Which sport takes more skill?

[ali4390]

Motorcycle racing or football?

At lunch we got into an argument about which of the above is more skillful, by that I mean at the very top level of the sport which sport takes a greater amount of skill on the behalf of the individual sportsman?

I appreciate it is hard to compare due to them needing two different skillsets and being completely worlds apart. My colleagues argument centered around the fact more people play football than race motorcycles and therefore you have to be more skillful to be the best at football than you do at bike racing. I disagree and having played football and raced motorcycles I believe motorcycle racing at the top (MotoGP) takes much more skill, regardless of how many people do it.

Opinions?

[anonymous-user]

Think how many people play football, and then how many actually get a professional contract, there are 92 teams in the Country... if an average squad is 30, thats 2700 professional footballers out of how many million players at every level down to grassroots?...compare that to the number of motorcyle racers... i think my point is that almost everyone gets a chance to be a professional footballer if they want, you need a ball. Thus the pool is far bigger Only a select few get the chance to be a motorcycle racer.

Because you can measure a motorcyclists lap times, you can get a bearing on how good they are comapred to the likes of Rossi. Joe Bloggs, a Club level racer might be 10 seconds per minute slower that Rossi, so over a 2 minute lap, Bloggsy will be lapping in 2.20. you cant compare the likes of a sunday league player and Lionel Messi in quantitative terms but I would argue its far greater, as discussed, given the number of people who start out wanting to be a professional footballer.

You can not discount money, the man with the biggest wallet always wins in motorsport. This is the guy who can afford the best engines at the start of his career which enables him to catch the sponsor/team managers interest. so the best rider might not be the one who can work their way through the early stages of the sport.

viva la futebul!

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 9th November 14:44

[Tiggsy]

Football.

The best bike racer out there has, statistically, never sat on a bike. You have a tiny pool of people to rise above.

T (never played football in my life, ridden plenty of bikes on tracks)

[okgo]

Football by some margin I would imagine. Also depends a lot on natrual stuff that cannot be taught I think.

[ali4390]

But are the numbers really that relevant? Surely top flight football doesn't take anywhere near as much skill as riding a bike round a circuit at 200mph?

And if it's a numbers based argument, the fact there are many more people driving cars than playing football would suggest F1 drivers are more skilled than footballers?

[okgo]

You are letting numbers and speed get in the way of logic.

200 mph is fast no doubt, but taking a fast corner on a bike is no different in skill terms to taking a ball down at full pace and knowing it will land at your feet, just because getting one wrong might end your life and the other will not doesn't mean one is more skillfull than the other, just means its more risky. You don't have to be skillfull to take risks, but you do have to be skillful to know how fast you can take a corner without falling off.

Don't let speed and potential injury get in the way of 'skill'

Edited by okgo on Wednesday 9th November 14:53

[Torquey]

Motor cycle racing.

I often think about this but comparing Formula 1 drivers to footballers.

F1 drivers cannot afford to make as many\any mistakes like footballers do.
If they do its normally 0.5 seconds lost in a lap. Footballers regularly miss targets and it goes unnoticed.

[rhinochopig]

Having seen footballers being interviewed it has to be footballers. What intelligence they have is clearly channelled, in its entirety, into kinaesthetic awareness.

[ali4390]

okgo said:

You are letting numbers and speed get in the way of logic.

200 mph is fast no doubt, but taking a fast corner on a bike is no different in skill terms to taking a ball down at full pace and knowing it will land at your feet, just because getting one wrong might end your life and the other will not doesn't mean one is more skillfull than the other, just means its more risky. You don't have to be skillfull to take risks, but you do have to be skillful to know how fast you can take a corner without falling off.

Don't let speed and potential injury get in the way of 'skill'

Edited by okgo on Wednesday 9th November 14:53

I fully appreciate the difference between speed and risk etc and skill.

I am not denying that top flight footballers are incredibly skillful, however taking a ball down at full pace does not take as much skill as powersliding a bike round an apex; the accuracy, delicate touch, balance etc needed to do the latter is greater than to do the first.

