Originally Posted by
tai1fob
your friend is right, and that is the reason I decided to get more serious with cycling. I am so out of shape and uncoordinated, I cannot join any local basketball or tennis club because I can’t play any “real” sports like those, but I also don’t want to stay “unhealthy” without any regular exercise.
“Most” popular sports that brings in tons of revenue are much harder and takes much more time to practice to be remotely competitive.
take baseball or football for example, sure, you can round up enough guys together to play a game, but if you want to join any club for “real” games that counts, it takes years of practice to get qualified for a “real team”.
for cycling, you can practice on your own and sign up a local event, and it is within the realm of possibility to do well in the event if the person is very determined.
This brings up an interesting point - at a recreational level, cycling is a relatively easy sport for an adult novice to get into. Within a summer, someone who doesn't know how to ride a bicycle could learn and complete a 50 mile ride by the fall. I think it would be considerably harder for an adult who's never picked up a tennis racket before to play a decent game of tennis by fall. Likewise basketball. Likewise golf. There are people who have played golf their whole lives and are still quite bad at it.
Cycling is my lifelong sport, and at the highest levels requires a great motor and good kinesthetic intelligence (athleticism). But for the rest of us, I think it's great that it's highly accessible.