A boxer. An obvious choice. He is in the ring alone…in a violent contest…if he effs up like Roberto Duran (no mas…no mas) he might not only lose the bout but his manliness.
During a penalty shootout.
Are we limited to team sports?
If we stick to team sports, I’d say the positions that face the most pressure are:
- NFL quarterback
- Major league relief pitcher
- NHL goaltender
But if we include individual sports, I have to figure golf is extremely stressful. When one putt can determine whether you’re remembered as the British Open champ or as a choker, when ALL eyes are on YOU, well, THAT’S pressure!
That is interesting - I was going to post exactly the opposite.
It seems to me that the absolute highest pressure is exerted on the player that is expected to succeed, and who’s failure results in loss. Since the shooter has the advantage (overwhelmingly so) in a shootout, I think the pressure weighs more heavily on him.
The keeper can be a hero, but only the shooter can be the goat.
Final-second free throws in basketball and close-and-late relief pitching in baseball would be this type of pressure as well.
I think goalies (hockey or soccer) are close to place kickers, but place kickers win out for a few reasons. First, every single time a kicker is on the field, he’s expected to make the kick unless it’s a particularly long one that, and even then he’s looked poorly upon. Even medium range kicks, he’s expected to make each time. That is, even though people know they’re not perfect and they have a miss-rate, it’s just never acceptable when it happens THIS time. With goalies though, even though they’re expected to block a lot of shots, no one craps on the goalie for missing one unless he clearly screwed up.
With goalies, sometimes they let through last second goals, but there’s not really anything meaningfully different about it compared to any other point in the game, they’re just always trying to block every shot they can. And sure, they have shoot outs, but the whole point of a shootout is that there’s multiple chances. With a place kicker, they know that moment is coming, usually for several minutes, and they have all that time to deal with their nerves and all that focus on them and they get exactly one chance at it. If he makes it, unless it’s some crazy long shot, he’s a hero for maybe the evening news and quickly forgotten; if he misses it, all the analysts will be calling for his job all week and possibly after the season if that one game would have meant play-offs.
And worse yet, as I understand, goalies are generally well regarded on their teams as integral and important players are are usually well compensated. Placekickers are known to be important, but always looked down on as sissies and generally one of the lowest paid positions in football. So, even if they aren’t the absolute highest pressure position, relative to others within they’re sport, they have to have the worst ratio of pressure to compensation and respect.
I disagree. A goalie isn’t expected to save a penalty kick, so it’s really a no-stress situation. If she saves it, she’s a hero, but if she misses, well, that’s only what’s expected.
I think the kicker actually has more pressure; they’re expected to make it, and a goat if they don’t.
The general answer, I think depends on your individual psychology. I’d much rather be a hockey goalie, and have to stop 30 shots a game (so missing one is still a 97% save rate), than a soccer goalie and only have three chances, where missing one is a first-rate disaster. And the thought of being an NFL kicker – no chance to get into the flow of the game, with the whole thing riding on your first touch of the ball – terrifies me, but other people might like the idea.
There’s certainly something to that. If a star goalie has a slump and lets in some cheap goals, his teammates will be annoyed, but most will try to rally around him, to reassure him. They’ll give him a pat on the back and say, “Hang in there, man” or “You’ll get 'em next time,” because they DO regard him as a real hockey player.
A kicker is often regarded as a hired gun, not as a real football player. It was WORSE a generation ago, when many place kickers were foreign soccer players who knew almost nothing about American football. But even now, when a kicker is in a slump, teammates are more likely to grumble, “Fire his ass, and bring in somebody who can get the job done” than to rally around him.
I agree with a lot of the previous answers (I’d also add any of the other two positions involved in field goals: long snapper and holder).
I’ll also add, thinking of Adam Dunn, designated hitter. Not just the guy who happens to be scribbled in the DH slot for the day to give him a bit of a rest. But the guy who signs a multi-million dollar deal to be the team’s everyday DH. His only job is hitting, usually for power. That has to be a lot of pressure day-in-day-out. Especially once the strike outs start piling up and the slump gets longer. And longer. And longer.
I think there are perhaps two categories of “most stressful” here - those for whom a single event (or few events over the course of a game) is incredibly stressful (place kicker, relief pitcher) and those for whom an entire game is played at a heightened level of stress (hockey goalies, soccer goalies).
