[The Wire]

MMA is the sport of fighting and I think getting locked into a cage with another human being might ranked overall as #1. Don't get me wrong, making it to the Major Leagues is less probable because of the sheer competition but baseball is still a game you play and I see guys doing it for fun on the weekends. You don't just play MMA in some fucking rec league after work. I think fighting another human being like that is probably the biggest pressure cooker imaginable. Boxing is up there as well I just think it's a bit more tame and sport like than MMA is. Boxing is like the sport of punching whereas MMA is the sport of fighting. Also to mention the injury rates for guys in MMA is much much higher than boxing(which hurts the sport of MMA in a promotional sense). Guys in MMA are always pulling out. You just don't get that in boxing. Boxing is a much more controlled environment.

[Jvramerys]

This one:

[WanderingSoul]

If we are talking about physically toughest/most grueling, then it's wrestling, boxing and MMA.

[xmlenigma]

Gymnastics

[Architekt]

You Americans..

NFL < NRL
Baseball < Cricket

Ice hockey is pretty bad ass, though

[H1N1]

1. Boxing/Muai Thai/Kickboxing
2. MMA
3. Wrestling

[rudebwoy]

Basketball
American Football
Any fighting sport (I trained Muay Thai and it kicked my ass)

[Traktor]

Rugby Union was the most physically demanding game I ever played. My position was open side flanker No. 7. (I was also classed as a utility player and its a brand any rugby player avoids trust me). That meant being at the edge of a scrum and taking hits from props twice as big as you. You take it for the team. Claps on the back each time you make/take a bone crunching tackle. You feel great afterwards in the clubhouse with the lads buying you pints. The following morning though is a killer as you wonder if its all worth it. However seeing your name in the local rag the following Thursday raving about your Man of the Match performance in a Cup Semi Final gives you the perfect pick up as you once again head out on one of your thrice weekly training session on a miserable freezing February night on a pitch that resembles No Mans Land.

No helmets or body plate armour from head to toe. Just a shirt, shorts, socks, boots and adrenaline.

[perdogg]

(10-24-2011 06:37 PM)JayMillz Wrote:  

What do you think are the 3 hardest sports to do in terms of conditioning and degree of difficulty? Off the top of my head, my three are Rugby, Water Polo and MMA.

Gaelic Football, MMA, and Water Polo.

[Sombro]

I swam on teams for well over ten years before even trying water polo (none of that shallow-end BS).
Most exhausted i've ever felt.

[xmlenigma]

GYMNASTICS & GYMNASTS

Pound for Pound they are the toughest.. strongest.. That foundation applied anywhere is boom!

[NASA Test Pilot]

Conditioning - swimming, wrestling, water polo.

Training for swimming and wrestling is normally close to non-stop twice per day even as a teenager. Water polo although more intense has many shorter whistles, breaks, periods.

Degree of difficulty - Big wave surfing, water polo, martial arts (especially weapons training), honorable mention to gymnastics.

[47R]

1-Oil Wrestling,
2-Boxing,
3-Olympic weightlifting.

[BigTony]

1- Baseball- Hitting a baseball that moves all over the place is, in my opinion, the single most difficult thing to do in sports.

Think about it, the very best hitters failed 65-70% of the time to get a hit. Having a .280 batting average is considered good.

2- Boxing- You have to have crazy amounts of stamina to be a fighter. Just imagine going 15 rounds againgst someone trying to knock your head off.

3- Football/Soccer- Here is another sport that requires great endurance. Your body has to be in top shape to even keep up with the opponent. You have to make sharp turns, back peddle and even take hits from your opponent.

[RagnarLothbrok]

Overall I woud definitely say soccer. In my opinion it is the most complex sports of all. Not only does it require you to be extremely skillful in handling the ball (passing, shooting, crossing, heading, dribbling, etc.), which you can only learn if you start playing it from a very young age on, you also need to be able to:

- run fast
- be agile
- have the endurance to go 90 mins and still maintain good passing, shooting, dribbling, etc. There are barely any breaks for you unless you are a defender or goalkeeper
- be physically and mentally fit (imagine being super tired and approaching the goalkeeper trying to score the winning goal in the last minute of the game or going for a penalty in an important game)
- have an eye for what is happening on the pitch. At soccer every player is a bit of a quarter back and needs to have a feeling for time and space
- work in a team and adjust your own actions to those of your teammates.
- defend AND attack, no matter what position you play
- and most of all smart. Soccer nowadays is on a very high level when it comes to tactics. It is almost like chess in this regard and not comapareable to any other sports.

[Captain Gh]

I will say MMA, Ice Hockey and Rugby. Footbal would be harder than Hockey in by book, the their season is not long enough to make it harder in my book. The only sport that I find extremely hard to go against is Rugby. I mean Rugby is straight up NFL with no protection!! Every few games that I've seen excerpts of, you see players being carried off the fields...

[dark_g]

They forgot to mention that a baseball swing is different than a fast pitch softball swing. The softball swing is shorter and more like a "slap" at the ball to make contact by any means necessary. A baseball swing is a little longer and has more rotation to make contact and "drive" the ball.

[Blaster]

(01-08-2016 05:38 PM)BigTony Wrote:  

1- Baseball- Hitting a baseball that moves all over the place is, in my opinion, the single most difficult thing to do in sports.

Think about it, the very best hitters failed 65-70% of the time to get a hit. Having a .280 batting average is considered good.

Pitching is harder than hitting.

It's a conundrum of course: Which is really harder, scoring a hit off a fresh Mario Rivera in his prime, or being able to pitch like Mariano Rivera in his prime?

[Blaster]

(02-12-2016 03:48 PM)dark_g Wrote:  

They forgot to mention that a baseball swing is different than a fast pitch softball swing. The softball swing is shorter and more like a "slap" at the ball to make contact by any means necessary. A baseball swing is a little longer and has more rotation to make contact and "drive" the ball.

Yeah that video is a joke. Notice they didn't try having a softball player try to hit the baseball pitcher.

[odesseus]

Hockey - Boxing / MMA - Swimming (water polo etc) - maybe gymnastics as most are done early 20s it's so hard on the body.

[ttvGearHead]

I would def agree with boxing, wrestling, and MMA. Apart from insane physical stamina, those athletes also have to deal with with making their weight limits within their fighting weight class. That part might be difficult for some

[AboveAverageJoe]

The sports you can die doing?
1. Big Wave Surfing
2. MMA
3. Boxing
All three have real life or death consequences.

[godzilla]

When you say hard, it could mean a few different things. American football for example is physically difficult as fuck, even high school practices will be insane but its very easy to play to learn if your a great athlete. Look at Antonio Gates. Basketball is easy in terms of just going to practice but requires amazing athletes and skill.



To me, not in any order

Soccer
any type of Fighting
Basketball

All three require skills but great athleticism as well.