What is the toughest sport, in terms of the physical and mental side of it, and the training, and conditioning, and the actual playing of the game. what is the toughest.?
You mean team sports?
I’d like to say hockey but maybe water polo?
Solo sports…marathon running?
IMHO, of course.
This is probably better suited for IMHO. I doubt that there is an objective answer to the question (unless someone knows of some obscure sport like full contact marathon wrestling while ferret-legging off a cliff. 
)
I vote for boxing. Boxers train for months specifically for a contest that lasts less than two hours. The game is as likely to be won or lost on mental strength as on physical strength (a lot of these guys watch more films than football players do.) Add to that that boxers don’t have other teammates that can help take up the slack if needed. Admittedly, a lot of boxers seem to screw off a lot during their careers, but if they screw off at one wrong moment it may easily cost them their career.*
Also, the sport can kill you.
If not boxing, then I would nominate ironman triathlons and the like. The people who run these aren’t too far off of world-class speeds in swimming, running and riding, and each event uses far more calories than they can carry in their fat and body reserves.
*[sub]Then again, George Foreman does weaken my position (does anyone remember the Sports Illustrated article, “I followed the pumpkin cheesecake to Foreman’s dressing room…”?[/sub]
Ok, a lot less than two hours. I meant… ah, you do the math!
i’d have to say cricket
According to Yale physicist Robert Adair, hitting a fastball is “clearly impossible”, so my vote would be baseball. http://detnews.com/2000/nation/0002/20/02200078.htm I’ve heard, and I agree, that hitting a major league pitch is the hardest single feat in sports. Not only do you have to hit a ball comming at upwards of 100 MPH, but it may have some serious movement on it as well.
Yes, this thread belongs in IMHO, since there’s no scientific or factual answer to this question. I’ll move it there.
And if you must know, the answer to your question is of course: full-contact checkers.
Hitting a major league pitch is a very difficult task, but the hardest thing in sports? Nah. Most batters hit the ball nearly every time they come up to the plate. Most outs occur because the batter hit the ball in fair territory and was put out by the fielders. Even with a strikeout, the batter has often hit the ball, just not in fair territory. If you read the linked article carefully, the professor says among other things
This is clearly not true. If the bat meets the ball anywhere, it makes contact, just not solid contact. In the quote above, if the contact is outside of the area designated, the result is a foul ball or foul tip. In both cases, the batter hit the ball, not well, but he did hit it.
There are more difficult things, to wit:
Staying on a bull for 8 seconds
Landing a triple axel
Swimming the English Channel
Scoring in soccer or hockey
A blind tumbling pass on the balance beam
An iron cross on the still rings
A back 1 1/2 somersault 4 1/2 twist from (10m)
Rochambeau!
That’s it!
In terms of physical and mental conditioning, I’d also say the toughest sport is ironman-distance triathlon. Swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then run a full 26.2 mile marathon after that. The fastest competitors will still take about 9 hours to finish. Athletes train all year for only one or maybe two races in a season.
This is going to elicit some chuckles, and I can understand why, but my vote is for professional wrestling. The injury rate and the damage these guys take to their bodies is unbelievable.
I guess the most recent example would be HHH of the WWF will be out for 6 months because he just tore a muscle in his thigh. Click on:
http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=2654
for a list of some more real WWF injuries. The list is unbelievable, and painful to read.
Another guy, Ric Blade of Combat Zone, broke his shin in 2 places doing a dive off a balcony (ouch!) this weekend. And most fans know about what Mick Foley has put his body through.
As a matter of fact, wrestlers who have had their necks (yes, for real) snapped, or suffered really severe neck injuries include Droz, who is paralyzed waist down; Steve Austin; Bruno Sammartino; Sabu; Gary Wolfe; Masahiro Chono; Buff Bagwell; and there was a Japanese womens wrestler named Akira Hokuto who broke her neck in the ring, and FINISHED THE MATCH HOLDING HER HEAD IN HER HANDS a few years ago. . . and many others.
