Hardest things to do in sports, thoughts?

[Timcito]

Score a 149 in snooker.

I've tried my hand at lots of sports - soccer, tennis, cricket, badminton, squash, basketball, tabletennis, golf - and I'm the sort that is considered to have a fair amount of natural talent. However, without question, the most difficult thing I've done sportswise was potting balls and controlling the cue-ball on a full-size snooker table. If I potted 3 balls in succession I felt a sense of accomplishment.

Yet many professional players can clear the whole table at one visit. To do that requires a level of skill that, I think, is unmatched in any other sport I played or seen.

[ACfixer]

^^^ Yeah, I'm pretty sure a perfect score in Tiddly Winks is difficult too.

I'm also pretty sure if you took off on a 50' foot wave or faced a Nolan Ryan fastball you'd change your mind about what is difficult.

[Shiny McShine]

The hardest thing in sports is to remain competitive after 35.

[rhinocaster]

So many of these sports can't be compared at all, but it's fun to consider.

The only way I can find to search for the "Hardest thing in sports to do" is to think about how often the best in the world at their sport accomplish the task (or goal) of their sport.

If a great MLB batting average is in the mid .300s, then I can compare that to other sports and look at the success rate of other athletes when they attempt to accomplish the goal in their sport. I would think that great hockey players or soccer players make fewer than 33% of their attempts and great basketball players make more than 33% of their attempts but I don't know for sure.

Of course, this doesn't take into account something like long jump or pole vault in that the goal is to go until you fail to accomplish the task. It also doesn't take into account the reality that the "hardest" thing in sports could easily be read as the "most physically demanding" thing in sports and then you can't deny that the Tour De France reigns supreme. Yes, many people can train to ride the layout the Tour riders ride, but very few could do it following the same daily schedule and only the best riders in the world can ride it at the speeds those guys ride. Riding that course at your own pace would have to be compared to hitting a 60 mph fastball rather than a MLB 100 miler.

Golf is another thing too. In the article, they mention that hitting a long, straight drive is #4 on the list, but that's not the goal of golf and you almost never have to hit a long, straight drive so their logic escapes me. The goal is to put the ball in the hole with the fewest strokes possible. It's quite difficult to score a birdie on a par 4. You have only 3 strokes with a crooked club to make the ball travel 1/4 mile and end up in a drinking glass. It's hard to imagine that people can do that at all, yet good players accomplish the feat again and again.

Fun to think about.

[Timcito]

Originally Posted by ACfixer

^^^ Yeah, I'm pretty sure a perfect score in Tiddly Winks is difficult too.

I'm also pretty sure if you took off on a 50' foot wave or faced a Nolan Ryan fastball you'd change your mind about what is difficult.

Who, me?

[John H]

Sport vs. game vs. feat...apples and oranges and grapes (?).

I think most professional baseball players could finish the Tour de France. I don't think any TdF cyclists could hit .200, let alone .300.

Performing tricks is different than playing a sport. Certainly, there are degrees of difficulty, but comparing a sport that involves physical contact and/or an extended season to a series of races (grueling as they might be) or an exhibition of tricks or stunts is curious, at best, to me.

[pima1234]

Tour de France

[saltydogg]

Hitting a baseball and competing the Tour de France is not a fair comparison.

A more accurate comparison would be; what's more difficult:
1. Hitting a 100mph fastball from 60'6"
2. Riding a bicycle 60'6"

[Blue Light]

Even Michael Jordan batted .202 in the minors. Back when he quit basketball for a season to play baseball, one of the big magazines like Mens Journal or ESPN did a lengthy story explaining why Jordan -- and anyone else -- can't hit a professionally thrown baseball.

Is it the hardest sport? Sheesh. At the top level any sport must be murder. If any of us wielded a tennis racket, center court at Wimbledon, thousands of people in the stands, while Roger Federer slammed ball after 110 mph ball toward us, who would not flinch and go to pieces?

My own respects go to the sports that mix insane speeds along with perfect physical control. Downhill skiers hit 80 mph on a solid wall of ice. The coordination to do that is mindboggling.

Moto-X racers have to be insanely fit, indeed. But I have a special reverence for grand prix racers who throw lightweight bikes with 200 horsepower sideways into turns. Only a few people in the word can do it.

[Voodoo Blues]

Which is harder, baseball or cycling?
Pffffft you guy should try rock climbing some time.

[RCCola]

Driving an F1 car. Gotta go balls to the walls to keep the tires hot. Need insane reflexes and no fear.

...or hitting a baseball

[rhinocaster]

Originally Posted by John H

Sport vs. game vs. feat...apples and oranges and grapes (?).

I think most professional baseball players could finish the Tour de France. I don't think any TdF cyclists could hit .200, let alone .300.

Performing tricks is different than playing a sport. Certainly, there are degrees of difficulty, but comparing a sport that involves physical contact and/or an extended season to a series of races (grueling as they might be) or an exhibition of tricks or stunts is curious, at best, to me.

Not a chance. Many of the best cyclists in the world can't race the TdF, there's no hope for a baseball player! It IS comparing apples to oranges to grapes though.

[John H]

Didn't say "race", I said "finish", and I didn't say in how much time. That's part of my point.

Performing at an elite level, in any sport, race, stunt, etc., requires specific training and skill sets. Comparing things that require different abilities is curious, at best.

E.g., So which is harder, alligator wrestling or skateboarding?

[rhinocaster]

Originally Posted by John H

Didn't say "race", I said "finish", and I didn't say in how much time. That's part of my point.

Performing at an elite level, in any sport, race, stunt, etc., requires specific training and skill sets. Comparing things that require different abilities is curious, at best.

E.g., So which is harder, alligator wrestling or skateboarding?

But that's what happens when people want to compare the TdF to baseball. They'll let the athlete from baseball take as long as they want to ride the TdF course, and they'll compare THAT to hitting a MLB 100 mph fastball. That makes no sense. What makes the Tour nearly impossible is the course, the race schedule and the race pace. A baseball player could never "finish" the TdF because there are limits to the amount of time you can take on each stage.

I absolutely agree that it's curious to compare the skills required to compete in different sports and it's impossible to find a system that would let you objectively compare athletes and skill sets from different sports.

[Chris Scott]

I would have to say m/c roadracing on the F1/F2 level is right up there skills-wise, but fwiw...


Go and train for, say... 6 weeks. Nah - let's make it 6 months.

Get in the best physical condition your body will allow.

Now, paddle out on a nice n' glassy 15' day at Mavericks - not a macking 30+ day, just a barely-get-your-needle-off-the-peg kinda day.

...you doin' ok over there sport?

...ready for a little Tahitian experience now?


edit; +1 for cold water, and the demands it makes - I'm SOOO spoiled, as I've been down here almost 20 years, and my body's pretty much acclimatized to 80+ degree water. Used to surf NorCal every winter, and just the mere thought of duck diving 48 degree water kinda freaks me out a bit.