To become a professional athlete you need skill, talent, dedication and a strongly competitive
nature.
That’s a lot more competence and prowess than most people have, so it’s no wonder
we admire the pros so much.
Still, all that expertise does mean it can be incredibly funny when something does go
wrong.
And it’s those funny moments that we’re going to focus on today.
Ready to see them?
Let’s get it on!
When you find yourself in the middle of the action, it’s vital you keep your eyes on
both your opponents and your teammates.
That’s a whole lot of looking to do, so it must get difficult, but that’s no excuse
for taking your eye off the ball.
Never presume it is where you left it, or you end up looking like this.
At that level, kicking blindly into the air when the ball is behind you is just too funny,
you’ll have to work hard to regain proper respect after that.
Always be sure to look at the ball before you kick.
Hockey is a seriously dangerous sport and you can find yourself with all kinds of injuries,
but you don’t expect to see that happen in the audience.
This famous hockey player thought he was being nice by throwing his stick into the audience
to give a lucky fan the chance to take it home, but what it caused was less joy and
more fighting.
These grown adults start fighting over it like kids with a lollipop, bickering like
infants and pulling at the stick.
It’s a wonderful thing for the rest of the world that they were caught on camera for
all the world to see just how funny they look.
They’re being such babies that match officials eventually decided to confiscate the stick
so nobody could have it.
Unfortunately, there was no winner in the end.
The better you are at a sport, the more difficult it gets and the more you have to concentrate.
After all, there are so many things that can go wrong.
But there are some things that you could never have seen coming.
Caroline Wozniacki learnt that in the middle of a point at the US Open, when she swung
her racket like she has a billion times, and somehow got her hair stuck in it.
It’s not like she hadn’t put her hair out of the way either, it was just crazy luck.
But she gave the next swing a good go anyway, even though she couldn’t move her racket
very far with it tied to her head.
As a professional athlete, your body becomes more valuable than most people’s houses
- and yes, they do have parts of their bodies insured.
So you would think that everyone around you would be extra careful not to be the cause
of any injuries to you.
This cameraman isn’t quite as professional or in control of his equipment as Usain Bolt
is though.
The weirdest part is that he checks his camera first - dude, you do realise you just ran
over the most famous athlete in the world in front of a global audience?
I don’t care how expensive that camera is, you have much bigger problems.
Some jobs come with more hazards than others, and motocross is one of them like any other
sport involving a fast vehicle.
TV presenting usually isn’t very hazardous, so this clip comes as a surprise - especially
to the presenter.
She thought she had the cushiest job on this track, which is obvious by her relaxed demeanour
and friendly smile.
I bet she wished she hadn’t been smiling so wide when she got a facefull of mud though.
Well, I guess you learn something new every day.
She learnt never to stand directly behind a motocross bike on a muddy track while taking
a mud bath live on TV.
Okay, so maybe I’m not being fair saying that you, the average person are not as dedicated
as professional athletes.
I’m sure you’re very dedicated to at least one thing in your life…
But are you as dedicated as this guy?
He ended up on the home stretch battling it out neck and neck with another great athlete,
but was he about to give up and come second?
No.
Was he going to just run over the finish line and hope he’s first?
No.
He chooses to become superman and fly over the finish line to ensure his victory, risking
his face in the process.
Now that’s dedication.
Some might argue that sports are all about vanity.
I say there comes a point in your professional career where you simply don’t have the time
to care about your appearance when you’re in the middle of competing, as this Nigerian
athlete proved.
Or not, maybe she did care, but there wasn’t much she could do about her wig flying off
on the landing of a jump like that.
The thing that really must’ve hurt is that she went through all that and then still only
came 7th, so it was hardly worth it.
Either way, she probably won’t be wearing a wig to a televised event again any time
soon.
It’s super easy to get swept away in the excitement of a great game.
There’s nothing quite like watching pros at the top of their game.
You should probably remember to look around every once in a while though.
This woman is seriously enjoying herself, and her experience ramps up to 1000 when a
ball comes flying straight towards her - just look at the anticipation on her face.
The kid she didn’t notice was standing right next to her is much faster though.
Shame, she didn’t even know what hit her.
So now we know that celebrating can sometimes be a big mistake, but throwing a tantrum is
always going to be worse.
We’d be here for days if we went through all the times that blew up in someone’s
face, but this one’s a real beauty.
