Hardest Sport to Play

[RBH]

This is a topic I have been wanting to start for a while. So here it is, what is the hardest sport to play?

I for one believe that ice hockey is the hardest sport to play. Because you have to
1. Know how to skate really well: If you cannot skate, you will get your ass handed to you. You will get pushed to the boards. You will suffer a concussion on the first play. Basically, if you cannot skate, you will pretty much die.
2. Think on your feet: Basically, in ice hockey, you have to be able to think on your feet. You cannot just write up plays like in football and basketball because often times, the puck is spiraling all over the place and you have to know how to set up a play with almost little or no time.
3. Be tough mentally: Do you understand how many times a person gets hit during a hockey game? You have to be able to brave it out and take an elbow or a kick or a stick. Plus, players often dive in front of a puck being shot more than 100 miles per hour to prevent a goal and if the puck gets through, the goalie has to stop it.

That is why I believe hockey is the hardesty sport to play.

The second hardest sport to play is football (American) because you have to be tough, you have to be able to take plays and run with them and you have to do well under pressure.

 

[Khalifa]

For me i would have to say Ice skating as well. I mean it would be tough learning how to skate then you have to be fit as and have to be toguh mentally and physically. Just the thought of when you have the puck and some one is going to jsut nail you is scary enough. You also need the brains for it as well. You cant just hit the puck half way down the Rink and expect to get your team mate. You need to think when to pass it and how to time it. Very difficult sport I believe.

 

[Richard]

Hardest and toughest (In terms of the way you talk about Ice Hockey where you have to be able to withstand blows) are two different things, I would agree that Ice Hockey could be the toughest, but not the hardest. I will say that would be Tennis

I think this sport is the hardest because if you're playing singles Tennis, you do not have anyone else to rely on, you have to do all the work, unlike soccer, rugby or any other team sports where if you really wanted to, you could stand back and let everyone else win for you.

You have to understand the way the game works aswell, which yes, you have to understand how any sport works in order to play it well but with tennis you have to learn different shots, techniques, strategies.

It also requires a great deal of stamina, if you're playing a long 5 setter, you need to be able to withstand a 4 or 5 hour game at the most and you need to have great hand-eye co-ordination and timing to be able to strike the ball at the right time and right place on the raquet to get the best shot possible.

 

[Mr. TM]

Ice Hockey. It is a test of mental, physical and emotional strengths. You have to always think on the fly with hockey, with very few breaks in plays. If anyone watches hockey here, they understand the work it takes to become as fast as possible, on a layer of ice, not solid ground, while dodging players, while controlling a puck and trying to score on a goalie. It is also a game that lets emotions go. A game that allows fighting will always have players ready to get into a brawl for their team. The conditioning needed to be a hockey player is of the utmost extremes. If you slack off in training, even a little, it will typically show. If you have a mental break, the other team will dominate you. If you lose focus in the game at hand, you will cost your team.

 

[RBH]

Hardest and toughest (In terms of the way you talk about Ice Hockey where you have to be able to withstand blows) are two different things, I would agree that Ice Hockey could be the toughest, but not the hardest. I will say that would be Tennis

I think this sport is the hardest because if you're playing singles Tennis, you do not have anyone else to rely on, you have to do all the work, unlike soccer, rugby or any other team sports where if you really wanted to, you could stand back and let everyone else win for you.

You have to understand the way the game works aswell, which yes, you have to understand how any sport works in order to play it well but with tennis you have to learn different shots, techniques, strategies.

It also requires a great deal of stamina, if you're playing a long 5 setter, you need to be able to withstand a 4 or 5 hour game at the most and you need to have great hand-eye co-ordination and timing to be able to strike the ball at the right time and right place on the raquet to get the best shot possible.

I played tennis in high school and I can tell you firsthand that it is not that hard. You just have to know how to outthink your opponent. It is both a mental and a Physical game and you have to know how to repspond when an opponent hits the ball back to you. It can take great concentration as well as one could be up 40-Love and still lose the game as I have done on several occasions. You just have to know how to play.

 

[truk24]

Seems as though many of you have forgotten about Golf. If you all think hitting a ball off a golf tee is easy, it isn't. Then hit it accurately at about 250 yds on the fairway, and then get to the green. Also, try all that with strong winds, and a little rain. Have any of you ever try to nail a 28 ft put not on level ground. Perhaps a hill downward or upward? Tiger Woods makes it look real easy, but it takes a tremendous amount of patience, skill, and focus.

