What do you think the hardest sport is?

[NeedPerfection]

sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills

I really think basketball and tennis are the hardest sports IMO,since I played both all my life
I say tennis because you have to play matches that can last over 2 hours, there are no time outs. Secondly I say basketball because it requires all fitness elements including endurance and speed, practices are tough.

What do you think? What do you think the hardest sport is?

[iabs]

u mean physically challenging sport? or skills wise required to play it??

[viperjax]

basketball is quite challenging skill-wise. To be really effective, you need to be able to string together moves. And, that said, when you're off you tend to be really off. Nothing goes in the basket. Your feet don't move. And you feel like crap.

Olympic Lifting is also quite challenging for much the same reasons. It's either you're in top mental/physical shape and can complete the lift well, or you're not and you'll get crushed.

[iabs]

basketball is quite challenging skill-wise. To be really effective, you need to be able to string together moves. And, that said, when you're off you tend to be really off. Nothing goes in the basket. Your feet don't move. And you feel like crap.

Olympic Lifting is also quite challenging for much the same reasons. It's either you're in top mental/physical shape and can complete the lift well, or you're not and you'll get crushed.

basketball challenging skill wise??? really???

all u need to be is really tall, if u dont believe me ask this guy...

[fastforward9]

basketball challenging skill wise??? really???

all u need to be is really tall, if u dont believe me ask this guy...

/facepalm
yes basketball requires skill. i can say that because i play it myself. getting good takes an extreme amount of practice: ball handling, shooting are just a few that take a lot of work to get good at
sure being tall offers you an advantage, but it's not everything. yao ming is an extremely skilled player imo. his jumpshot has developed since he was a rookie and its become quite the weapon now

[shamboner]

depends . mentally i think cross country is hardest at least for me. Physically id say wrestling but im biased haha

[iabs]

@fastforward dude of course it requires skills, what do u think Ive never seen a MJ or Kobe playing?? come on dude next time I'll /sarcasm for u...

my point is basketball is the type of sport in which a preset physical condition (being more than average tall) is needed to be really good at it, altho theres exceptions to the rule but 99% of the time is like this...

now go say the same thing about Soccer for example..

[toad1]

not another one of these threads. there are so many.


i think probably oranges are the best. not been that keen on apples.

[FB4ME]

crosscountry... tennis... basketball... lol

... um, how about golf? I'll add that one! ... I'm sure someone out there would agree with me!

[Asparagus333]

Football is extremely physically challenging especially when you got hardcore coaches like ours... Mentally tough sport yes... But... I would say cross country is the most mentally challenging thing, I never was or will be in cross country but finally breaking the into six minute barrier for the mile is a huge accomplishment for me, I can't imagine doing that fifteen times over though consecuetively.



Golf is tough to play skill-wise and mental-wise. Baseball is tough skill-wise and mental-wise... Basketball is physically tiring and mentally tough because you can go on a cold streak and if you aren't mentally tough enough to break out of it... Tough luck... Wrestling is exhausting physically, tried it with friends... I won most of the time, but I was physically wasted... I wouldn't even say I won any matches due to the costs I had to make.

[combatMMA]

Football is extremely physically challenging especially when you got hardcore coaches like ours... Mentally tough sport yes... But... I would say cross country is the most mentally challenging thing, I never was or will be in cross country but finally breaking the into six minute barrier for the mile is a huge accomplishment for me, I can't imagine doing that fifteen times over though consecuetively.



Golf is tough to play skill-wise and mental-wise. Baseball is tough skill-wise and mental-wise... Basketball is physically tiring and mentally tough because you can go on a cold streak and if you aren't mentally tough enough to break out of it... Tough luck... Wrestling is exhausting physically, tried it with friends... I won most of the time, but I was physically wasted... I wouldn't even say I won any matches due to the costs I had to make.

Mixed Martial Arts!!!!!
thats physically and mentally extremely exhausting!!