I also don't think the numbers is relevant. Another 1 billion people could start playing football but that would not guarentee that anyone of those 1 billion would be greater than Messi. And surely the numbers argument is all relative? Fair enough a lot more people play football but there are a lot more people at top-flight football. How many players play in the top leagues etc across the globe? And compare that to the 15 odd riders at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing.

[anonymous-user]

ok, ignoring the number of particpants, its still a futile argument because the measure of skill in motorsport is essentially how fast you can lap a circuit with other people on the track, they are not trying to do something different to you.

There is no comparable measure of skill in football even if you determine goals scored/shots taken. Different players are trying to do something different to determine the outcome of the game and what takes more skill, the goal being scored or the tackle that stops the shot?

Ironically i was watching some youtube footage of motogp riders in the wet last night and some riders held incredible slides into and out of corners (search for chris vermulen slide) but how can you compare that to Rooney's overhead volley against Man City last season?

[okgo]

Because nobody wants to watch motorcycle racing, that is the reason there's only 15 of them not because of anything to do with skill.

YOU think it takes more skill to powerslide a bike round a corner than it does to do something similar in football. The difference is lots of people can do the basic things of football in the park, but to do them in a match situation where you have split seconds to execute it right is where the good are seperated from the great.

[ali4390]

okgo said:

Because nobody wants to watch motorcycle racing, that is the reason there's only 15 of them not because of anything to do with skill.

YOU think it takes more skill to powerslide a bike round a corner than it does to do something similar in football. The difference is lots of people can do the basic things of football in the park, but to do them in a match situation where you have split seconds to execute it right is where the good are seperated from the great.

That's not the reason at all. Massive amounts of people watch bike racing, and many people aspire to reach MotoGP but do not have the required skill.

At a guess you don't race motorcycles and if that is the case, with the greatest respect, I don't think you can appreciate just how skillful the top bike racers are.

[okgo]

ali4390 said:

That's not the reason at all. Massive amounts of people watch bike racing, and many people aspire to reach MotoGP but do not have the required skill.

At a guess you don't race motorcycles and if that is the case, with the greatest respect, I don't think you can appreciate just how skillful the top bike racers are.

You don't play football at a high level, you cannot apreciate how skillful top football players are. blah blah, you've started a thread asking a question then spent your time ignoring nearly everything anyone has said to stick to what you thought in the first place. what a pointless task.

[RemaL]

okgo said:

Because nobody wants to watch motorcycle racing, that is the reason there's only 15 of them not because of anything to do with skill.

LOL who said that??? I dislike football with a vengeance. Motorsport (bikes and cars) of any sort is the only thing I enjoy.

As for powersliding a bike around a corner. I ride and it's easy to do when you don't expect it. But to do it and look good as well as race is another thing

[okgo]

RemaL said:

LOL who said that??? I dislike football with a vengeance. Motorsport (bikes and cars) of any sort is the only thing I enjoy.

As for powersliding a bike around a corner. I ride and it's easy to do when you don't expect it. But to do it and look good as well as race is another thing

You know what I meant.

People watching football - masssive, massive number
People watching motorcycle racing - tiny in comparison

[Steve Evil]

You only have to look at the fans of each sport to know there's an equal imbalance of intellect too.

[okgo]

Steve Evil said:

You only have to look at the fans of each sport to know there's an equal imbalance of intellect too.

What has that got to do with anything?

go back to your computer games.

[rhinochopig]

okgo said:

RemaL said:

LOL who said that??? I dislike football with a vengeance. Motorsport (bikes and cars) of any sort is the only thing I enjoy.

As for powersliding a bike around a corner. I ride and it's easy to do when you don't expect it. But to do it and look good as well as race is another thing

You know what I meant.

People watching football - masssive, massive number
People watching motorcycle racing - tiny in comparison

Doesn't it depend what you mean by watching? I mean does blankly staring at the screen / pitch drooling, whilst pondering whether the to fight, fk, or eat the object in front of you actually count as watching

[RemaL]

Steve Evil said:

You only have to look at the fans of each sport to know there's an equal imbalance of intellect too.

+1

[Fleegle]

Any knob can kick a ball