Ideas to Improve Sport

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Wheelspinner

Well-Known Member
Cricket - Allow baseball style pitching instead of bowling.

Played a variation of cricket when I was a kid in school much like that. Used a cricket bat, but a tennis ball. "Bowler" at each end, and each delivery was from alternate end, but they could throw like baseball, not bowl necessarily. It was "hit and run" rules AND no requirement for the bowler to wait till you were ready. Often you'd barely finished a run and turned around to find the next delivery whizzing at you. Fantastic game for developing hand/eye coordination skills, batting either left or right hand and keeping track of your opposition in the field.

The trick was not necessarily to score a load of runs, but to stay at the crease as long as possible. Oh, and pick very definitely which ball you had to hit and which you could duck and leave go through. Great fun.
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
Shot-Putters launching hand to be covered in Superglue so if they don't throw it quickly enough, they end up throwing themselves, too.. 👍
 

DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
Crown Green Bowling- Bowls to be replaced with similar sized marbles, players have to shout tibs when they knock an opponent’s crown green marble out of the ring, all games played for keeps, to ensure maximum falling out at the local Derby & Joan Club dinner meet
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Played a variation of cricket when I was a kid in school much like that. Used a cricket bat, but a tennis ball. "Bowler" at each end, and each delivery was from alternate end, but they could throw like baseball, not bowl necessarily. It was "hit and run" rules AND no requirement for the bowler to wait till you were ready. Often you'd barely finished a run and turned around to find the next delivery whizzing at you. Fantastic game for developing hand/eye coordination skills, batting either left or right hand and keeping track of your opposition in the field.

The trick was not necessarily to score a load of runs, but to stay at the crease as long as possible. Oh, and pick very definitely which ball you had to hit and which you could duck and leave go through. Great fun.

We played something very similar which we called "quick cricket". We had stumps and the bowler bowled underarm baseball style, but the single batsman had to make a run at a 45 degree angle and return to the crease as fast as he could. There was nor run-out or stumping, but as in your variant the bowler could bowl again as soon as anyone passed the
ball to him, so you could be bowled out mid run. You had to run every ball so one tactic was not to wait to swing the bat but to run as soon as the bowler bowled hoping it wasn't on target. Quite a good game for kids as everyone got to have a bat, unlike proper cricket when the duffer kids like me would never bat nor bowl but merely stand in the outfield and be bored, then get criticised for lacking enthusiasm
 
All swimming events have to be undertaken in normal clothes and you have to carry a black brick from start to finish.

Oh that's good. Imagine if every length the swimmers had to bring up a black brick from the bottom. With the deep end being the diving pool too it gives the evil buggers who set it up the chance to wreck some chances of winning!

Change Freestyle rules so they have to swim with a learners noodle. If they lose it instant DQ.

Synchro bellyflop!

Make the swimmers of sprint distances compete in the high dive and the high dive in synchro swimming and the synchro swimmers in the freestyle swimming race. But make the change last minute so they can't train up.

It has been an idea of mine that top flight football teams have to play football against to flight rugby players. Then it's home game advantage to the rugby players. That way round so any diving or unsportsmanly tricks by an the footballers gets a good old rugby response in the next game.
 
It’s the same for any sport. Someone who has the time to train and a good diet will have an advantage over someone who does not.

No, it's the teams and countries with the most money to pay for the best technology wins. Those countries where the countries best have to work full time as well as train for the sport are ultimately at a disadvantage to professional, full time sports people. It's not about individual effort in a lot of sports.

What was it about that F1 team that got a fine for overspending on R&D or wind tunnel testing resulting in a speed advantage. Sure fine it when they've already made more from winning. Or things like that.

Advantage is not just the and effort someone has free to get in better but the money to develop themselves and kit.. As someone said up thread, one nations curling team changed the brush material that created an unassailable advantage. It was later prevented by rules changes but at one point it was there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C R
Road cycling - Maybe one for another thread but seeing yet another photo of Pog in yellow, black shorts please.

Not making actual sports better but please lycra shorts with mesh at the back should be banned. I was stuck in traffic behind a road cyclist whose shorts had a central strip of what has stretched into see through mesh. I followed the guy for over 5 minutes down country roads in couldn't safely pass him.
 
Top Bottom