What do you think is the hardest sport to master?

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: silverpig
NASCAR? C'mon... F1, CART, and Superbike GP are much more difficult I'd think.

(especially superbike... those guys go through riding pants and boots like crazy because they rip them up all over the ground when they bank through the turns).

especially since you don't have to shift very much on your average nascar track. lets see... when you go into the pits. thats about it.

"but theres sears point and the glen!"
another bash against nascar: teams routinely bring in other drivers for these two courses because their regular ones couldn't drive a roadcourse to save their lives. and they still had to straighten out the track to get those pigs of cars to turn.

 

[mpitts]

Hockey and Golf

 

[stev0]

i would go with golf... just because the conditions are never the same... and there are so many different ways that you could hit that little ball.

 

[trek]

Gymnastics looks pretty tough...

-Trek

 

[silverpig]

I mean damn.

 

[dolph]

Originally posted by: trek8900
Gymnastics looks pretty tough... -Trek

hadn't thought of that one. but yeah, whenever i see people do gymnastics, i'm just like :Q "is that even possible?"
otherwise... hmm. bicycling is pretty darn tough. there's a whole new world of pain in that one. and if you're doing something as hard as the tour de france, one slip up can cost your life.

unfortunately, natural ability matters too much. kobe bryant might think basketball is easy and golf is hard, but tiger woods could think the opposite. it's very subjective.


but gymnastics are the hardest.

 

[IGBT]

No doubt...hockey. Gata move fast and think fast and be tough as nails.

 

[darqice]

I'm thinking counter-strike or quake 3. Oh, the fine motor skills; the hand eye coordination: the vision required and the quick reflexes to click that mouse button. A lifetime, nay a thousand lifetimes to master. And then all the planning involved to build the perfect system to run the game (sport?) at optimum fps. Why else all the hours spend on these forums.

got a little carried away there... its the classis OT discussion: should computer gaming be considered a sport. CPL etc

 

[vegetation]

I would say competitive road biking is pretty darn hard. Not many people can sustain what it takes to reach this level. And it's a sport that is open to pretty much anyone, anywhere..

 

[FSUpaintball]

Shuffleboard.

 

[UDT89]

baseball by far.

basically any sport is hard to "master". Like football, u ever see a professional playbook? Its like a dictionary. And you have to memorize assignments for each play and how it changes for every defensive front.


so i think every sport is hard to master, but some are easier to just play than others. Some people cant hit a baseball, but can shoot a basketball......and so forth

 

[JC]

Fencing. And golf.

JC

 

[FSUpaintball]

Try Paintball. I'm not going to say it's the hardest, but it's definitely up there. Not many sports will get your adreneline going like some competition Speedball.

 

[NeoV]

Boy, there are some people here who clearly have not/don't play any sports.

I played two division one sports in college, so perhaps I am biased towards them, but first a few observations...

Horse-riding is not a sport. Horse racing is not a sport. Anything involving a live animal is not a sport. Does it take skill to ride a horse? Yes. Does that make it a sport? No.

Golf, as much as some people may like it, is not a sport. It is a contest of skill, like darts or bowling, but when people have other people that carry their clubs around, and take carts from place to place...it isn't a sport. Yes, I know on the PGA tour they don't use carts, (their opposition to Casey Martin using a cart on tour was simply to try and make it look more difficult than it is to play, and they looked like a bunch of A-holes for their stance IMO BTW)..again, the skill and practice required to be good are certainly factors, but I still say it isn't really a sport.

Soccer, as much as Rome hates it, is a legit sport, but the athletic skills necessary to play aren't all that demanding or difficult to improve.

Hockey certainly rates highly on the list of sports that are difficult to master, but being a really good goalie, or defenseman, is different than being a really good scorer, which is the most difficult part to master.

Football has too many positions that aren't really difficult to play, though you could argue that "mastering" the QB position is right up there in difficultly level. I was a HS QB, and though I considered myself good, I certainly wouldn't say I had mastered the position.

I would have to say that two parts of baseball are the most difficult to master. Hitting and pitching. I know everyone talks about the difficultly in hitting, which is mostly true, but I would like to add that "mastering" pitching is extremely difficult as well. You can't just say "all you have to do is throw hard", because there are plenty of guys who throw in the 90's that stink, or never even get to the majors.

 

[PistachioByAzul]

Pocket pool?

 

[Gooberlx2]

what about a form of martial arts? that would be pretty tough to master

Nah, though I'd like to agree with you, it's not fair 'cause the term "master" is actually used to describe a rank within that sport.

What about gymnastics? Is Nadia still the only person in history to get perfect 10s or has anyone else done it since?

Soccer, as much as Rome hates it, is a legit sport, but the athletic skills necessary to play aren't all that demanding or difficult to improve.

That's just bullsh!t, period.

 

[DocZaius]

Tennis is hard to master, takes a long time to get a good serve or backhand.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: iamme
I mean somewhat mainstream sports. Nothing too obscure.

My vote goes for either hockey or soccer. Reason being, you see many athletes from sports play others, but you rarely see that with hockey and soccer.

Any thoughts?

i dunno if this is considered "obscure", but water polo is pretty hard to be really good at imo.

