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What is the hardest sport?

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UNIowaHawk

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Jul 22, 2011
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Football-- lots of different roles so this is hard. Offense requires blocking, catching, throwing, running. Defense requires tackling, running, getting off blocks.

Baseball-- hitting a 3" diameter ball moving at 80+ MPH from 60.5' away, throwing a ball, running, catching.

Golf-- hitting a ~1.6" diameter ball in a 4.25" diameter hole from 150-550+ yards away on uneven terrain. Walking.

Basketball-- making a basket with a ~9.5" diameter ball in a hoop roughly twice the diameter, running, jumping.

NASCAR-- staying awake while you drive in a lot of circles. (Not really a sport, but some think so)

Swimming-- kicking, paddling, flailing of arms.

Running-- running.

Hockey-- Skating, stick handling, hitting 3" diameter puck into a 6' x 4' net, stopping puck.

Soccer-- running, kicking a ~9" diameter ball into a 192 square foot net, only using feet and head (aside from goalie), acting ability.

Others
Rugby
Volleyball
Tennis
Cricket
Sailing
 
UNIowaHawk said:
Football-- lots of different roles so this is hard. Offense requires blocking, catching, throwing, running. Defense requires tackling, running, getting off blocks.

Baseball-- hitting a 3" diameter ball moving at 80+ MPH from 60.5' away, throwing a ball, running, catching.

Golf-- hitting a ~1.6" diameter ball in a 4.25" diameter hole from 150-550+ yards away on uneven terrain. Walking.

Basketball-- making a basket with a ~9.5" diameter ball in a hoop roughly twice the diameter, running, jumping.

NASCAR-- staying awake while you drive in a lot of circles. (Not really a sport, but some think so)

Swimming-- kicking, paddling, flailing of arms.

Running-- running.

Hockey-- Skating, stick handling, hitting 3" diameter puck into a 6' x 4' net, stopping puck.

Soccer-- running, kicking a ~9" diameter ball into a 192 square foot net, only using feet and head (aside from goalie), acting ability.

Others
Rugby
Volleyball
Tennis
Cricket
Sailing
Click to expand...
wrestling? You from Iowa?
 
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Synchronized swimming.
For the SNL fans out there, "Hey, you! I know you, I know you"!
 
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To get to a level to be considered good at?
Golf

Physically demanding? Fighting of some sort

Toughest at first try? Golf
 
Out of every sport I've played in my life, Golf is by far the most difficult. The level of skill it takes at an individual level is ridiculous.
 
like-woahh said:
Out of every sport I've played in my life, Golf is by far the most difficult. The level of skill it takes at an individual level is ridiculous.
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This. It's amazingly difficult to hit that little white ball where you want to consistently.
 
Basketball takes the most athleticism, in my opinion.

Golf is very difficult to be good at and requires the most mental fortitude.
 
22*43*51 said:
To excel at?

Then this.
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Harder from a physical level and mental level to push through physical exhaustion I guess I would say Wrestling. I never was a wrestler but grew up at a wrestling school. Those guys are freaks when it comes to pushing through exhaustion and weight cuts. But it's still reliant upon the matchup against your opponent.

At an individual level I still have to say Golf is the most difficult. It's you and the course and you have to take in all of the elements to succeed. To get from a 4 handicap to a 2 to a scratch Golfer requires a stupid amount of precision. It's just an incredibly infuriating game. At least with other individual sports I can pit myself against another person and navigate it that way. With golf you're often at the mercy of the elements which are highly unpredictable. Golf has pissed me off more than any other sport.
 
Add an inch to the width of the baseball, then do backflips and other crazy stuff on it. Add in a few more events that only a handful of people can do and you have your hardest sport.

Gymnastics.
 
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free solo climbing

Alex-Honnold-Urby-375.jpg
 
Football for physical abuse.
Baseball for difficulty to hit a ball going 90+ mph.
Golf for mental grind.
Gymnastics for being the most impossible thing to even be able to try.
 
Baseball and Soccer. Impossible to start playing after 12 years old and have any hope of elite status. Takes years of honing from an early age. Not true for the others.
 
Yeah it would have to depend on what your definition of hard it.

I second Golf as one to become halfway decent at. The positive of it that it doesn't require someone to have great inborn athletic ability. The negative is that it requires a ton of technical skill that I can only imagine is required by playing golf constantly.

On the rare occasions that I do play golf, I feel accomplished if I am able to hit the ball on the first try.

From the physical perspective I would have to say it's likely some sort of fighting sport. Either boxing or MMA.

Hardest to understand from a rules/strategic prospective - Football.

Quickest reaction time - Basketball
 
Golf is probably the hardest to be good at, but the easiest to enjoy, because pretty much anyone can do it at almost any age.

Many sports require you to be fairly young and athletic to be good at.

By my definition: Golf is not a sport, it's a leisure activity. Any game that enables you to smoke, drink, and compete at the same time is not a sport, it's a leisure activity.
 
Baseball is the toughest team sport and Golf is the toughest individual sport. Both require unique hand eye coordination to be successful. Those are the two that I think are the toughest to teach kids how to play also.
 
Baseball is no where near the toughest sport to be good at. It's the only of the major sports that you can be out of shape and still be elite...

Basketball and out of shape? no way
Football and out of shape? no way (even for lineman)
Soccer and out of shape? yeah right..they average 10 miles run in 90 minute game.
Hockey? No way.

