Why you should fall in love with sport

The latest from Hidden Sports

Written by David

You don’t have to play a sport to love it.

In fact, some of the sports we end up caring about the most are ones we’ve never touched, never trained for, and probably never will. And that’s kind of the magic. Because falling in love with a sport doesn’t always start with a ball or a game or a goal. Sometimes it starts with a story. Or a sound. Or a moment you didn’t expect to care about, but suddenly do.

It might be a 3-minute YouTube video of a kabaddi match where grown men are shouting “kabaddi” like they’re in a playground, but the tension is unreal. It might be a late-night scroll on Instagram where a point in Padel looks like it’s happening inside a glass box and you’re not entirely sure what’s going on, but you’re watching it on loop anyway. It might even be a clip of a pickleball rally where someone’s dinking at the net and you catch yourself saying, “Alright, this looks fun.”

That moment of Wait... what is this? is often the beginning.

We live in a world where we’re expected to pick our team, our sport, our side and stick to it. Especially in the UK, where your football club is supposed to be passed down like a family heirloom (this definitely didn’t play out in my family!). But sport is bigger than that. It’s emotional. It’s tribal, yes, but it’s also surprising, playful, and evolving.

And some of the most meaningful sporting relationships we form start from complete accidents.

Take non-league football. Thousands of people around the country are falling back in love with football by walking away from the Premier League and into the turnstiles of a local club they barely knew existed five years ago. Why? Because they went to one game with a mate. Because they fancied a pie and a pint and some fresh air. And now they’re hooked. They know the names. They care about the table. They shout louder at the ref than they ever did in the top tier.

The same thing is happening in sports like Padel and Pickleball. People who’ve never swung a racket in their life are now planning their weekends around social matches and local tournaments. Not because it was part of their upbringing or some elite goal, but because it felt inviting. Fun. Fast. A bit different. And, crucially, it didn’t matter if you were ‘good’ because the getting involved is the whole point.

One of the great myths about sport is that you have to be an expert to enjoy it. That you need to understand formations, tactics, player histories, or all the rules before you’re allowed in. But that’s just not true. Some of the best fans are the ones who start with no idea what’s going on but stick around because it feels good to be part of it.

Think of all the sports that feel impossible until someone breaks them down for you. American football. Cricket. Curling. Kabaddi. Even tennis can feel baffling when it’s first explained, like why do we say ‘love’ instead of zero?! But if you start with emotion rather than analysis, it suddenly makes more sense. You see a player dig deep when they’ve got nothing left. You see a comeback that defies logic. You see a crowd that lives and breathes every point. And you feel something, a passion which doesn’t require you to fully understand what’s going on.

And once that connection is there, sport becomes a whole new part of your life. You start checking scores, watching live streams, learning the lingo - Not because you have to, but because you want to. Because something about it grabbed you and wouldn’t let go.

It happened to me. It probably happened to you. And if it hasn’t yet - don’t worry, it will.

The beauty of sport is that it’s everywhere. You can stumble into a new obsession at any age. In fact, some of the most dedicated Padel players in the UK right now didn’t pick up a racket until their late 30s or 40s. Some of the most passionate pickleball players in the US are retirees. Meanwhile, teenagers are discovering kabaddi through Instagram and becoming superfans without ever having played.

You don’t need a gym membership or expensive gear or a childhood filled with coaching. You just need a bit of curiosity. And maybe a recommendation.

So if you’re wondering how to fall in love with a sport you’ve never played, here’s a good place to start:

• Watch a single highlight video of something you’ve never seen before.

• Go to one live match—non-league football, local padel court, whatever’s near you. Oh and this doesn’t need to be professional level, go watch your local club.

• Pick one team or player and follow them for a few weeks.

• Talk to someone who loves that sport. Their passion will do the work for you.

Because here’s the secret: sport isn’t about being the best, it’s about belonging. It’s about feeling something, even when you’re not totally sure why. It’s about standing in the cold at a game you didn’t think would matter and suddenly, it does. It’s about getting drawn into a storyline halfway through and needing to know how it ends.

What has sport done for me? It’s provided a community of people I wouldn’t have expected to love, playing tennis with people 40 years old than me, watching a football match with my neighbours and randomly making friends at the Padel courts that I now meet up and hang out with. Playing sport has so many benefits for your health but don’t forget about community and ho impactful that can be on your life.

That’s the energy we’re chasing at Hidden Sports.

We write about the stories you might not see in your feed. The matches that don’t make the headlines. The athletes you haven’t heard of………yet. And we’re doing it because we know how good it feels to fall in love with a sport out of nowhere.

So here’s your invitation: pick a sport you know nothing about and give it a go. Just one. Watch it. Read about it. Listen to the fans. You don’t need to understand everything to care about it.

And who knows? It might just become your new favourite thing.

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Have you ever become obsessed with a sport completely by accident? Tell us your story - we’d love to feature it in a future edition of Hidden Sports. And if you’re new here, hit subscribe. We publish daily articles about the sports you didn’t know you needed in your life. Welcome to the good stuff.