Swimming. I do it weekly but only manage a handful of lengths front crawl whilst others never seem to stop.
🙁

Drinking 🙂

mudsux – find out/google/youtube 'Total Immersion' swimming and you might find things improve..

MTB'ing.

Yes… all of them. I am the proverbial 'Jack of all trades master of none'

I can seem to manage to play most sports at competition level, but always at the lowest level. Though I have had my moments.
I have won things or 'been up there' But I do the silly thing of if youre gonna do it do it big i.e wanted to do a triathlon so did a full Ironman as my first one, wanted to do a marathon so I did the Snowdonia, gonna do a 24 well do it solo. Always ends in tears.

I guess it's just plateauing and not upping your game enough to break through to the next level…

With bikes, finding someone faster to ride with helps. Sometimes you just need being put through the mincer a bit 😀

You can't learn to swim well without a coach of some sort watching you telling you what to do better and repeating the process over and over until your stroke is good. Then you have to practice 🙂

It's not like running or riding a bike, there is a right way and all the other wrong ways. (Some may argue there are a couple of right ways, but that is accademic if you're doing it wrongly.)

Cycling.

Without a doubt, I am sh*te. MTBing, I have no skill; on the road, I have no power or fitness.

I used to play hockey at a reasonable level (North Premier), so know that I have sufficiently good hand eye co-ordinaiton, but it's not an endurance sport like cycling, so I could always hide my fitness failings through substitutions.

Shame, as I'm addicted to cycling.

Cycling of course. If I found it easy, I'd get bored very quickly. Isn't that the appeal?

moutain biking.

Cycling. Not that I train, but even if I did I could never be properly good at it – wrong physique.

I trained in a traditional style Kung Fu for a few years – easily the hardest 'sport' I've done (the sifu would flatten me if he heard me referring to it as a sport) – makes technical MTBing look childishly simple. Like gymnastics in some respects – total control of body movement required, plus serious fitness / strength / toughness.

OTOH, I dabbled with weightlifting for a few winters and took to it like a duck to water – could deadlift / squat stuff with ease that other more committed guys would struggle with. The weights were fun in an intense sort of way, but they're obviously not in the same league of enjoyment as MTBing. Happier doing the sport I suck at. There's always sports out there that are a good fit to your physique.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – loved it but never got very good. Stayed at white belt for 4 years – you have to be fit. strong and flexible. long legs help too, and i'm only 5'6"!

running – i started it in order to enter a triathlon this year.

Maybe I'm not doing it enough, definitely not enough practice but it just doesn't float my boat like cycling. I figure if I'm going to try a new sport make it something enjoyable.

squash or any racket sport. played for years, generally new comers are better than me with-in a couple of weeks.

I dont seem to be able to hit the ball in the sweet spot to get generate any power and I dont have any muscles to just wack it.

Best I can hope for is to dink it into the corners.

Swimming. I do it weekly but only manage a handful of lengths front crawl whilst others never seem to stop.

mudsux – find out/google/youtube 'Total Immersion' swimming and you might find things improve..

I totally agree with that – it made such a difference to me. It is also great for proper outdoor swimming confidence. Nowadays I swim both crawl or breaststroke at least vaguely efficiently, it is so much more satisfying.

You can't learn to swim well without a coach of some sort watching you telling you what to do better and repeating the process over and over until your stroke is good. Then you have to practice

It's not like running or riding a bike, there is a right way and all the other wrong ways.

Not that I wouldn't have coaching if I could afford it / had the time to swim much, I think the Total Immersion books / videos etc. do a great job of at least making it possible to not suck completely without a coach.

Also, I think it is like running (and probably like riding a bike), in that there are right ways and wrong ways to do it. Running there are so many wrong ways, I did a running session with the "Art of Running" guy, who teaches a running style based on the Alexander Technique, and it made me a so much more efficient and fast, and also meant I don't injure myself, even with my very on/off training, whereas most runners I have met seem to injure themselves on a pretty regular basis. After doing that course, it is obvious how inefficient most runners are too, you can just see it in the way they run.

Joe

Windsurfing before the modern wide style boards was pretty brutal. Quite often a couple of seasons learning before you were even thinking about plaining, which is when it got good.