Baseball? Tons of fat guys all over the place that are great. There are obviously great athletes in there too, but don't give me it's that hard to blah blah blah. If I have 100 opportunities to hit a 90 mph fastball or a 100 opportunities to dunk a basketball, guess what is more likely? Hitting the darn ball.
 
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WartburgEd11 said:
Baseball is no where near the toughest sport to be good at. It's the only of the major sports that you can be out of shape and still be elite...

Basketball and out of shape? no way
Football and out of shape? no way (even for lineman)
Soccer and out of shape? yeah right..they average 10 miles run in 90 minute game.
Hockey? No way.

Baseball? Tons of fat guys all over the place that are great. There are obviously great athletes in there too, but don't give me it's that hard to blah blah blah. If I have 100 opportunities to hit a 90 mph fastball or a 100 opportunities to dunk a basketball, guess what is more likely? Hitting the darn ball.
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Unless you were born like these guys. Not many of which I would call "athletic"...
shawn-bradley.jpg

94aabc15e7f6ea169eed53db9cfe6b9e.jpg
 
You have to define "hardest"....is that the most demanding, the most grueling, the most difficult to play, the most difficult to perform at a high level?

The most grueling, IMO, is wrestling. 30 seconds into the match and your whole body is exhausted and burning and you've got a long ways to go. But with wrestling, it's demanding in the moment, then you recover. I would put swimming very close to wrestling...that is complete body exhaustion doing it at a high level.

Most demanding I would say is football with some positional exceptions. I've played entire rugby matches and ran long distances...both are much less demanding than playing football, especially as an OL or DL. Yeah, you don't run a lot, but I'd much rather run for a couple miles than face the collisions over and over. I've played almost every sport, football is the only one that would kick my butt for a few days (I'm not talking about a sore elbow or tight hammys, I'm talking complete sapping of energy for a couple of days).

Most of the sports aren't really all that difficult, they just take muscle memory. For example, I honestly believe you can take any unathletic person and make them a very good basketball shooter with practice (but you can't teach them to drive the lane and finish at the rim nearly as easily). I would say golf is in this category; yes it's difficult but with enough practice anyone can be pretty decent (playing a round 1/week is not 'enough practice')

For me, personally, it was baseball. You can learn to field, you can learn to throw accurately (although not necessarily hard), but being able to hit a very good pitch takes a lot more than just practice. I can hit a nipple high fastball a ton, but if that ball is moving I'm a goner. The way that MLB players can see the rotation and seams of a pitched baseball and react accordingly in a blink of an eye astonishes me.

Disclaimer: in the OPs list, I have never played cricket or hockey.
 
The "hardest" sport for people to pick up and be decent at is Golf. It is one of the few sports where you can take very athletic people and turn them into a pile of goo in one round. Most sports you are team situations where you can hide and some individual sports are fairly easy to be adequate; tennis, bowling.

Next on my list would be wrestling for its physical and mental demands.
 
lucas80 said:
Is that a sport? Just asking when defining a competitive sport. I am not saying it's not really, really hard. Just, is it a sport.
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I agree; very difficult and very physically demanding. But not a sport. FYI, NASCAR isn't a sport, either.
 
It's crazy how many people on here are saying baseball. As was said earlier, you can be an out of shape beer gut having, smoke a pack a day dude and be elite in baseball.

With football, you have a singular position so I think that rules that out because while it is difficult, you have a singular task for the most part.

Soccer could be argued for but I still would say basketball takes all around athleticism, hand-eye coordination, cardio, strength, etc. You play offense and defense unlike football and you have to be constantly thinking.

The best athletes in the world are basketball players.
 
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Sorry, dudes, golf isn't a sport anymore than chess or pool. Exceptionally challenging games, but not sports.
 
Sailing.
longliveCS40 said:
It's crazy how many people on here are saying baseball. As was said earlier, you can be an out of shape beer gut having, smoke a pack a day dude and be elite in baseball.

With football, you have a singular position so I think that rules that out because while it is difficult, you have a singular task for the most part.

Soccer could be argued for but I still would say basketball takes all around athleticism, hand-eye coordination, cardio, strength, etc. You play offense and defense unlike football and you have to be constantly thinking.

The best athletes in the world are basketball players.
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Football players outclass basketball players in every measure of Athletics. I don't get why people try to claim basketball players are better athletes when it is well documented they are not.
 
KitingHigh said:
Sailing.

Football players outclass basketball players in every measure of Athletics. I don't get why people try to claim basketball players are better athletes when it is well documented they are not.
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How often do you see an okay football player switch to basketball and excel?

You see it all the time with basketball to football. Terrell Owens, Julius Peppers, Tony Gonzalez, Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates, Vincent Jackson, Martellus Bennett. Because basketball players are top shelf athletes who can be molded to be great football players.
 
hawxrox09 said:
How often do you see an okay football player switch to basketball and excel?

You see it all the time with basketball to football. Terrell Owens, Julius Peppers, Tony Gonzalez, Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates, Vincent Jackson, Martellus Bennett. Because basketball players are top shelf athletes who can be molded to be great football players.
Click to expand...
Those guys were football players that also played basketball. Obviously the skills are different, but athletics wise football players are faster, stronger, and can jump higher. I was a far better athlete than anyone on my highschool basketball team, but that didn't make me a great basketball player, because I wasn't a good shot.
 
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