Most Difficult Sport

My senior admittedly played a lot of soccer from age 5-14.  Now he just picks up a soccer ball 3 days before season starts. And puts it down at end of season.  He s probably going to be an all conference player this year.  Not even close. Baseball is a much more difficult sport.

I’m going with bowling. It’s easy to be a little above average, but there are very few elite bowlers. My son decided to be a two sport athlete this fall and made the bowling team. The top level of the competition is very good. These kids average low 200’s, not far off from the pro bowlers. We just upgraded my son’s ball. It is like going from a $50 bat from Walmart to a Meta.

I’m kind of joking about bowling but it is crazy how good some of these kids are.

Difficulty is very hard to measure because there are different skills. I definitely think that hitting a baseball is one of the tougher things because it involves:

1)

a high power output of up to 5.5k watts for pro hitters which is elite power, even the best shot putters which are the most powerful athletes in the world only generate like 1.5k more or so, i. E up to 7k.

2) High degree of motor precision: the sweet spot of a round object needs to hit a small ball and half an inch can make the difference between a homer and a pop up

3) short reaction time

4) complex visual calculation to predict ball flight as the swing is essentially "blind" the last 15 ft, i. E can't be changed anymore

5) ability to vary launch timing and move bats to different spots in the zone in a very short time window.

People who are great at all 5 things are extremely rare, you need to be able to generate at least 4 k watts of power to play pro and still be good to great at the other skills which is not a very common combination.

To become super elite?  Maybe golf?  The best player ive ever played with was #1 on a big 10 golf team.  State amateur champ 2 years in a row.  Beat me once for giggles using LH golf clubs (back when I was an 8 index).  Never came close to the pga tour.  I asked him once what the difference was and he said "3 chips and putts per round".  I suppose thats the same in any sport. Some intangible that lets you pull things off in the big spot 

It's really the mental side of the game that makes high level baseball truly difficult.

I think golf comes in a close 2nd - it just lacks the same mano a mano physicality (and the ball is stationary).

However, the best athletes will tend to gravitate towards basketball or football. Just depends on their build and/or skill-set.

I've always thought you could take a baseball player and put him in any other sport and he'd be able to compete, at the very least be able to blend in.

If you took a player from soccer, basketball, hockey, etc, they would stick out like a sore thumb in baseball

Pick up the book "The Fine Green Line". A scratch golfer decided to take a year off, get lessons, practice every day , and join a tour(don't remember which).

So he goes to a great golf coach and asks how many strokes he can improve and the coach told him maybe 1!

My memory is a little off as I read it a long time ago, (but I think it was Alex Agase from Pro tennis) was also on the tour and could not make it.

I played for years, from terrible to bogie, to a 7 HDCP. What I learned was by the time u are old enough to practice every day, you are too old to still have the distance and energy to do it every day.

Taught all the kids and have a great time beating them. But alas, Seth now drives Par 4's and my time is coming.

"Kill Shot"

Indoor handball requires the physical and mental quickness of an athlete.

Tiny black, solid ball.  Using thinly padded gloves. Indoor court 20' wide, 40' length, 20' high.

Played for 50 years.

My 1st games were at MSU with games with the MSU football players.

Bob

Golf is hard because the damn ball is not moving.  At all.  You just stare at it until you are ready.  Heaven forbid you start thinking... 

I'm going to have to say golf is probably one of the most difficult to be "elite", but it's probably one of the most accommodating to individuals who are not physically fit. It's also interesting to think that we come in all shapes and sizes and depending on what our genetics gave us we may be suited better for a particular sport. So what's hardest probably depends also on what we were born with.

1 - golf

2- downhill skiing

A scratch golfer friend of mine described it to me - "If I'm golfing 72 most rounds, where do I pick up a stroke? With four par 5s and four par 3s, I can maybe carve out one more stroke on a par 3 or a par 5.  Very difficult to improve from where I'm currently at."

In addition to being demanding physically and mentally, the margin for error in downhill is very small. Mistakes can be life-threatening.

Gymnastics is a pretty tough sport. Extreme physical strength and balance needed and the window of success is only a few years.

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

My senior admittedly played a lot of soccer from age 5-14.  Now he just picks up a soccer ball 3 days before season starts. And puts it down at end of season.  He s probably going to be an all conference player this year.  Not even close. Baseball is a much more difficult sport.

Where you live has impact on how hard a sport may be. Your son would be unlikely to make the high school soccer team my son played on. Every kid but one was on an elite summer team. Due to playing on elite travel baseball teams in the summer my son compensated by attending an elite goalie camp for six weeks, five days per week in the summer.

Ted Williams: Baseball is the hardest sport. I have to hit a moving pitch. In golf the ball sits there.

Sam Snead: But you don't have to play your foul balls.

