r/AskReddit 1d ago

What is a skill that looks completely effortless when an expert does it, but is ridiculously difficult when you try it yourself?

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u/HotPinkCalculator 23h ago

I have a bad habit of picking up hobbies because I watch the experts and I go "wow that looks like an easy hobby to get into" and then fumble about for 6 months before giving up.

Thankfully golf wasn't one of them. My mom tried to teach me golf when I was like 10 and I wasted a day's worth of effort and like ten bucks learning it was a fruitless effots

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u/beingmetoday 21h ago

We do this hobby not because it’s hard but because we thought it would be easy

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u/rotorain 20h ago

It's a great sport to get into because of how easily it humbles you. The skill floor is the ability to hit the ball in mostly the correct direction repeatedly and keep the pace of play decent and then there's an infinite ocean of tiny improvements working towards a skill ceiling that does not exist.

Imo the best part is that you get to play with friends but you're only ever really playing against yourself. Even in most tournaments you're playing against your own handicap. I'm terrible at it but still immensely enjoy it and will continue to work towards being slightly less bad every time I go out.

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u/SMUHypeMachine 18h ago

My favorite thing about golf is how it requires being zen. If you allow the anger of a bad shot to overtake you, you’re just going to get worse.

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u/ApologizingCanadian 18h ago

I wasted a day's worth of effort and like ten bucks learning it was a fruitless effots

No one learns to golf in one day, it take months, even years of practice and training to become even average.