What is the the toughest sport?

[Thursday]

I’m going to display some Northern bias, here:
Team sports:

1. Lacrosse/Hurley (for the sheer punishment of play)
2. Hockey (a contest every 2-3 days, with travel, for eight months and a training regimen the other four)
3. Rugby “Sevens” (fewer people on the field, and higher momentum at the point of impact)

Individual sports:

1. Ironman triathalons (obvious reasons)
2. Ididerod [sp?] (the arctic is NOT kind to the accident-prone)

[Flymaster]

*Originally posted by spooje *
**Grounding out weakly to the second baseman would not be considered ‘solid’ contact by most baseball people(including fans). Nor would come-backers, dribblers, pop-ups, lazy fly balls or foul-outs be considered examples of making solid contact. These are all examples of the pitcher getting the best of the hitter.

Sometimes ‘outs’ can be considered solid contact. This would mean hitting the ball hard directly at a fielder or being ‘robbed’ when a fielder makes an exceptional play.

**

You’re missing the point, though. Virtually everyone posting in this thread could, given enough chances, drop a blooper over the shortstop for a hit, or line a low liner down the first base line. Maybe it would take you 100 at bats, or 1000, or 5000. But you could do it. It’s not impossible at all. Heck, I know at least 5 guys from my high school athletic conference, in the past 10 years or so who, in very limited play in the Majors or AAA level (say, less than 500 at bats total) who have ALL gotten hits. Admittedly, they’re very good athletes, perhaps even great. But they succeeded plenty early in their careers at getting hits. It’s well within reason to assume that, given enough chances, we could do it too.

Now, running the Ironman, on the other hand, is not something that we could all do. In fact, I’d bet that if we all tried it 100 times each, at 1 year intervals between attempts, at MOST, 10 of the people posting on this thread would complete it, let alone in the sub 10 hour times that the winners run. Some of us could possibly even DIE.

Sure, you say, “I could run a marathon.” That’s all well and good. I could too. It would take me about 6 hours, but I could do it. (At least 2 years ago when I was running regularly). Same goes for the biking. I could make it that far. Swimming, I’d probably drown at, but let’s leave that aside. Even just the running and the biking, there is NO way I could EVER string those 2 events together. It would be a death march. I wouldn’t even be able to START the run, let alone go the distance, and forget about a respectable time. And yet, there are people running THREE HOUR marathons, or less, after biking more than 100 miles. That is about as close to superhuman as you can get.

And the amazing thing is, there are probably sports that are even TOUGHER than the Ironman.

[beergeek279]

Well, due to a (somewhat) obvious bias, I thought that I would abstain ;). Until I saw this…

3. Rugby “Sevens” (fewer people on the field, and higher momentum at the point of impact)

SEVENS??? I know that it is certainly a tougher game than a few on the list here, but come on…sevens is a flowery, soft version of rugby for those pansy backs! (Yes, I am a lock forward, so I suppose I do have a bias here ;)…but still!) I don’t particularly think that the tackles are particularly harder in sevens (I mean…half of them are ankle taps!) and all the fewer people on the pitch means is more running! (and as a forward I feel safe in saying I have an aversion to running )

[Typo_Negative]

*Originally posted by Flymaster *
**[Virtually everyone posting in this thread could, given enough chances, drop a blooper over the shortstop for a hit, or line a low liner down the first base line. Maybe it would take you 100 at bats, or 1000, or 5000.

Now, running the Ironman, on the other hand, is not something that we could all do. **

Sure we could, given enough time. I mean, if we’re assuming a major league club would let someone have 999 at-bats without getting a hit(assuming it’s not a pitcher were talking about), then surely we could take 2 weeks to complete the Ironman…

[mongrel_8]

I don’t know anything that could really top the Pakistani game, but how about Olympic wrestling? It is extremely physical, wrestlers grapple for around 10 minutes but are in so good of shape they aren’t even winded. Also wrestling is extremely mental. Your success depends upon how mentally prepared you are. You have no time like in football to stop think about what you want to do next and then to implement it. You constantly trying to perform a move while defending against your oppenent. So Olympic wrestling would have to be up for both the mental and physical aspects.

[Flymaster]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by spooje *
**

*Originally posted by Flymaster *
Sure we could, given enough time. I mean, if we’re assuming a major league club would let someone have 999 at-bats without getting a hit(assuming it’s not a pitcher were talking about), then surely we could take 2 weeks to complete the Ironman… **

Honestly, I don’t think I could. Like I said, the running, sure. The biking, yeah. But the swimming? No way I could ever make it 2.4 miles without any assistance or getting out of the water. I’d drown, and I consider myself both a fairly strong swimmer and in pretty damned good shape.

[Jet_Jaguar]

*Originally posted by spooje *
**

*Originally posted by Flymaster *
**Virtually everyone posting in this thread could, given enough chances, drop a blooper over the shortstop for a hit, or line a low liner down the first base line. Maybe it would take you 100 at bats, or 1000, or 5000.

Now, running the Ironman, on the other hand, is not something that we could all do. **

Sure we could, given enough time. I mean, if we’re assuming a major league club would let someone have 999 at-bats without getting a hit(assuming it’s not a pitcher were talking about), then surely we could take 2 weeks to complete the Ironman… **

I’d like to add that you don’t have unlimited time to finish an Ironman, because the stages have time cutoffs. They vary from race to race, but generally you have to be out of the water after about 2 or 2.5 hours, off the bike by the 10th hour, and done running by about 16h.