I'd say wrestling.  Certainly at the college level, having to give up most eating and drinking to make weight is a real challenge for 18-22 year olds on a college campus.  Beyond that, crew, hockey and cross country are all really brutal.  

the Hardest sport and it isn't even close= GOLF

and requires ,by far , the most practice/hours to be elite(pro) or semi elite(scratch)...

thousands of variables for each shot and lie and condition (the key though is to limit those variables-at least mentally ..but the physical variables will always exist)

a milion years back/ before Kids I was a 1 - 2 handicap.  required 15-20 hours practice a week just to maintain that and I had a job.

Once the kids came I stopped cold turkey for 18- 20 ish years. (still go to range every now and then)

why?- because I didn't have the hours available with a growing family/career to keep me semi competitive.   cant just go out with the guys and have a few beers and hack around even if its a event..that equals max pain to me.

I could go on an on about it.  but it seems pretty well documented in the answers above.

but someone said bowling?  lol  - the only sport where you can roll out of bed after not bowling for 10 years and no practice, with old equipment and still average 210 + as a joke..(spent/wasted too much time bowling as a kid)

hardest team sport= Basketball.

elite athleticism is needed + size + 1000's hours or practice. The other team sports do not have an elite athleticism and size requirement (mostly position dependant) .

@RJM posted:

Where you live has impact on how hard a sport may be. Your son would be unlikely to make the high school soccer team my son played on. Every kid but one was on an elite summer team. Due to playing on elite travel baseball teams in the summer my son compensated by attending an elite goalie camp for six weeks, five days per week in the summer.

Ok. You win. Mostly because you used "elite" 3x in four sentences. Now I'm intimidated! Seriously though. My kids not an elite soccer player but he proves if you have athleticism and some baseline skills you can play at a reasonably high level.  If he tried that in baseball he'd hit .150.  Soccer recruiting is a lot different than baseball.  Its possible to also play football or even soccer and still get recruited in baseball.  If you dont play for a club team in soccer its almost impossible to play D1 soccer. 

@PABaseball posted:

I've always thought you could take a baseball player and put him in any other sport and he'd be able to compete, at the very least be able to blend in.

If you took a player from soccer, basketball, hockey, etc, they would stick out like a sore thumb in baseball

A baseball player would stick out like a sore thumb in all those sports.

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

Ok. You win. Mostly because you used "elite" 3x in four sentences. Now I'm intimidated! Seriously though. My kids not an elite soccer player but he proves if you have athleticism and some baseline skills you can play at a reasonably high level.  If he tried that in baseball he'd hit .150.  Soccer recruiting is a lot different than baseball.  Its possible to also play football or even soccer and still get recruited in baseball.  If you dont play for a club team in soccer its almost impossible to play D1 soccer.

My son played football in middle school rather than soccer. He still played goalie or the town travel soccer team on the weekend.

Freshman year he decided he didn't want to risk injury playing football. He returned to school soccer. He said in those two years of not practicing during the season every day he lost the ball handling skills to compete at the varsity high school level in the field.

The thing is, at age twelve at the high school soccer camp coach declared he was the future goalie. Obviously, he had to get to high school and prove the coach right. But, he was on the radar early.

He was approached by local D1`s per recommendation of the goalie camp. They advised they would have to get past his passion for baseball. They didn't have a prayer.

For me it's Jarts.  Hands down.  My logic is simple; The government had to ban them due to the exceptional skill needed not to injure someone.

@IAmThatGuy posted:

For me it's Jarts.  Hands down.  My logic is simple; The government had to ban them due to the exceptional skill needed not to injure someone.

Jarts?

Lawn Darts.  Usually played at big family gatherings.  You launch very heavy lawn darts high in the air, so they would come straight down and stick in the ground within a small circle.  Lots could go wrong.  So I ask what's harder hitting a 97 MPH ball with 20inches of vertical movement or sticking the lawn with a dart and not your sister.  

You have a point....

I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses. Great thoughts!

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

To become super elite?  Maybe golf?  The best player ive ever played with was #1 on a big 10 golf team.  State amateur champ 2 years in a row.  Beat me once for giggles using LH golf clubs (back when I was an 8 index).  Never came close to the pga tour.  I asked him once what the difference was and he said "3 chips and putts per round".  I suppose thats the same in any sport. Some intangible that lets you pull things off in the big spot

I'm not sure if golf is as hard as baseball. Yes, there is a huge number of golfers who can win and that makes it tough mentally but really there are 1000s of golfers who can play under par on a good day but there are not 1000s of guys who can hit a 98 mph fastball.

In baseball there is just a huge difference between hitting a ball at 98 and hitting a ball at 84 and in golf everyone hits a stationary target.

Sure the top golfers are a bit more consistent and then in the end will take 10 strokes less per round than a good amateur but a good amateur will not get totally blown up like most solid amateur hitters would be by mlb pitching.

I'm not saying golf isn't hard, it is definitely hard to reach the top level but imo you can't compare hitting a stationary target with hitting a moving ball thrown at upper 90s.

@Dominik85.  Point well taken.  Dont disagree. 