He thinks he has the shot, he doesn’t get the shot, then he throws a tantrum and it
literally smacks him in the face.
The way his opponents look at him is priceless too.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen, you’ve just witnessed the very height of comedy.
We do hope he learnt his lesson after that, because you just know something similar will
happen again, and every time it happens he will get more angry.
Then again, it would make for a great show, but his opponents will have to spend a lot
of time looking perplexed.
Most of us probably can’t understand the exhilaration a professional sportsperson feels
when they achieve success - all the time, effort, and dedication they put in over the
years for that one moment when it all goes right.
It makes sense that they want to celebrate it, but they really should learn to wait until
after it’s a sure victory, because every time they show off that victory just a second
too soon, this happens.
It’s really gotta hurt when that happens - not the tackle, but his ego.
He was so sure he had that in the bag before falling flat on his face in front of everyone.
That’s why the competitiveness needed for a successful career in sports always needs
to be matched by humility, so you don’t get taught to be humble the hard way.
If I had to tell you that MMA’s dangerous, I’d love to know which rock you’ve been
living under.
It’s a seriously full-contact sport so it’s bound to come with risks.
But there’s one danger you weren’t expecting to see - hat theft.
It’s surprisingly common.
We don’t know if it’s as likely as getting punched in the face, but either way, your
hat will probably be lost to the crowd.
Why this happens is anyone’s guess.
I don’t mean there’s no explanation for wanting the hats, it’s just difficult to
understand why someone would take on an MMA fighter for it.
Fast paced professional sports require a huge amount of concentration - one wrong move and
it’s game over.
It’s probably because of that kind of laser focus that nobody could see this coming.
This player’s just trying to take a corner when a kid decides the game would be much
better with him in it.
He’s obviously practiced that, his timing is impeccable.
But the real beauty of it is the look on the player’s face - he doesn’t know whether
to chase that kid or cry so he just stands there looking confused and annoyed.
We can only hope that boy goes pro.
Injuries are one of those things that are expected in hockey.
It’s an inevitability that you’re just waiting for.
What you don’t expect is an accident not turning into a serious injury - basically,
when there’s a scuffle like this and a hockey stick ends up somewhere it shouldn’t be,
you presume someone’s definitely been hurt, not that they have a hockey stick comedically
stuck in their helmet.
And yes, that is what happened, but like a true pro he just keeps on playing, making
it look like he’s playing with two sticks - luckily, operating a stick with your face
doesn’t count.
In a high-pressure situation like professional sports, passions will run high, and people
will get angry.
Sure, sometimes the anger is justified, but that doesn’t make it any less funny.
After all, it’s not everyday you see a situation like this: a grown man throws a baseball,
another grown man gets hit by the ball, and then all hell breaks loose and baseball bats
are broken and everyone’s screaming at each other and going red in the face.
The best bit is definitely the angry chewing as he storms off with only the handle of his
baseball bat in his hand.
Boxing has a lot of ceremony surrounding it and the weigh-in is one of the most important
parts.
There’s plenty of trash talking and photos as the hungry fighters wait to find out if
they’re too heavy for the match.
One fighter Yves Edwards, had a different idea from all his starving, dehydrated opponents
- he decided to eat junk food on the scales.
That’s a pretty big statement, and a very unique way of psyching out an opponent.
No trash talking needed, just offer them a packet of crisps, that’ll do it.
And the best part is, you can tell what a weird thing that is by the way his opponents
look at him.
It’s age old knowledge that you should never, under any circumstances, ever underestimate
your opponents.
Even if you think your win is a surefire thing, you never know what crazy stunt they’re
gonna pull off to rip victory from your hands.
That seems to be especially true when you’re playing volleyball.
Apparently, there are a lot of creative ways you can get a ball back in play while the
opposing team is already popping the champagne to celebrate their victory.
It does look like that’s the perfect opportunity though, because they have their back turned
as the ball just gently flies past them.
You just know how stupid they must feel after that.
Any race involving a super fast vehicle runs the risk of danger, but there’s also a big
chance of some really bizarre things happening at those speeds.
The Porsche Carrera Cup can boast one of the weirdest crashes in history - someone bumped
into someone else and everything lined up just right so this could happen.
What’s the word for this?
Car sandwich?
Maybe.
It’s not every day you get to see one car neatly placed on top of another, but you definitely
never see it happen at speed again.
We guess the driver was running away in case the weirdness
was contagious.