Plum Marinko, Oro and Gary Albright and at least 3 independent guys have died in the ring in the past 5 years.
And, unlike football or basketball, there is no “season”. If you take time off due to injury, in most cases you don’t get paid. Unlike boxing, you have to take the punishment every night, not just every week or month, or in some cases, every year.
To be a successful pro wrestler, unless you really have “it”, like the Rock, you must travel long distances for many years, sometimes for little or no pay before you make it, and endure night after night of this kind of punishment, and the use and abuse of steroids and painkilling drugs probably exceeds that of any other profession.
Even if you do make it, what the top pro wrestlers make as a percentage of what the promoters make is tons lower than what pro athletes in the 4 major sports make compoared to the franchise owners.
I’m not putting down any other sports, but say what you want about whether this is a real sport or not, I would put what these guys have to put up with against anything any other athlete has to put up with anytime.
While I am no Yale physicist and have not read his report, the reasoning here seems pretty specious. First of all, tennis, badminton, jai alai and possibly table tennis involve balls (or shuttlecocks) travelling at a faster rate sometimes with movement. Secondly, it has been pointed out that most professionals and sub professionals are able to put the ball in play most of the time (Rob Deer and Dave Kingman excepted).
I would vote rock climbing to be the toughest sport. That’s some tough shit!
It is reported that there is a game in Afghanistan that is sort of a combination of tough-guy horse polo and hand to hand combat. It may be the national sport. The game pits villages, or districts, or just gangs of guys who don’t much like each other against each other. The object is to drag the carcass of a calf (maybe 200 lbs.)across a goal line. The contending teams are of no particular size. There are not substitutions so much as reenforcements. The playing field is of no particular size and doesn’t even have to be level. Apparently it can be played by two or by two thousand. The only rules are that firearms and swords are not permitted and the rules are not all that closely observed. A single game can go on for days. Frequently both teams claim victory because the calf has fallen apart and parts of the calf have been carried across both goals. Maybe the team with the biggest piece wins.
This strikes me as a game that can kill a guy without any change in the flow and pace of the action. That ought to count as one tough sport.
Another vote for professional wrestling here. In any other sport, if a wrestler broke a bone or tore a muscle, they would stop right there and would be taken into the hospital. If something like that happens in pro wreslting, they finish the match. Hardcore Holly wrestler with a broken arm, Triple H finished the match after he was injured, and Mick Foley…, well, pretty much the whole Hell in a Cell sums it up.
Proffessional cycling, wether its the ATB downhillers who risk life and limb screaming downhill on rough hillside trails or the intensely demanding stage races such as the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.
Stage racing is very tactical as there are several differant trophies to be won, and each team has its own strengths. There is a lot of psychology, physical risk from crashing, trying to consume enough calories to stay healthy, mental stamina, its all there.
Unfortunately pro-cycling is so tough that it is not unusual for athletes to die at a relatively early age, brought on possibly by riding when not fully recovered from illness and sheer overwork.
Aussie Rules football. Full stop.
Ahem. Professional wrestling cannot be considered the toughest sport for one simple reason. In is not a sport.
Baseball is tough. BTW, ‘putting the ball in play’ and ‘making contact’ are euphamisms for making an out. Getting a ‘hit’ is very difficult. Failing 7 times out of 10 means you’re pretty damn good. And, with respect, no one was ever injured by a tennis ball traveling an 90+ mph.
Football is also tough. Lots potential for injury.
Golf, I hear, requires lots of skill…
But basketball is an endurance test. There’s a lot of skill involved, lots of potential for injury, lots of physical contact, and a lot of running.
Soccer. Or football. Or whatever you want to call it.
Have you seen those guys fall when brushed brutally with a pinkie finger? The agony on their faces? :shudders:
Oops. I should mention that I’m not bagging soccer as a sport. I’d played it before and been completely winded after ten minutes.
But I have to agree with iron men triathlons and maybe add gymnastics to the list.