Which skill looks effortless when an expert does it, but is actually extremely difficult? – 17 examples of expertise that are harder than they look

At one point we’ve all seen someone do something impressive and thought to ourselves ‘pfft, I could do that.’ Only to suffer some well-earned hubris when we give it a go.

That’s because, and this may seem hard to believe, skills actually require a lot of hard work to pull off. To hear which ones are deceptively easy, No-Caterpillar-9387 put the following question to r/AskReddit:

‘What is a skill that looks completely effortless when an expert does it, but is ridiculously difficult when you try it yourself?’

Don’t try these top replies at home, unless you’ve had lots of practice…

1.

‘I had a voice teacher who said, “Singing is easy; learning to sing is hard.”’
-SensualEnema

2.

‘Surfing

‘The pros paddle a few times and effortlessly glide into the wave. When I tried, I was paddling like crazy and still couldn’t catch waves.’
-YounomsayinMawfk

3.

‘Close up card magic. Looks effortless. Really hard to do.’
-CoffeeGrinder999

4.

‘Drywall finishing’
-mrclean2323

5.

‘Cooking.

‘I watched my friend who went to culinary school prepare dinner for us and it took 30 minutes to prep and he was chatting with us the whole time, having some wine etc. When he was done, the kitchen was spotless and he just left everything on the kitchen counter in little bowls ready to be cooked.

‘Dinner was fantastic and I asked for the recipes and he gave them to me. I then tried to make the same meal on my own and it took me 2 hours to chop everything and I was left with a huge mess in my kitchen afterwards.’
-Nomromz

6.

‘The moonwalk, why do dancers look like magicians and I look like my dog doing her kicks when she’s done using the bathroom? :,(‘
-ImGoddamnTarzan

7.

‘playing a musical instrument well’
-ExogamousUnfolding

8.

‘Throwing pottery on the wheel’
-catapultpillar

9.

‘Rock climbing. You think “well anyone could just pull themselves up like that”

‘Then you actually try it and realize you’re trying to lift your entire body weight on a handhold the size of an almond, and somehow they make it look like they’re holding the rung of a ladder’
-HotPinkCalculator