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Most Difficult Sport

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mmboys07

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Oct 3, 2004
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It is likely a lot of people who post here are athletes, or have been athletes in their youth. So, from most challenging to least challenging sports i have competed in:

Baseball: Hitting a baseball well; took years to become a good hitter.
Tennis: There is a reason tennis fell off in general popularity as a participant sport.
Basketball: Ball handling and shooting; few can do both well.
Football: Sorry; easiest to play. If you can run, you can play. Never played a down of football until I was a freshman in HS; ended up averaging 10 yards a carry. I could run; pure and simple. Nothing hard about it.
 
I played all sports growing up through high school.

Hardest sport activities to do:

1. Tennis -- could never control the accuracy of the ball off the racket
2. Butterfly stroke / swimming
3. Hitting a baseball
4. Dribbling a soccerball
5. Pitching a baseball
6. Dribbling a basketball

Everything else came pretty easily to me. Never played golf -- just been to driving ranges.
 
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mmboys07 said:
It is likely a lot of people who post here are athletes, or have been athletes in their youth. So, from most challenging to least challenging sports i have competed in:

Baseball: Hitting a baseball well; took years to become a good hitter.
Tennis: There is a reason tennis fell off in general popularity as a participant sport.
Basketball: Ball handling and shooting; few can do both well.
Football: Sorry; easiest to play. If you can run, you can play. Never played a down of football until I was a freshman in HS; ended up averaging 10 yards a carry. I could run; pure and simple. Nothing hard about it.
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so this poster truly doesn't understand football. if it was so easy for you why didn't you become a household name doing it ?
 
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1) Golf - at least for me
2) Baseball - curveballs and knuckleballs
3) Soccer - takes years to develop foot skills
4) Hockey
5) Football
6) Basketball
 
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Ever try figure skating at a world class level? Impressive. Hitting a major league pitch. Some sports look easy because the elite world class players make it look that way.
 
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Golf.

Have played golf for 60 years, still haven't mastered it.

Easiest (for me), football (4 yrs HS & 4 yrs college, 3 yrs coach)
 
Personally

Boxing - Your exhausted and the guy in front of you is trying to take your head off.

Not saying it's easier than hitting a good curve ball / fastball or consistently making good golf shots, but the penalty of not being good in boxing is getting you ass kicked.
 
While some sports don't require as much athletic ability as others, I think the hardest thing to do in sports is get a hit.... if you fail 7/10 times you will be an all-star. With that being said, every single NBA player has more athletic ability than every MLB player (or 99%), but none of them could hit above .250 in baseball..... Look at MJ the best player of all time and he couldn't get through the minors... and he was only allowed there because of who he was.
 
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Here is my theory on golf (like anyone asked, but I think it will be interesting to hear what other people think).

In 75 years people will look back on golf and view it similar to how baseball is viewed before African Americans were allowed. What I mean is that, while the best in golf today (DJ, Spieth, Rory, etc.) are in fact the best in the world, they were more or less born into a privileged life and had the opportunity to excel at golf. I don't want to take anything away from them as I know they all worked extremely hard and beat out hundreds of thousands of other people with equal or better opportunities. Some of the best athletes in the world never get a chance to play golf when they are younger, or they simply play other sports. I watch the big tournaments every Sunday and look at these average looking dudes and think, "there is no way there can't be someone more athletic out there." Most times I bring this up to my golfer friends they think that I am implying I could grab some athlete from the Caribbean (or somewhere) and they could beat DJ right now. I do not believe that, but I believe that there are people out there that if had the opportunity to play golf growing up like these pros did, they could be better.

The same can be said for sports like Tennis and there are exceptions like Tiger and the Williams sisters (ironically, arguably the best of all time at their sports and they were not born in your typical country club type family). And after watching some of the winter Olympics, it could hold true for most of those sports as well.... most athletes don't have any chance to go snowboarding or skiing, skating, or even curling lol.
 
twalsh said:
Easiest sport to play, hardest sport to play well = GOLF
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Easiest to play is soccer. That is why you see pre-K kids playing soccer and not golf.