[Asparagus333]

Mixed Martial Arts!!!!!
thats physically and mentally extremely exhausting!!

Lol, I forgot completely about that!

[TackleForLife]

For me football is the most difficult sport let me tell you why-

Physically not many other sports require you to inflict physical and psychological pain upon other players. Not only does it require you to run around with 20 pounds of gear, you have to run just as fast as you do without pads. The practices are in the scorching in the middle of summer to the rainy months of october where the practices are in the mud pits. Yes you get 30 second breaks between 10 second plays, but if you have really played football, every down you push yourself beyond the boundaries, to exhaustion, beyond exhaustion. It is one of the only sports where it is extremely common to see almost every player playing with at least one or two injuries, especially concussions, i dont any other sport where you are pushed that far.

Mentally, football is the most brutal sport i have ever played. From June to november, everyday the same routine, everyday it gets harder. Every player is roughly on the same plane of athleticism, but the players that get tackles and score touchdowns are the mentally sharp and tough players. You also have to deal with the fact that you have to inflict the most amount of pain to the player across the line from you, and this person is trying to kill you. maybe no literally, but one mistake has the potential to inflict quite a considerable amount of embarrassment.

Another point. To be competitive you have to lift and condition all year long. lifting itself is just as hard as any sport you can think of. If you think otherwise, you need to humble yourself a little bit

I have played basketball and wrestled. I know exactly how tough each sport is respectively.

[Asparagus333]

For me football is the most difficult sport let me tell you why-

Physically not many other sports require you to inflict physical and psychological pain upon other players. Not only does it require you to run around with 20 pounds of gear, you have to run just as fast as you do without pads. The practices are in the scorching in the middle of summer to the rainy months of october where the practices are in the mud pits. Yes you get 30 second breaks between 10 second plays, but if you have really played football, every down you push yourself beyond the boundaries, to exhaustion, beyond exhaustion. It is one of the only sports where it is extremely common to see almost every player playing with at least one or two injuries, especially concussions, i dont any other sport where you are pushed that far.

Mentally, football is the most brutal sport i have ever played. From June to november, everyday the same routine, everyday it gets harder. Every player is roughly on the same plane of athleticism, but the players that get tackles and score touchdowns are the mentally sharp and tough players. You also have to deal with the fact that you have to inflict the most amount of pain to the player across the line from you, and this person is trying to kill you. maybe no literally, but one mistake has the potential to inflict quite a considerable amount of embarrassment.

Another point. To be competitive you have to lift and condition all year long. lifting itself is just as hard as any sport you can think of. If you think otherwise, you need to humble yourself a little bit

I have played basketball and wrestled. I know exactly how tough each sport is respectively.

I have to agree, especially in Texas weather... And the Texas love for football and fanaticism. If you're an offensive lineman, thats one of the hardest ****ing thing to do, especially when you're outweighed by seventy good lbs. Maybe not like fight clubs and crap like that, but for team sports respectively, I think football is THE toughest. Full-speed collisons on every single play.

[ibuildme]

i didnt see one person say wrestling........rah tards

[GTA61]

depends . mentally i think cross country is hardest at least for me. Physically id say wrestling but im biased haha

i didnt see one person say wrestling........rah tards

I seen two, just sayin

[Rhadfi]

No love for hockey? Also... first post. Nice.

[1GGY]

Personally, I think hockey is the hardest. First of all, you have to play on both sides of the puck (offense and defense) Secondly, you're on ice on a 1/8th piece of a steel. Finally, its a full contact sport which means if your head is down skating with the puck on a rush, you're going to get laid out by another skater. Getting your ass knocked into ice = pain.

[NasGhost]

i didnt see one person say wrestling........rah tards

Wrestling hands down. A college wrestling match is 7 minutes long, but by the third period, you would not believe that a match is only 7 minutes long.

