Funniest Thing I've Seen All Week (OT)

Have to pass along my current favorite video, from TC Live:

I've watched this about five times and it makes me laugh out loud each time. First there's how Andy Roddick (a past U.S. Open champion and former World No. 1) looks when the program cuts to him for the first time, with his head in his hands, which cracks me up, and I agree with what the host says after Andy says "this is the dumbest segment we've ever done on the show." But I love Andrea Petrovic's explanation of why amateurs can't beat her ("First of all, I was a professional tennis player. I'm competitive. I'm not going to give you a point for free"), and when she says "come at me" I burst out laughing every time. Wonderful little video. (Here's that book, by the way.)

I do think we who watch on screens just lose sight of how far above us professional athletes really are. They're not a little better. They're way better. Next time you watch an American football game, notice some of the acrobatics the players do as part of a play—leaping over a tackler or stretching for a ball on a dead run and falling forward in a somersault—and try to imagine yourself doing the same thing, with no pressure, with all the time in the world, without a full suit of pads and a helmet on, and without an opposing player trying to kill you at the same time. Some of it boggles the mind. And NBA basketball, just fuggedaboutit, those guys can move faster than I can think and they think much faster than they move....

I personally think that the great thing about sports is that we've all hit a shot or performed some feat as well as a pro. Golf, tennis, pool, basketball, football (either kind), whatever it is, we've done it once or a few times. I hit a hole-in-one on a par-3 course once. Once. While practicing alone. I've hit shots on the pool table as good as pro pool players do. And that gives us a sense of kinship with them, direct knowledge of the feeling of what it's like. It's why we can identify as we watch. But they can do that kind of shot all the time, and we can do it once in a while, and that's an immense difference. In pool, if you miss one shot per rack, you're going to lose every single match to a pro, and not by a small margin. A pro can sometimes lose a match by missing one shot in the entire match. Whereas only one miss per rack will put you in the elite in APA pool league...on much smaller tables with much bigger pockets. And that's just the tip of that iceberg. Enough from me....

Mike

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Comments

[Jeff]

Can’t show NFL athletic feats without including at least one Gale Sayers’ highlight. Still a favorite, and I’ve never been a Bears’ fan.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XhNYlQObfyQ

[Daniel]

I have tried for a hole in one but the darned windmill vanes keep blocking the hole. Golf is tough!

[Jeff]

This does Sayers more justice, with expert commentary to emphasize his extraordinary gifts..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fb6kiQ2Y9A

[fish]

In other words, the difference between games and sport. Ask the same question about beating swimmers over any distance (or running, or gymnastics, even cycling...) and you'd be counting hopefuls in single digits.

[Tex Andrews]

Yeah, great video, and I don't even like tennis. Here's another perspective from a sales colleague of mine almost 25 years ago. He played single A baseball for a bit. He had zero patience with fans who would diss some player with a .210 batting average or a north of 4 ERA. He said, look at it this way:

Every player on a major league team was a phenom at every level during their childhood and teenage years---best on the team by far, best in the league, all-county, all-state, all the way up through college (if they went). Only the best of these guys wind up in single A. Only the best get to double A. Only the best of them get to triple A. Only the best of them go to "The Show".

So the guy a fan complains about as being a bum who should get fired is actually an incredible athlete and player with mad skills.

[Nigli]

What fish said.
I doubt I can do for 5 seconds what a top cyclist can do for 5 hours, let alone get near what they can do for 5 seconds.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I've played ping pong against junior state champions (when I was in that age range myself) and against people who have played in the US national championships (not come anywhere near winning it). I was one of the top players on my college campus.

And, just from seeing top-level players on TV, I'm not sure how often I could return their serves, and my return of their return would be nearly non-existent. It's amazing to watch.

I may still be greatly over-estimating my ability. (Also I'm talking about my ability back in college, not 50 years later.)

[Rich Beaubien]

As teen in the Babe Ruth League I was okay as a fielder. As a hitter I was a placement hitter putting the ball pretty much "where they ain't." A bunch of my relatives put together a donation to the Jimmy Fund so I could take three strikes from Jim Lonborg. After the first pitch, a strike BTW, I figured I'd just swing hoping I could get lucky and put the bat on the ball. It didn't go well.

[Adam]

The NY Times had a fun piece comparing Tour de France riders against amateur riders (using Strava data) - and the amateurs get spanked on every single climb despite having huge headstarts (like 30 mins).
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/23/upshot/tour-de-france-amateurs.html

Important note: The "amateurs" they highlight are not "average" people pootling around town on their bike. They are serious riders who do a lot of climbing. Oh also, the pros are doing these performances in the middle of a 3 week tour where they are climbing like this day after day - not a one time attempt up Col de Tourmalet.

Pro bike riders really are on another level.

(On a side note, looking forward to the Maryland international pro bike race in a few weeks that is literally going right by my house!)

[nextSibling]

Too true. Professional cyclists are known to turn up and train in a locality new to them and completely destroy all the top local amateurs KOM times on Strava. As an amateur, I watch the pros on TV and their speeds, compared to my former best days, especially up hills, are mind boggling.

[Ken Sky]

The tennis you see on TV is not the same game played by the best club members ( except for the rules & equipment). But let's not go far astray. How many of us would compare our photos to those of a pro? When it comes to elite athletes who have put thousands of hours into what they do, they are physiologically incomparable with amateurs.

[Christopher Feola]

No, You Can't Beat An NBA Player One-On-One | Brian Scalabrine on Amateurs Challenging Him

"I'm way closer to LeBron than you are to me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3zQoy6lL2Y

[Bear.]

It's no different than photography... Anyone can take that once in a lifetime shot that is as good as any pro, and many of us have, and some of more than once. But only the best pro's take that once in a lifetime shot every time they go out to shoot, which is what they're paid to do...

[Patrick]

This is also very true in chess. Hikaru Nakamura has a channel where he sometimes plays normal humans, he absolutely destroys them. Also does game analysis of grandmaster games from tournaments, the speed his mind works at is about 10 times faster than mine. I keep thinking - so that's what it takes to play chess at that level. A whole different order of brainpower than I have.

[Jim K]

Mike,

I was a reasonably competitive tennis player in college (not Div 1). I got to attend an indoor tourney in Philadelphia and was nearly court level watching the women play (and we're talking early 80s). I figured the only way I would get a point off of them is a miss hit from them or a very lucky shot from me. The men? Half the time, I'm not sure I would have been able to get to the ball (and I moved pretty well in the day).

Completely different level. But now that I'm 62, yeah, I could probably get a couple games off of Jokavic... (that's what we call 'dementia'...)

[mark]

I took a good photo once.