The less complicated the sport the harder it is to commentate.
counterpoint: It's hard to commentate but they're just really good at it. otherwise there would've been more marble runs with commentary on that level.
It is so successful that there is a television gameshow in the Netherlands doing marble runs with famous people. But it kinda sucks because its too commercial.
Jelle makes some great stuff.
Well northsouth has come out of the blocks with an absolute statement. They always go down well on Shower Thoughts because one counter example and it's all over for OP. It could be a bloodbath. A brave move, don't you think, Dave?
Absolutely, Steve. Very gutsy from northsouth. But that's what's needed here.
Indeed. It's been a dry run on the sub for OP and they really need to shake this one up or their season is all but over.
That said, I think they might have missed a few of the finer points about commentary. Like it's not just about explaining the sport and the tactics being used. There's more to it than that.
That's true Dave. But if you can talk tactics and rules you don't need to prepare much, you can just turn up to any game and call what you see. If you need to talk form and player backstory, for example, then you gotta do the yards and prepare.
Great point, Steve. Well, looks like the action is starting on the thread now, so let's get into it. Reckon this could be a good one.
I was watching track and the commentator said “they need to figure out how to run fast here”. I thought that’s what everyone was doing.
Fun fact: One of Ronald Regan's first jobs in college was talking on in the radio about the scores of sports games. The kicker though was that he never went to the games, he was sent the game scores and major events during the game, but it was through morse code and then he would just make up shit to fill in the empty spots
Sounds like the inspiration for The Sting
guys this is like a paradox
I feel like an envelope, folded in on myself, but not yet licked.
Well you win this post.
I think its more about speed of game. Hockey is not a complicated sport, but it is absolute nonstop chaos. Baseball has so many complicated rules and they have all day between pitches to collect their thoughts.
Well, they did. Now, it's 15 seconds, which feels like a lot until there's a lot going on.
They have commentary for golf.
Edit to add: this doesn't disprove your point, it just proves you can commentary for anything.
The NRL (Rugby League in Australia, which is a different kind of rugby) is very fast paced in certain aspects and our commentary is constant. Although some are better than others.
It's pretty complicated ultimately, hockey
3 major zones, lots of lines, lots of nuance, 6 players each team all interacting at once, positions regularly switching (wings/d)
Even at slow speed a fair bit to process
Not complicated. What the fuck is offsides? EILI5
Basically a puck has to enter the offensive zone before the players do.
Rob hatch at Eurosport said his proudest day of commentary was a giro d’Italia stage that was almost entirely fogged out and he had to try to fill like 2 hours of waiting for the winner to pop around a curve on the mountainside.
Actually, the more complicated the sport, the harder to commentate. You would have to be an expert to know the intricacies of the sport in order to properly comment during it.
On the contrary for a simple sport. Anyone could do it since it's so easy to understand.
Really think you got it backwards here, op.
I guess what I meant was you have less things to talk about in a simple sport presuming you were already an expert on the sport. But you’re right you’d have to do some homework on the specific competitors.
Overall, I think this shower thought recognizes some correct factors but attributes it to the wrong thing as well as I think kind of misses some key points about commentary.
General complexity I'd argue does very little in the broad scale of things to aid commentary - and more so I'd argue it fights directly against it. You're explaining what is happening to a general audience. Most of your audience is going to be pretty casual watchers, they aren't going to be too invested in the game outside of broader surface level ideas. Then you have a sizeable portion of your audience joining in that will know little to nothing. These are the groups that are going to make up the most of your viewership. Even then it's just easier to convey to a wide number of people simpler ideas. Therefore, a lot of the game's complexity is going to just be lost in translation here.
What really makes commentary easy is two factors - strategic depth (from a viewer perspective) and downtime. I see bowling mentioned, you mentioned track, I'd further mention drag racing. These are all sports that from a viewer perspective you just do the thing a couple times. The very small nuances of how they do something different is lost on a general audience and even if they do they will just be repeating themselves constantly. This gets combined with significant downtime between compared to the length of said performance. A commentator has to fill this void, often having to spend a large amount of time just talking about a specific person, their accomplishments, personal beef and so on to do so instead of the game itself. Or the broadcast might even just completely forgo a lot of commentary for interviews in the meantime if its especially long. This isn't that the commentary itself is bad - but more good commentators/production having to do the best they can to make up for these problems.
