<p>^ I agree baseball is very hard, but maybe its just because I have spent more time on it than golf that I find golf harder. Most sports cannot compare to baseball, even at pro levels. No other sport plays 160+ games a year, often 20 games in a row with only 1 day off inbetween the next 20, and that one day off spent on a jet lagged flight from NY to LA. Pitching is soo hard, i struggle with my control… Hitting a curveball is extremly hard as well, oftentimes you can’t even see the spin on it until its too late.</p>
<p>xc .</p>
<p>SWIMMING is THE most difficult and physically tiring sport in the world.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you mean by hard. if you mean by skill yeah it’ll probably be something like baseball. If you mean by like physical pain where you can’t make it anymore it’ll probably be cross country. But if you mean a combination it’ll probably be gymnastics they spend like thirty hours a week in the gym and most of the things they do require an incredible amount of strenght and precision especially stuff like the rings and they’re training their entire lives. it’s crazy [YouTube</a> - Yang scores 16.400 in rings](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSP19GYVTGM&feature=channel]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSP19GYVTGM&feature=channel)</p>
<p>^ Gymnastics was the first sport of which I thought.</p>
<p>Hardest Sport(s):</p>
<p>1) Mental Toughness: Golf, tennis, or baseball (only when batting. Hand-eye coordination is key)</p>
<p>2) Physical Beating: Hockey, Lacrosse, track, hymnastics, or swimming (lol, Michael Phelps’ regimen)</p>
<p>Need for high IQ: Basketball & soccer. I say this because if you are a smart player, you actually can get by with little athleticism, although it helps tremendously. When you are injured, being smart can still make you effective. </p>
<p>Personally, I like basketball the most, and we run hard at my school. Lacrosse took some engery, that’s for sure! I haven’t swam, golfed, or played hockey competitively yet.</p>
<p>Baseball isn’t that hard, I mean I’m good at it, so I’m biased. I just got a little bored when I played. Mental toughness and mechanics dictate how well you will succeed. I love the look on pitchers’ faces when I spank one with the pressure on and people taunting lol :D</p>
<p>
If you do it for fun maybe, but if you’re actually serious about it and have a good coach XC is the hardest.</p>
<p>Edit: Probably the same with swimming as well.</p>
<p>
This is coming from a guy who picked baseball? Baseball is probably one of the easiest HS sports out there; it doesn’t really classify as physically or mentally demanding.</p>
<p>Yeah the people who are good at XC are pretty beastly. I could never do what they do. I mean track is hard but it’s in a different way. Most distance runners can’t sprint though.</p>
<p>^Yeah, I agree! Some people are veeeeeery good at XC, and that is definitely work ethic and natural ability. I’m a short distance sprinter, so I can’t really run XC ;)</p>
<p>If you are talking about the skill and talent needed to succeed at a sport, baseball is in a class by itself. Lets start of with hitting. It’s 1 vs. 9, a little unfair I might say. Secondly, just to emphasize how hard it actually is, if a hitter had a batting average of .333, that is, got a hit 1 out of 3 at bats on average, he would be a star. That same person would have then not gotten a hit (ie. failed) 2 out of three times. Thirdly, you have to hit a round ball with a round bat and make it go straight. That ball is also curving every which way to make it even harder on you.
Next, as a pitcher, typically to be able to compete at a varsity level, you need to be able to throw a ball at least 80-85 miles per hour consistantly over a plate that is 17 inches wide from 60 feet, 6 inches away. The thing is, just being able to throw it that hard over the plate isn’t nearly enough. If you were to throw it over the middle of the plate every pitch, you would be destroyed. You need to be able to throw a fastball on either corner of the plate with about a 2 inch margin for error consistantly to be successful. Aside from just that, you need to throw at least a curveball or slider (preferably both) and a changeup for strikes as well. Each additional pitch takes at least a year or two just to have it good enough to throw in a game, maybe 4-6 years to have it mastered.
And as for the infielders, they have to scoop up a ball that, at any moment, could take a bad hop and hit them in the head or somewhere worse, traveling upwards of 90-100 mph and fire it across the diamond over 100 feet on a line at the first baseman’s chest in about 5 seconds or it is an error. Outfielders have to run sometimes 50 yards and catch a spinning ball that was hit from 300 feet away and catch it on the run or while diving.
Needless to say that takes a tremendous amount of skill to be able to do and just being athletic doesn’t get you anywhere like it would in many other sports. As for the pounding one must take, pitchers have to take about 3-4 games off every time they pitch just because of the wear and tear it takes on you arm. To be able to throw that hard is not natural and not good for your body.
Baseball IS the hardest sport in the world.</p>
<p>@dunbar, you have to be kidding me. XC is for people lacking the coordination to play a real sport. Any pitcher from my high school can run 5k in 18 minutes or less, but I doubt you could even hit a baseball or throw a strike off of a major league mound. </p>
<p>And for the record, as someone who played baseball and basketball I would pick wrestling to be the hardest. Maybe hockey or baseball.</p>
<p>^^ Dude, you write too much.</p>
<p>Golf is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried in my life.
Just doesn’t make sense to me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Clearly you don’t know much about baseball. What is your basis for this comment, exactly?</p>
<p>^ Baseball IS hard if you’re talking in terms of how skilled you have to be but not in physical pain. And gymnastics is still harder than baseball.</p>
<p>^Clearly you’ve never thrown a complete game/120+pitches. You can’t lift your arm over your shoulder for two days.</p>
<p>^Ahhh, very true. I forgot about wrestling, definitely physically demanding. I played lacrosse, and that wasn’t as bad as hockey probably, but XC is all about natural ability. Kids at my school use it as a tune-up for winter sports. </p>
<p>I played SS in baseball, and was quite good. I never had a true rocket arm, so being a starter pitcher wasn’t my thing. However, as a closer for a few innings, I did some damage. I had a knack for clutch batting, especially when taunted. Don’t you love the dread on pitchers’ faces after you smack a ball lol?</p>
<p>watched hockey, never played it… it looks really hard, and dangerous even… hard, slippery surface + sticks + blades + fast speeds + walls with glass… not exactly a good combination of things.</p>
<p>How is gymnastics harder? That’s just having the guts to flip around and hurl you body in all different ways combined with balance. It’s hard, but it’s not like baseball.</p>
<p>They train for 30-40 hours a week completely working every muscle in their body.</p>
<p>I would say skill-wise, baseball is by far the most difficult. Gymnastics, wrestling, and hockey all seem pretty tough both athletically and skill-wise. XC and track are just pure athleticism, no skill involved. I’m always surprised basketball gets no love in these threads, it’s more physical than anyone gives it credit for, and requires a ton of coordination. Then again, this is CC, the only place I’ve seen where the majority of the athletes run XC or play tennis lol.</p>