[iEatLiftSleep]

Boxing by far, when your in the ring taking blows and giving them trust me it is tough

[wllcr]

MMA .... or if you dont wanna call that a sport then boxing/grappling sports
( judo,wrestling,BJJ,)

These athletes need it all, amazing technique... strength, conditioning, cardio..flexibility,agility, tactical and spacial awareness.

Then theres the constant state of pain from training, the scuffed skin off the end of fingers, the blood the sweat... re occuring injuries..
Very rarely does a fighter enter a fight in a state that they arnt already carrying an injury, the bruises the cuts the swelling... the getting up everyday even though your body is agony to go do it again.... then theres the wight training and cardio on top of that

You have to step into a cage/mat/ring and handle the physical of mental stress of knowing that the guy/woman across from you is doing there best to rip you a new arse hole

Theres weight categories that mean that we cant just eat whatever we want, we put ourselves through hell.. dehydration, agony just to get into that category one lower than our walking weight...

.. and you wanna know the hardest thing about all these sports.....


Its that 6 months of preperation, periodisation, 3 hours of hell a day ... sweat,toil,tears and pain can be over in seconds and all for nothing if they just catch you with that one lucky Punch/throw/takedown ...

Nobody is harder than a combat athlete ... Fact.

[moose45]

Darts

[wllcr]

Darts

Damn straight if you are the board.

[SpiderJerusalem]

You're all wrong.

That is, if by "hardest" you mean "the most difficult to master", then that would be golf.

Even if you manage to build lots of skill, you'll still be battling the elements and a lot more randomness than any other sport I can think of. Even for a pro the game has got to still be at least 25% dumb luck (wild estimate there).

IMO...

[DCSwimmer]

wrestling, boxing, swimming, cross country

[ibuildme]

You're all wrong.

That is, if by "hardest" you mean "the most difficult to master", then that would be golf.

Even if you manage to build lots of skill, you'll still be battling the elements and a lot more randomness than any other sport I can think of. Even for a pro the game has got to still be at least 25% dumb luck (wild estimate there).

IMO...

i agree with u, may not be the physically hard, but it is very hard to gain skill. my brother got 12th in state for golf in ohio, he wen to Duquesne in the heart of Pittsburgh, and they recently just cut 5 sports and geuss what was one of them......lol

[jgood]

u mean physically challenging sport? or skills wise required to play it??

This. If we are going to be skill wise then its far and away Baseball. Baseball is a game of FAILURE and your considered good when you get 3 hits out of 10 at bats ... 3/10 free throws is considered horrible, same with 3/10 pass completions in football. If your talking about abuse to the body wise .... I would probably go with rugby but soccer players seem to get knocked around alot too and both of those have no padding so I put them above football. Not sure what the average career span on a rugby player is but football players such as running backs are usually done by early 30s.

To the golf guy .... baseball is by far harder seing as how the ball is moving at 90+ mph instead of sitting on a tee.

[Bignik92]

Pool

[BenSL8]

Hands down without a doubt college wrestling if were talking physically. Every person who wants to disagree with me has never wrestled at the High School/ HS Varsity Club level. MMA or american football is a close second, but you have a few moments of breathe in between strikes/plays. The only time you'll ever have to breathe in wrestling is when you tapout or defeat your opponent. in the meantime, that 3 minutes in MS, 2 in HS, and 7 in college everything in you will say quit, but you cant.

Soccer needs long term endurance ill give it that, but every friend ive had who wrestles in winter, plays soccer later says wrestlings still the harder game.

/thread

[beerbellyUK]

Chess Boxing,
if you don't know what it is ..google it

Seriously though, most physically demanding would have to be some ultra endurance sport, such as triathlon, particularly Ironman+ distances. Or the Trans-America cycle race. Cycling the width of america non-stop takes the best athletes under 12 days. Barely any have finished the race, and they only get 2 hours sleep a day - so that is 22 hours of solid cycling for 12 days solid.