@momball11.  Thx for spicing up the joint.  We hit a stale patch for a bit

Do golf and bowling count as a sport?  Anything that can be done with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other is suspect.  As I aged, I went from a beer a hole golfer to a decent golfer.

Im not arguing golf over baseball. But no one has mentioned course as a variable. A wide open municipal course is much easier to play than a certified PGA course.

The first time I played a PGA course reminds me of the line from Jaws, You’re going to need a bigger boat. I needed a bigger bag of balls. I spent a lot of time looking for my ball. The fairways were really narrow.

I played EastLake in Atlanta few years ago(Bobby Jones home course). Learned pretty quickly that Women LPGA courses were more my speed.

Caddies were required. Every time I hit a drive he told me that when we get up to where Tiger hits "I will show you!".

Course is definitely a variable.  But the course is not actively trying to get you to lose.  My youngest son is a golfer; he said golf was harder because it has way more situations than baseball.  But he agreed that baseball has  pitchers who are trying to get you to strike out.

@IAmThatGuy posted:

So I ask what's harder hitting a 97 MPH ball with 20inches of vertical movement or sticking the lawn with a dart and not your sister.  

Not sure I should answer this, but I guess it really depends on what part of the country your from 🤨

I always chuckle when I hear that baseball has a high failure rate - the old "the best only get hits 30% of the time".  Well most golf shots do not go in the hole, on a great day maybe 25% will.  How many times does a hockey player have to hit the puck before it goes in the net?

I think level of difficulty of any sport depends on the competition.  Any sport is "easy" if you are playing someone or a team that isn't very good.  Likewise, most anything is extremely difficult if you play against competition that is as good or better than you.

Smitty;

Playing 1b with Mickey Mantle at bat. Batting off Bob Gibson. "Fear for your life".

Listen to the "Gentle Giant" 6'8 " Frank Howard. You do not want to be a runner on 3b when Frank hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdpT7AjfMgY.

Bob

@Consultant posted:

Smitty;

Playing 1b with Mickey Mantle at bat. Batting off Bob Gibson. "Fear for your life".

Listen to the "Gentle Giant" 6'8 " Frank Howard. You do not want to be a runner on 3b when Frank hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdpT7AjfMgY.

Bob

Oh I get it.  I was playing 1B for a D3, holding a runner on and a D1 future 8-year MLB player was as the plate.  Mercifully he hit the ball with what looked like a 35% launch angle a mile over my head, and the fence.

@Smitty28 posted:

Oh I get it.  I was playing 1B for a D3, holding a runner on and a D1 future 8-year MLB player was as the plate.  Mercifully he hit the ball with what looked like a 35% launch angle a mile over my head, and the fence.

Sometimes I worry my son might really hurt someone when he hits because he hits very hard. There's been some really close calls already and I know some have lost their lives from being hit by a baseball.

@Momball11 posted:

Sometimes I worry my son might really hurt someone when he hits because he hits very hard. There's been some really close calls already and I know some have lost their lives from being hit by a baseball.

I worry about my LHP all the time. 

LOL, interesting topic, I think this is a three-part question…

• What sport requires the most extreme genetic gifts to reach highest level?
• What sport requires the longest average soak time of extreme focused training to reach the highest level?
• What sport has the highest combination of both reach the highest level?

In 1981 as soon to be HS junior I had a press pass for the US national track meet (I was a promising discus thrower in HS) and got to watch Edwin Moses run the 400 high hurdles up close and personal. This was in the middle of his 107 consecutive first place finishes between 1977 and 1987. I don’t know if there could be a more gifted and focused athlete, it was beyond description. I don’t think anything trumps track and field for requiring the most physical gifts to reach the highest level.

However, the training soak requirement for baseball is staggering. Most kids get a glimpse when they don’t make varsity as a freshman, and then again when they don’t start in college until they’re a soph or junior. It really hits home when they’re successful in a P5 program and hit a wall in high A, and again in AA. If they’re lucky, again in AAA and one more time at the MLB level. There are always anomalies, but for most each level is a big adjustment and few skip steps or struggles.

Since every problem is solved with a hammer if that’s all you have in your toolbox, my vote is for baseball… LOL!

My first thought was tennis.  Requires high level of athleticism, conditioning, precision, can't hide among teammates, every shot and move is on you, etc.  But then, the clear answer came to mind...

FREE SOLO CLIMBING

@JucoDad posted:

LOL, interesting topic, I think this is a three-part question…

• What sport requires the most extreme genetic gifts to reach highest level?
• What sport requires the longest average soak time of extreme focused training to reach the highest level?
• What sport has the highest combination of both reach the highest level?

Since every problem is solved with a hammer if that’s all you have in your toolbox, my vote is for baseball… LOL!

Great post! Thank you!

I am with you. Most folks don't really realize how hard it really is to reach the top in baseball (and stay there).

There is that wall that exists at every level. That and injuries that are career ending killers.