Not many people have the mental discipline to watch their ball lay flat in the sand, or worse in a pond. To hit such a small ball, and then to learn what type of iron or wood to use is also another aspect of the game. Golf doesn't require much strength, but have you ever watched a first timer learn how to hold a golf club? Most people when they see a bat, football, hockey stick know how to hold them. Not everyone holds a golf club correctly their first time. It is hiliarious. I had know idea how to hold a golf club my first time.

Then just look at how they swing their club. Their is a science on how to swing a golf club. A ton can told about a golfer in his or her stroke, or swing. In honesty learning how to swing a golf club correctly was much harder than skating backwards on ice skates. It is so easy to swing incorrectly, but with skating backwards you just fall or don't really go anywhere. In ending Golf is easily the "Hardest SPort to Play".

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Seems as though many of you have forgotten about Golf. If you all think hitting a ball off a golf tee is easy, it isn't. Then hit it accurately at about 250 yds on the fairway, and then get to the green. Also, try all that with strong winds, and a little rain. Have any of you ever try to nail a 28 ft put not on level ground. Perhaps a hill downward or upward? Tiger Woods makes it look real easy, but it takes a tremendous amount of patience, skill, and focus.

Not many people have the mental discipline to watch their ball lay flat in the sand, or worse in a pond. To hit such a small ball, and then to learn what type of iron or wood to use is also another aspect of the game. Golf doesn't require much strength, but have you ever watched a first timer learn how to hold a golf club? Most people when they see a bat, football, hockey stick know how to hold them. Not everyone holds a golf club correctly their first time. It is hiliarious. I had know idea how to hold a golf club my first time.

Then just look at how they swing their club. Their is a science on how to swing a golf club. A ton can told about a golfer in his or her stroke, or swing. In honesty learning how to swing a golf club correctly was much harder than skating backwards on ice skates. It is so easy to swing incorrectly, but with skating backwards you just fall or don't really go anywhere. In ending Golf is easily the "Hardest SPort to Play".

I don't agree with it being the hardest but being an avid golfer like myself I do agree with the rest of it. Millions upon millions of people play golf worldwide and only a small percentage of them are scratch golfers despite taking lessons, buying top of the line equipment and other teaching aides. It is just such a difficult sport. And even less are even close to a professionals level. You see these worldclass athletes from all different sports try playing and they're terrible. When you play golf and you watch those pros on TV you really appreciate how good they are when you see the shots they pull off.

With that said my vote would go to either tennis or hockey. I never really played either of them with the exception of playing a little street hockey on roller blades when I was younger so I can't really say from experience but just thinking about it they both seem so difficult. In hockey obviously you have to know how to skate and skate well all the while trying to control this puck and having 200+lb men trying to take your head off. Sounds pretty difficult. In tennis you have to have speed and endurance and exceptional hand eye coordination. You got tennis balls coming at you at excess of a 130mph sometime and your expected not only to hit it but to return it back in play. That sounds difficult to me.

 

[truk24]

If you are talking about measures of endurance then Golf is no where near this subject, but if you are talking about in terms of learning, playing, and then dominating. Then Golf is the hardest sport there is hands down. The no sport has a 5 par that can be the size of 2 football fields and more. No sport can match that kind of area. No sport requires man to learn the environment literally. No sport requires as much individual dedication. I have scored game winning goals on foot, ice skates, and rollerblaes. I have thrown touchdown passes, and shot 3-pointers from 27ft.

I will almost never hit an eagle or a birdie in my life time, not to mention great chip shots out of sand bunkers, or the rough. Maybe a whole in one on s Par 3? Dont't think so. Ofcourse I will never hit a ball on the green as much as I could dream of wanting to. I will never his the ball 300+yds on the green. Will never hit a 90 ft put on perfectly level ground. There are so many things that I know I will never do in golf, and already have in many other sports. Golf isn't a team sport it is all self. It is very hard to become a "great" golfer.

If we are going to talk about the hardest sport in terms of physicality then Swimming is the hardest of them all. Phelps is a physical specimen. It takes a certain individual to swim that fast, and that well for extensive periods of time. The amount of practice he must go through is amazing, and something that no football player or hockey player can ever imagine. Swimmers use their whole body as one. We aren't born with the ability to accomplsh much in water, as we are land mammals. Thus anything on land is something we easily have adapted to. Putting on a pair of ice skates on ice isn't much compared to doing a 900mm swinmming race in world record times.

A ton of people can skate around a hockey rink. Many less can swim 900mm in even low beginners times. Not to mention all of the different types of swimming styles there are. Our bodies were not desigined to just adapt to water sports. People who swim are using significantly much more energy. Thus making it the hardest sport there is.

 

[Pimpin]

Ice Hockey. That shit hurts like a bitch when you fall, you gotta give a shit load of effort to survive out there, you gotta have/know how to do the following.

