I think it’s David Epstein’s book The sports gene’ that deals with this,
It is impossible for a normal human being to return the serve of a professional tennis player, you need to react know where to position yourself before the ball is struck, it is the exact same for a Major League Baseball player facing a fastball,
It’s a mixture of generic superiority for that skill and thousands and thousands of hours of unknowingly studying the position/angle of the racket or the pitching hand
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On baseball, eyesight is a massive thing. Not sure if it was The Sports Gene or Outliers or something where I read it but a ridiculous amount of top baseball players have well above average eyesight
Eyesight is important in almost all sports 
Which sport would have the smallest gap between professional and amateur standards? Boxing or Golf maybe?
My issue is there’s vast numbers of Irish lads who never held a hurl who are sorry they didn’t get the chance to. It’s our national game, it should be available to play to all, at underage level anyway and definitely at schools level. After that it’s up to them and their parents if they wish to continue, as it will obviously be more difficult to find hurling clubs in many football oriented counties.
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20/20 isn’t good enough for baseball
Not golf anyway.
Amateur boxing and the pro game are so different as to be almost different sports
I’d say any professional sportsmans standards are an order or magnitude higher than an amateur in any sport.
The gah is obviously different where the highest level is still amateur
Hardly golf? The ability of pro golfers to control the ball is insane ?
They can do things an average amateur just simply can’t. Spin control, vary height, shot shape. The stats on their putts versus a good amateur is ridiculous.
Top level sports where talent is matched with dedication just can’t be compared to where lads are just doing it because they like it.
Rubby is the answer you’re looking for.
Pro boxing is night and day vs amateur.
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I know there is a chasm between the 2. I’m not talking elite level of professional sport. Just trying to pick a sport where there is not such a massive dichotomy between the 2 I.e. where an amateur could go out on a given day and not look totally out of place in the professional ranks.
Exactly … training every day with elite coaches, elite diet and fitness … added to immense talent already.
Welcome back mate
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Thanks pal.
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Shit
I did the etape de tour about a decade ago. It was iirc 210 k over the col d’isoard, the lautaret and the alpe.
It attracted the best amateurs in Europe.
The winner (fastest time) would have been eliminated from the tour de France that year from being so far behind. That was one stage. In the tour it was two weeks in, and one of four or five in a row.
It’s mental the jump from amateur to Pro in near everything.
Top amateur and average pro are similar levels. Boxing was a good example. Hard to think of many others.
Thanks man
Ten pin bowling.
Plenty of good amateurs can do all that. Tony Romo has got rave reviews. Back home Davy Fitz and DJ Carey have played with professionals in pro ams over the years playing near scratch.