 or 3 tries.

But yeah, meh. I find it such a shame. Playing rugby was a huge part of my teenage years. I'd watch 4 or 5 super 12 matches a weekend, would never miss a test match unless exceptional circumstances.
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Body shape has changed the way Rugby is played a lot too, which I guess and am hoping is a result of professionalism and not something more sinister. Backs get much more involved in the breakdown now which I tend to believe makes the game a lot scrappier. Look at the someone like Bob Egerton or Marty Roebuck, those guys would have been broken if they tried to get involved in a ruck or maul and compare them to the size of a guy like James O'Connor or Issy Falou.
 
Barkly St End said:
The latter would at least be marginally interesting.
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So what if pistol shooting isn't interesting?

This is what pisses me off about the Olympics these days. It's all about what's marketable and spectator-friendly.

It's supposed to be about celebrating human excellence. Unfortunately some of the most technically demanding sports don't put bums on seats. So sports like pistol shooting, sailing and wrestling are constantly having to justify themselves, while BMX and Kitesurfing get a free ride.
 
Caesar said:
So what if pistol shooting isn't interesting?

This is what pisses me off about the Olympics these days. It's all about what's marketable and spectator-friendly.

It's supposed to be about celebrating human excellence. Unfortunately some of the most technically demanding sports don't put bums on seats. So sports like pistol shooting, sailing and wrestling are constantly having to justify themselves, while BMX and Kitesurfing get a free ride.
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I actually watched some of this in the Olympics and liked it more than the various other forms of shooting. Was just impressed by it all
 
Caesar said:
...while BMX and Kitesurfing get a free ride.
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No argument from me on that.

Over the years, it has become hit and miss as to what should and shouldn't be included, and strange coalitions of interests have emerged which pick a lot of strange sports, which can be divided into 2 broad categories:

1. pro US TV interests, tailored for a lardarse viewing audience interested in watching the US win medals;
2. an anti-US anti-first world coalition wanting to give voice to a variety of strange sports followed by strange people.
 
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