Be fit
Know how to skate(especially on the ice)
Have really good hand-eye coordination
Know how to hit the puck
Speed
Toughness
Agility
How to fight(if necessary)

That's alot to do in Hockey & that's why in my opinion it is the hardest sport to play.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Hardest athletic sport to excel at- Wrestling. Not professional wrestling, mind you, but amateur or scholastic. I did it for 4 years and it kicked my ass. It also took me from being a 235-lb fat Sophomore and turned me into a 160-lb lean Junior, and then to a 189-lb college athlete. The mental strength is tantamount to success.

Hardest activity sport to master- Golf. I just started last year. It's maddeningly tough.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Football (English) is incredibly hard to play. I played a few games for school and it was incredibly difficult. I think it was Jake that said it best - anyone can hold a ball in their hands, but it takes great skillt o control it at your feet.

That being said, I play a lot of Rugby League (And I'm assuming it's the same for American Football, though I've never played it). It's hard because of how much you have to be watching, and because of how great you have to be at attack AND defence. I know now from coaching rugby that it's difficult to find players that are good at both. There are some great players for tackling, and others are great forwards. But it's rare to find people talented at both.

 

[ulimate123]

No-one has said it yet, but I'll say it: Cricket

Now I've got a good 3 year experience playing amateur cricket and it is tough as shit. Firstly, if your a batsmen, you have to face balls as fast as 90mph, which seems easy but only the best of batsmen can actually react quick enough to balls in excess of 90mph. Also when the spinners bowl and rip the bowl half-way across the pitch, it is very intimidating.

When your fielding and a catch comes towards you, it seems like the easiest thing ever to do but when your actually out there a lot depends on you.

When your bowling, it is incredibly hard to bowl wicket-to-wicket in speeds excess of 80mph. Trust me one of the more harder things in any type of sport.

It is also a test of mental and physical strength. Physical in that you may have to bat out there for 5/6 hours to just get scores like 100+ and you may have to bowl 20/30 bowlers if the other bowlers aren't performing.

Also a lot of tactics are used to intimidate the opposing player. So all in all cricket is the toughest shit to play and I've had a lot of experience in: Basketball, football and tennis.

 

[TwistofRKO]

Nobody said cricket because it's crap. Baseball is the harder equal to that.

Here's how i break it down:

Hardest sports task: Hitting a baseball. Don't start crap saying you can go to the batting cage and hit it. Stand in the box and face a 97-mph fastball and actually drive it. Just takes a small twitch, the tiniest mismeasurement, or just quirky hitch to out you into a bad slump.. very tough mentally.

Hardest sport physically: Hockey. The physicality is unrivaled, there's really no position that takes it lightly. In football, while it may be more physical down in the tenches, over the middle, etc.. you can just be a kicker/punter and take 4-5 bumps per season. Everyone in hockey gets knocked around, and also have to master your trade whatever you play.

Hardest sport overall: Football (real football, not english footsies). It's just below hockey in physicality, but blows that and everything else out mentally. Kickers and punters, even long snappers must correct any flaw immediately following a mistake to prolong a complete meltdown in the future, and that's just those guys, looking at every other position on the field, you must realize what you are doing at all times, and complete it. Make your reads, predict, take the bumps, etc, it's all there. Smallest things can rattle you.

Now with golf, I tried to keep this down to sports. It's the toughest skill to master, as it's clumped in with bowling, darts, pool, etc. Like I said, it's just tougher than the rest.

 

[Fizzy]

Tennis is defiantly up there. It is so tough to run around a court, and hit a ball 90 miles an hour for hours on end. It is so difficult. You also have to master the art of actually hitting the ball, which many think is easy. It is not as you have to hit it perfectly so it will go over the net, with the velocity to throw your opponent off, without the ball going out. It is unbelievably difficult, but a sport you can play for your entire life.

Others up there are golf and ice hockey considering how hard they are together, but if you ask me the hardest will have to be tennis.

 

[TwistofRKO]

Tennis is defiantly up there. It is so tough to run around a court, and hit a ball 90 miles an hour for hours on end. It is so difficult. You also have to master the art of actually hitting the ball, which many think is easy. It is not as you have to hit it perfectly so it will go over the net, with the velocity to throw your opponent off, without the ball going out. It is unbelievably difficult, but a sport you can play for your entire life.

Others up there are golf and ice hockey considering how hard they are together, but if you ask me the hardest will have to be tennis.

I'd say it's harder than it looks, but it's not (at least to me) as hard to adapt to once you learn the ropes. Although I obviously wouldn't return a 147-mph serve.