Golf is not the hardest to play well because you can be an out of shape goon and still win tournaments. Makes it more of a game IMO.

daly.jpg
 
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Hardest by far.....Boxing
2nd....Football
3rd baseballs &basketball

Golf =NASCAR....is there a score board kind of....Golf is hand eye coordination same as for nascar. I wouldn’t consider any of those guys that do it athletes by any means. It’s if you want to spend the time anyone can be a decent golfer or drive a car in a circle.
 
mmboys07 said:
It is likely a lot of people who post here are athletes, or have been athletes in their youth. So, from most challenging to least challenging sports i have competed in:

Baseball: Hitting a baseball well; took years to become a good hitter.
Tennis: There is a reason tennis fell off in general popularity as a participant sport.
Basketball: Ball handling and shooting; few can do both well.
Football: Sorry; easiest to play. If you can run, you can play. Never played a down of football until I was a freshman in HS; ended up averaging 10 yards a carry. I could run; pure and simple. Nothing hard about it.
Click to expand...

Sticking to the major sports Baseball is by far the most difficult (especially hitting at a high level). If you played baseball for 20 + years like myself then start to transition to golf it makes golf incredibly difficult becuase of muscle memory. Your mind makes your body want to stride or leg kick before you swing the club and that doesn't work. Lol.

Basketball is all about coordination just like Football not that it's easy but not as hard. Soccer if you've played enough definitely not as difficult either.
 
NyyorkerND said:
Sticking to the major sports Baseball is by far the most difficult (especially hitting at a high level). If you played baseball for 20 + years like myself then start to transition to golf it makes golf incredibly difficult becuase of muscle memory. Your mind makes your body want to stride or leg kick before you swing the club and that doesn't work. Lol.

Basketball is all about coordination just like Football not that it's easy but not as hard. Soccer if you've played enough definitely not as difficult either.
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Every time I go golfing I hear "you used to play baseball huh?" I swing way too hard (you have to when the ball is sitting there waiting for you!) and I catch myself striding and really trying to transfer my weight. Results=ball goes a long way, I just can't control the direction.
 
nemeth#5 said:
Every time I go golfing I hear "you used to play baseball huh?" I swing way too hard (you have to when the ball is sitting there waiting for you!) and I catch myself striding and really trying to transfer my weight. Results=ball goes a long way, I just can't control the direction.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain, it's exactly the same thing with me.
 
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IRISHJD98 said:
And that being said, I want to see basketball players doing this stuff:
View embedded media


View embedded media
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Yes, because sliding, diving, and avoiding tags is more impressive than being 6'8, explosive, and able to jump out of the gym? I played baseball my whole life through college (now just in the has-been slowpitch leagues) and it is by far my favorite sport, but there is no more pure athletic sport than basketball.....in my opinion.
 
Amateur wrestling by far. This isn’t even close. Individual sport, no one to blame but yourself, incredibly intense and grueling year-round sport for those that are good. Requires incredible mental toughness and physical toughness. Cutting weight fighting through injuries and doing it all for the love of the sport. These guys compete on the world stage not just the national stage.
 
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My above post is senseless. Blame it on my f....... iPad. Try a marathon on minimal training. Did lot of sports. Turned down track scholarship at ND to drink and chase. So I had some natural talent but not enough to make last 6 miles pleasant. That, and smoking. Made it though. Wife was proud. Vowed to never do it again.
 
Olympic figure skater did his routine last night to the music of Pink Floyd. Not too shabby.
 
  • Track - 440 yard dash. Have you ever tried to sprint for a quarter of a mile? The last 100 yards are killer.
  • Boxing - A lot of fun until you get tagged. There is a lot more strategy that goes into this sport than many people realize.
  • Football - I got hit harder in football than boxing but I loved the contact. Very hot in Memphis in August two-a-days.
  • Track - 100 and 220 yard dash. Not a hard race to run but you either have it or you don't when it comes to winning. Unfortunately for me, I was very fast for my school but not for the schools we competed against. :(
 
Hockey as far as coordination

Wrestling as far as conditioning, never mind that the match is over in six minutes.
 
For me the toughest/top sports
Australian rules football
rugby
yes fencing, try avoiding a foil that's whipping around at nearly 120 miles an hour while trying to score a point on the other person
football quarterback
Alpine downhill skiing at 100 plus miles an hour plus
 
I have done/do many sports, I have done triathlons, downhill ski racing, mogul/free style and water skiing. In school I've played football and tennis. There is a lot of technical training in triathlon training, but it's more rote and mechanical and just muscle memory and shear determination. I think out of everything i have experience with Tennis is the most challenging in all arenas. Mentally and physically. I've spent years just developing a shot and hit 100's of thousands of balls and hour upon hour of practice, watching tape, working with pro instructors just to become a decent d2 player albeit many years ago. But still love the game.
 
Handball at the elite level

Becoming totally ambidextrous and mastering different kill shots with both hands.
 
Poker. According to ESPN , Poker is a sport, so I will say Poker. Fumbling your chips around in your hand while wearing shades is grueling.
 
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