I’m not sure how one would choose between the two.
Good call mnemosyne. That’s exactly what I was thinking reading this thread.
A placekicker…yeah people are hanging on his every movement when he shows up. But you know what? If it comes down to his kick being that important then the reality is that the rest of his team fucking sucks. See: The Cleveland Browns. Phil Dawson has scored like 75% of our points in the past 3 seasons. This is because the team sucks. If his kick gets blocked, it’s because the team sucks. If he can’t get it in from 55 yards it’s because the team sucks (having been stopped at the 45 yard line). Every so often he misses one that he totally should have had, but most of the time he’s in there because no one else can do their goddamn job.
I choose hockey goalie because it’s his ass every game, every shot, all season, penalty shots included. Yeah, maybe more shots-on-goal for him means his team sucks but still he’s a regular important part of the team and of every game.
A kicker, he’s special. He’s on the special team.
Nobody really expects a keeper to save the ball, so there is not nearly as much pressure on him as other athletes.
I would go with football place kicker because not only are your triumphs largely ignored while you failures are highlighted, but you have basically no job security.
The two pub sports, snooker and darts, are renowned for the pressure they heap on players at the top level. The oche in particular a lonely place to be in a darts match. There’s two leagues of world championship darts - in the weaker one (the BDO), it’s not uncommon to see newer players totally fold and start throwing scores of 26.
At the other end of the athletic spectrum, boxing (as mentioned) and cycling are supreme for asking athletes to make decisions under the harshest of physical pressures. Something like the Tour de France, which is a team game really, asks the participants to make strategic decisions whilst breathing out their arseholes, 4 hours in to a mountain stage with 2 weeks of racing already under their belts. Absolutely fascinating to see how tactics and judgement made under pressure can determine the outcome of the race.
I was going to go with darts with a snide remark about the heavy drinking involved. (They’re under so much pressure they drink pint after pint - while they’re competing!).
On a serious note I think being Manager of the English National Football team deserves a mention. Your every decision is covered by a rabid press, you have to meet the absurdly high expectations of the fans, the players you manage are a bunch of highly paid superstars, with all the attendant behavioural problems and egos, and while you can make the odd substitution, you have have very little control over what actually happens during the course of the matches. Sounds like a recipe for nervous breakdowns to me.
Nae boozing allowed in televised darts these days. Not to say the players aren’t bevvied though - check out Martin Adams v Tony Fleet from 2010. The Aussie Fleet is a bag of nerves (ie he’s absolutely hammered), he scores 5 with 3 darts at one stage!
Of course, somewhat like the goalie stopping penalties, nobody really expects you to win anything as English manager, right? 
A British men’s tennis player in the quarter- or semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Huge weight of expectation to undo years of national mediocrity, high-profile TV and media coverage, no team-mates to share the load, hoades of breathlessly hysterical home-counties ladies screeching at every opportunity, minor royalty and D-list celebs in the crowd.
All bouyed up with a hopeful optimism overlaid with a pervading sense that everyone deep down expects you to fail.
I’d have to say the closer in baseball has the most high-profile, high-stress job.
But this thread is incomplete without The Lonesome Kicker.
Oh I disagree. NFL hockey goalie’s gotta be the easiest job out there.
While I agree place-kickers and relief pitchers enter into a game under stressful situations, they are nowhere near the stress levels of an NFL QB or NHL goalie who are under performance stress and scrutiny 100% of the time, on and off the field.
My vote is for NFL QB, a team’s success during every offensive play, every series, every game, and every season depends on them. Defenses are trying to beat you every play, physically and mentally. The fans, the media, coaches, family, and your own team, offense and defense relies on you to perform and can all turn on you in a hearbeat. The microscope is always on the QB. The kicker may choke, but it’s always the QB that put them in that position.
Secondly, the QB is the face of the team, they are the most recognizable. Everyone knows what the QB looks like without a helmet, place kickers? not so much. Ask any QB if they can go out in public, say to dinner or a movie, after a big loss.
Similarly, with an NHL goalie, especially in towns like Toronto, Montreal, New York, and a few other big media cities.
I was going to say placekicker until I saw the F1 driver video. Good Lord, I can’t even do that on an xbox, much less a million dollar rocket car.