What is the attraction of these team sports?

[bibblebub]

Handball and Water Polo (the latter being the same as the former except that it's played in a swimming pool).

In both of these sports the objective is to throw the ball into the opponents' net and score a point, and so there's an arc of attackers facing an arc of defenders behind whom is a goalkeeper. The attackers throw the ball to each other until one decides that there is a slight gap between defenders and so then has an attempt at throwing the ball past the keeper into the goal (and succeeds about 99 times out of 100). The other team then has possession of the ball and they do exactly the same at the other end. That's it, nothing more to it than that.

Does anyone find either of these sports watchable? They might be fun to play but as spectator sports they are immensely dull.

[sunny-dave]

Better than synchronised swimming ... but not much better.

[weecalf]

The ancient greeks loved it though .Im told .

[bibblebub]

yes, synchronised swimming definitely has the ugh factor

[doctordb]

The diving is pretty dull too. Has ashley young made the team?

[Mick-Talbot]

unwatchable

[Davethedog]

The truth is there are a LOT of sports in the Olympics that only get an audience at the Olympics.

[doctordb]

'Elite sport' means the same a 'cult-t.v'; small viewing figures.

[bibblebub]

A big difference this time around is that I can view all these sports live and in full, whereas in previous Olympics the only coverage would have been 5 minutes of the final for each, just enough to spark a bit of interest but not sufficient to reveal just how boring they are.

[craft1948]

The table tennis has been excellent...................

[bibblebub]

How are we doing in that? I've haven't watched much of it so far.

[sunny-dave]

The camera angle for the table tennis is a bit weird - makes the table look very small/short?

[Psybbo]

Dare I say, handball - football??

[tenrec]

Is it like football bibblebub?

[tenrec]

Great minds Sibton!

[bibblebub]

Footie has variations in the play that handball can only dream of, tenrec.

If I'd known that this was going to turn into a horsey thread I'd have had second thoughts about starting it.

[Mick-Talbot]

tenrec

Great minds Sibton!



Or silly girly minds ...... back to the handbag thread with ya .

[craft1948]

And the lovely Kim Clijsters has just won the first set.