Maybe it’s unrealistic to assume a club would let you have 1000 at-bats per hit, but I bet if we took everyone posting in this thread and gave them each a few chances at bat (say, a game’s worth), then entered them in an Ironman race, more people would get hits than finish the triathlon before the cutoff.

**

*Originally posted by Flymaster *
And the amazing thing is, there are probably sports that are even TOUGHER than the Ironman.
**

If just a single Ironman isn’t enough for you, how about a triple Ironman? Last year’s winner finished in something like 42 hours.

[bagkitty]

*Originally posted by Mats K *
**Aussie Rules football. Full stop. **

I agree with Mats K… totally

[Myrr21]

*Originally posted by Weirddave *
Lacrosse. You have to be in as good a shape as any sport, and you have a hard rubber ball travelling over 100MPH, in addition to opponents beating on you with sticks. Plus scoring takes a lot of tactical manuvering by the entire attack unit and midfield, unless it’s a broken defensive play.

For once I agree with the man on sports; lacrosse is frickin hard. This is the sport for which I passed up a fancy graphite/titanium/freaky-metal-of-the-week pole in favor of a really heavy aluminum one, because it would hurt my opponents more.

I’d also nominate fencing to the list; it’s bloody hard. Your body has to be able to maintain perfect form (at least, if you want to win), react instantly to the little dot that is the opponent’s tip, and your brain has to be going a mile-a-minute. At least with lacrosse, when I got frustrated, I could just deck somebody for relief.

[Weirddave]

This could be one of the signs of the apocolypse, Myrr.

[Mats_K]

Here you go guys… The hardest and most exciting sport on the planet. Check it out at http://www.afl.com.au/insideafl/guide_0.htm

[nick112]

Well, what about Wrestling, not the WWF, but Freestyle, greco-roman, and Folstyle, like the do in the Olympics, and in highschool? I have played baseball, football, soccer, and i currently wrestle.

Mentally, wrestling byfar is thee toughest. Going days w/o eating or drinking, conditioning while not having any energy due to lack of caloric intake, being dehydrated, etc. Plus, it is full contact, and in my opinion the toughest 6 minutes in sports.

[mongrel_8]

Yep Nick112 and I appear to be in agreeance. Any sport where people willing give up eating regurally for several monthes while still training extremely hard has to be up there.

[Aside] Nick is the 112 your handle the weight class you wrestle? [/Aside]

[ExTank]

Another vote for Greco-Roman; I’ve ran, hiked, canoed, kayaked, climbed rocks, played football (both American and International Rules, aka Soccer).

Wrestling wiped me out. Concentration, endurance, strength, flexibility…yep. It’s a bitch.

Hiking is a great activity, IMHO, not a sport. It does require endurance, and intelligence to plan wisely and accordingly, but it don’t think that it ranks up there too highly in the “toughest sport” lists.

Hijack

And if you’re skipping meals or dehydrating yourself to make weight, you’re doing something wrong. Fortunately, my dad is a health nut, and tailored a high energy, low fat nutritious diet for me to follow. I dropped body fat, gained lean muscle mass, and never suffered from lack of energy or other side effects inherent with starvation diets, which are bad for a person anyway, especially young people, who are still growing and developing.

BTW: my 73 y/o dad is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail, the Maine leg. He puts in 100-120 miles every spring and fall. He loads out around 70-80 pounds for a week-long trek.

/Hijack

[cykrider]

*Originally posted by casdave *
**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. **

Afrter reading about individual accounts of cyclists in the Tour de France, I’d have to vote for cycling as well.

Probably in a close second though would be (don’t laugh) drum and bugle corps/marching band.

Recently at one of the DCI (drum corps international) events, the judges hooked up a heart rate monitor to one of the quint players and had him march his show. I don’t know the exact heart rate but they said it was equal to that of an olympic marathon runner. Futhermore, you have to:

march on step/roll step
blow air in your instrument while basically running
keep your posture up
count
listen to the battery (drums)
watch the drummajor
travel anywhere from 2 steps to 50+ yards in a certain number of counts (can’t be early or late!)
concentrate on playing the right notes, at the right time, in the right rhythm, in tune with everyone else around you
Plus you have ~100 other people that have to be doing this with you.

[mongrel_8]

*Originally posted by ExTank *
**
And if you’re skipping meals or dehydrating yourself to make weight, you’re doing something wrong. Fortunately, my dad is a health nut, and tailored a high energy, low fat nutritious diet for me to follow. I dropped body fat, gained lean muscle mass, and never suffered from lack of energy or other side effects inherent with starvation diets, which are bad for a person anyway, especially young people, who are still growing and developing.
**

I agree totally with you but still I see so many people do it. Sometimes they do really crazy things like trying to drop 10 pounds to get to a lower weight class when they already have 6% body fat. There was also that wrestling for Michigan State (I think) who died from dehydration while trying to cut weight.

[Man_from_Mars]

*Originally posted by Omniscient *
**
Soccer…please, less not even soil the debate with that. **

I’m fairly certain that prejudice is not a factor in your making this statement. Yeah, and American Football is tough! Let’s see, a 400 pound lardbucket chases after and knocks down some dude who’s less than half his size. Another guy breaks free and makes a dash of fifty or so yards and sticks an oxygen mask in his mouth. Phew! Soccer is clearly a sport for wimps, all that running for ninety minutes, without breaks.

Don’t get me wrong. I like American Football, but I’m not too crazy about bigoted, insulting comments. Funny, you find issue with mentioning soccer in this debate but make no comment about the few posts on pro wrestling.

[Kilt-wearin_man]

Calvinball.