An example of a sport that I think most would say they see in the same light as those other ones that I think lends itself much better to commentary comparatively is stock car racing (NASCAR mostly here). It's a lot of extremely similar repetition. But the minor strategy of how to approach the changes between tracks, pretty constant position changes and regular cautions/crashes gives them quite a lot to keep talking about over the course of a race combined with talking about people and their past performances like the other ones of course.
I would point to a lot of esports as good examples of a foil to all of this where strategic depth and just overall game complexity in general combined with often how awkward proper viewer side clarity of what is going on makes a commentator's job much harder.
I feel like it’d be easier to commentate. From what little I’ve seen, golf commentary is very different than what you’d see in either kinds of football. There are quite a few moments of little to no commentary, but what needs to be said and maybe some about current athletes or strategies or things like that.
I feel like it’d be a similar situation for sports that aren’t super complicated. Commentary would probably be a bit more sparing but still discussing what the fans want to know.
Have you guys seen any track commentators? The goal is quite literally "be the first one to cross the finish line"
Interesting strategy cotton
And we're back with the national card player's championship War tournament.
Here's Dylan with the turn...AND IT'S A JACK! Let's see how Thomas can respond to that one, bold move..
Here's Thomas and with a flourish he has turned over A TEN!
Not sure he's happy with that turn, Ted, let's see what the judges have to say
No now, wait a minute this isn't over yet. The judges seem to be taking a minute to review the replay...
We'll return in a moment with a decision on the monumental battle of cards here as we see who will win in the match-up against Dylan's Jack v. Thomas's 10 card! Back with more right after this!
Cue 10 gatorade commercials and a gambling debt ad
Right? Like the announcers can't make up as much/do so!
I was actually a commentator for something in the past and even complicated things have down times
the trick is to come in prepared with the histories of the players as well as the game in general. it might not be easy talking about whats currently happening but you can talk about stuff that has happened before to fill the time. also the "politics" of the game and current events can add entertainment value to talk about.
“Wow, he’s really eating those hot dogs fast, Jim.”
Thats why soccer players had to start falling. To add cheating interest to the game.
Like, I’ve always wondered why televised bowling had commentators. There’s literally no insight they can offer. Every single time a bowler takes their turn, the goal is EXACTLY the same. There’s no strategy, no decisions to be made. There’s no nuance. You roll the ball and try to knock all the pins down. There are no obstacles, no weather conditions, and no variable circumstances that ever change anything.
If there is any bowling commentator making more than $5/hr, then the hiring manager at the tv station should be fired.
I'm certainly no expert, and never seen any commentary for bowling, but I don't think it's true that they can't give any insight. There are different standards for the oiling of the lanes, which will also change through the game, as I understand? This will impact when the ball starts to grip as it travels down the lane, for example.
Then of course sometimes they don't get a strike, which will create discussion; which pins remain, what strategies could be utilized, etc.
Additionally each player will potentially swing in a slightly different way, or have a slightly different amount of spin, etc.
and no variable circumstances that ever change anything.
This is not quite right. The oiling patterns of the lanes will change from place to place, and it will also wear down and change over the course of a game. This changes the traction and spin of the ball and has to be accounted for at high levels of the sport.
“Are you kidding me!?! That’s right! WHODOYOUTHINKYOUARE!?! I AM!”
The greatest highlight in history. 🙌🏼
That would mean it's an incredibly easy sport for commentators and anyone could do it, while with the more complex sports it would take an expert to do so.
Disagree. Horse racing is small people riding horses around an oval. It doesn't get much simpler than that, but the commentary is seemingly endless
Disagree. You have horse lineage, humans working with animals, jockey skill, horses that like to come from behind, horses who like to lead, sloppy tracks vs dry tracks, fouls, starting gates, etc. there is endless commentary because there is a lot of complexity
Yes, I can needlessly invent complication for any sport.
But it’s the amount of complications that you can come up with that make the difference. Horse racing is automatically more complex than track because there are more factors.
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Way to take one for the team.
lol
OP has never seen Jelle's marble runs