 

[raptor13]

It's really hard to say what even constitutes a sport in the sense that the word is used. Obviously things like baseball (which gets my vote, by the way), football, basketball, and hockey are all sports... but what about golf? To me, it's a sport. To me, running is a sport. It's hard to even classify what is and isn't a sport to some people let alone decide which is the most difficult. However, don't think any activity involving judging to declare a winner is a sport. Certainly things like figure skating, aerial skiing, trick snowboarding, etc. are difficult. But I see them only as a contest of skill. Sports should have scores that only the players themselves can alter.


That said, I remember reading a long time ago that from a scientific perspective, baseball is the most difficult sport in a physical and mathematical sense. The margin for error in hitting a baseball into the field of play (regardless if it's actually ruled a hit or not) is so small that logically it should not even happen and certainly not with the frequency that it does. If I remember correctly, the batter has about a 3/1000 second window of hitting the ball into fair terrority given an 80mph pitch. Furthermore, there is less than 1/32 of an inch difference in contact spots on the bat between making the ball go straight up or straight down. Those things coupled with not even knowing what type of pitch is coming, how fast it's coming, or where it's going to go makes for a pretty difficult sport.


I would guess that golf probably requires about the same amount of accuracy as baseball when it comes to actually striking the ball and making it go where you want. However, the situation of striking a golf ball is infinitely less complex than striking a baseball. Sure, the lie of the ball changes and hitting out of the sand is damn near impossible (a slight exaggeration, I admit, but I'm tired of bunkers adding strokes to my score!) but at least the ball isn't moving when you go to hit it. Now, if someone was throwing the ball at me from less than 64ft. away at over interstate driving speeds, my opinion might change.

 

[zeon]

*standard Disclaimer* Bias contained from hereon out:

IMO the most difficult sport to master would likely be skateboarding... although not a conventional sport, the plethora of different elements that when combined are required to skate with at least a relative level of competancy is pretty remarkable. Firstly, you've got to master the simple trick of just standing on a skateboard, something that from personal observation i can attest that alot of people cant even do... i mean anyone can throw or kick a ball, or run, or hit something with a stick (although respect given to hockey/skiing/snowboarding as they have a similar balance componet) but you'd be surprised how many people fall off a board the first time they get on one.

secondly theres the neccessary coordination involved, not just between the eyes and feet but with the entire body... you've got to twist to set up for a spin trick, or compress for good pop... plus you have to have quick reflexes to react to changes in the environment as well as the string toghether combos...

theres also the athelectic componet... you've got to be able to push hard enough to get speed for big tricks, you've got to be flexible, and durable to withstand the many slams and bails...and believe me you've got to have endurance, anyone who's ever had a good sesh at a park where there skating hard can attest to this...

One of the most difficult things about skateboarding is that it takes an almost superhuman amount of courage to go big, and i mean REAL big... some might say that this is insanity rather than courage, but for *most* it's merely a calculated risk. You know your chances of being able to land the kickflip down the ten stair, and if there around 50%, you go for it...

All i can say is that i've know kids who've skated 3-6 hours a day, almost everyday of their lives from the time they were twelve to the time they were sixteen, and are damn good skateboarders, better than i'll ever be, who are'nt even close to pro level... thats pretty remarkable in my book and says alot about the sport.

 

[StattlichPassat]

What a nasty can of worms this thread turned into.

 

[spp]

i believe tennis is the hardest sports...... you don't see the tennis pros having time to practice anythig else

 

[annihilator]

Lemme get this straight...

You're posting on a TECH forum...
...asking people for their opinions on SPORTS?

Ok, ok, I know it's OT, loosen up! My vote goes for Bocci Ball!

 

[Alphazero]

Cricket 0wnz all those children's games!

Huge range of skills - batting, bowling, fielding, keeping.... The depth and strategies of captaincy have no parallel. Not to mention the stamina and all the psychology. Let's see some weeny baseball player stand out in a field for 8 hours trying to hit spinning and swinging balls coming at him at 160 km/h (100mph) on a pitch 3 times shorter than the baseball pitch.

 

[kherman]

Here are my thoughts.
There is 3 catagories.
Mental, phyiscal and both.

MENTAL:
Now for hte most mentally demanding sport. A sprot you actually get mentally fatigues playing. many of you will laugh, but if you ever played the game, you know what a drain it can be on your mind. The game is Chess! Yes chess. There's not really a debate to how much mental endurance is required relative to any other sprot. So, the hardest sport to master on the mental level is chess.

Physical
Ther are many sports which require physical endurance. Here's some. Soccer, hockey(ice), tri-athletes, road bikers (roaddies). Many others. OK, which one is the hardest to master physically? That's tough... I'd have to go with tri-athletes. The idea of doing one of those races makes me want to throw-up.

Combination
Hrmm, what sports are both mentally and physcially demanding? i'd have to go with hockey as the best balance. If you ever watch the Stanley Cup play offs(and are a fan), you know that one mental mistake can cost you the championship. The game is more about not making mistakes than executing. Very mentally draining. Also, it's a sport where you essentially sprint for 50 seconds and get a 100 second break and repeat. My vote for the hardest sport to master is Hockey.

Maybe someone should set up a poll with all the sports that are listed here and we can put it to a vote.