9 of the Easiest Sports to Pick Up! – Unfortunately, some sports have a higher barrier of entry than others. They may require intricate knowledge of complicated rule books, years of practice and a closet full of equipment like hockey mouthguards and expensive uniforms in order to play. If those factors have discouraged you from trying to play a sport that will take years to master, then definitely consider this list of nine sports that are easy to pick up.
Running
If you can walk, then you can run — making this a strong contender for the easiest sport to learn, ever. All you need for running is some athletic shoes and a good pair of tennis shoes, and you can start running on any sidewalk or trail. If you are new to running, you can mostly walk and intersperse short bursts of jogging. Over time, you’ll improve your strength and stamina until you can run for longer and longer periods of time. If you don’t like running on sidewalks or streets, then you might prefer trail running, which requires more mental energy but is much less monotonous.
Swimming
Swimming consists of only a few basic strokes, which is why this is both one of the easiest sports to pick up and one of the most essential life skills you can learn. If you’re a bit fuzzy on your childhood lessons, you can hire a coach or attend a class to brush up on your skills, but beyond that there’s nothing to stop you from hitting up the pool at your local rec center to swim some laps.
Cycling
Completing the triathlon trifecta is cycling, which is another easy-to-learn cardio workout. If you learned how to ride a bike, which most kids did, then you can take up cycling as an adult. Any street bike will be fine for just pedaling on paved trails, but you’ll want a more rugged mountain bike if you plan to take it on trails or go off road. Always make sure to wear proper gear such as a helmet to keep yourself safe from accidents, and be aware of cars and pedestrians to avoid collisions.
Ping Pong
If you don’t think that Ping Pong is a sport, try playing this surprisingly competitive game: You’ll almost certainly break a sweat and get your heart pounding. The rules of Ping Pong are simple, and the game requires little specialized knowledge beyond good hand-eye coordination. Much of the difficulty of the game lies in how experienced your opponent is and how skilled they are at returning the ball. The best players can get a volley going where the ball is moving almost too fast for the human eye to track! Lots of rec centers, bars and billiards halls have ping pong tables, making it easy to find a place to play if you don’t have a table of your own.
Volleyball
If you want to play on a larger team but don’t want to invest a lot of equipment like baseball mouthguards and football helmets, then volleyball might be the perfect sport for you to try. It can be played on both indoor and outdoor courts, giving you options no matter what the weather is like. The basics are easy to pick up, but more advanced skills such as spiking the ball will still offer a challenge to keep you engaged as you progress.
Tetherball
If volleyball is slightly too complicated for you, then consider tetherball as an alternative, which involves a volleyball tethered to a pole with a rope. Two people battle it out, trying to wrap the tethered ball around the pole in opposite directions. Whoever gets the rope wrapped all the way around the pole first wins. Most playgrounds and rec centers have a tetherball pole on site, making this a fun sport to play with a friend.
Curling
If you are looking for a truly original sport to pick up, then consider curling, which is a little bit like playing shuffleboard on ice. Each team of players has eight heavy granite stones that they must slide across the ice to land in a target to accumulate points. Sweepers use brooms or brushes to decrease friction and influence the path that the stone travels in order to maximize the point total. While the fundamentals are easy to pick up, there is a lot of strategy that goes into throwing and sweeping the stones to get the highest number of points possible.
Golf
Golf is one of those sports where it’s easy to pick up the basics, but hard to master the finer skills, which is why there are so many casual players and not that many pros. While you do need a fair bit of equipment for golf and a stylish golf bag, you can rent it at many golf courses, so you don’t have to invest in your own set of clubs until you decide if you like the sport or not. Pretty much all cities and towns also have at least one golf course, making it easy to find a place within driving distance where you can try it out.
If you love the nostalgia factor, bowling is an easy sport to learn that will deliver it in spades. Similar to golf, bowling is one of those sports that takes great concentration, a laser focus, good mechanics and patience. While pretty much everyone has played a casual game of bowling at least once, it takes great skill to be able to bowl a strike on the first try over and over again, which is why bowling has a professional league just like other sports.
Are there any other sports that are easy to learn that we forgot to add to this list? Let us know in the comments below and always remember to use proper safety equipment such as helmets and custom mouthguards.
