<p>Aluminum:
Table tennis is both a game and a sport. Depends on the level and the fitness of the players, really.</p>
<p>Salve: as a table tennis player, the key is to add insane amounts of topspin on the ball, which forces the ball down. Ping pong is essentially 3 things: spin, reflexes, and legwork. Things get very complicated, which is why I say it’s a hard sport.</p>
<p>And having played both baseball and ping pong, I have to say ping pong is far more strenuous of a sport to play, believe it or not. (as a game, not really) </p>
<p>As a side note, ping pong helped me with basketball defense greatly, as the lateral movement you gain with it is unattainable anyway else.</p>
<p>"Any athlete can run cross country. You cannot be serious. That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Seriously, cross country involves ZERO skill. It is all athleticism. </p>
<p>That may be the worst post I have ever seen on any message board in my life. Good grief. "</p>
<p>Hatersunite- I challenge you to run 3.1 miles continuosly.
If you can do that without stopping- good.
Now, run it again on a field with huge holes in the grass that you can fall over, hills that you can barely walk up and i don’t know about maybe 30 people behind you jockeying for position…
And then do it in under 30 minutes.
I think you will die/ go insane from the pain. If you haven’t tried it- don’t even comment on it b/c you really don’t know. </p>
<p>Baseball- joke compared to the ohysical pain of cross country. You grit your teeth and you don’t throw up
you have no time to throw up.</p>
<p>math+sci=asian, just so you know your name is awesome!</p>
<p>Anyway, I was decent at table tennis at one time, but I never am able to play because I don’t know where there are tables. I see what you are saying with the topspin on the ball.</p>
<p>You know what sport I love, ULTIMATE FRISBEE, ftw!</p>
<p>nil desperandum, there may very well be some fit high school baseball guys who, despite not doing a lot of running, can hop on an average cross country course and run a 20 minute 5k. hatersunite’s posts are extreme and inaccurate, but you cannot defeat his posts by countering with your own extreme/inaccurate views(ie if you don’t want him to call your sport a joke, don’t call his sport a joke).</p>
<p>golf. Its hard to learn at the beginner level, but it is also hard to get very good at at the professional or high amatuer or junior level. It takes a ton of practice, and just when you think you found something, you lose it. It is a physical and mental game, challenging you in both ways. You don’t know how hard it is to make a 3 foot putt to win a tournament until you’ve tried it.</p>
<p>all sports if the person is dedicated enough are hard. whether it be golf or cycling. Every sport has a level or time that whhen reached, the sport becomes harder to get better at. Example, for track once you hit the 50 sec mark for the 400m, it becomes a pain staking work out to get a sub 50. So all ssports if worked at hard enough are tough. Well thats just my opinion anyways lol:)</p>
<p>Okay, lets put it this way. As a high school pitcher, I can personally garauntee you that I could easily strike any of you that have never played competitive baseball before out on three pitches. But if I were to go up against a football team as a running back or something, I could gain a few yards. I could also make a basket or two if I got on a bball court. Sure, I’d wouldn’t be good, but anyone that hasn’t played baseball would be embarrased if he were to step up to the plate.
I’d also like to nominate any sport featured in the X-Games. You just have to be wired differently to have the balls to even try some of that stuff, let alone pull it off.</p>
<p>Yeah but what is “good” relatively speaking in baseball? In baseball, you arent even supposed to really hit the ball more than 1/3 tiems. Wouldn’t not making any baskets be an embarrassment? Or getting your ass tackled before you even touch the ball? Or coming in dead last in a cross country race (or getting lapped haha…thats the worst).</p>
<p>What is “bad” is all relative to the sport.</p>
<p>Yes, baseball is unbelievably difficult in terms of hand eye coordination, some strength. But it is also a ridiculously easy sport in terms of how strenuous it can be.</p>
<p>^^^ No, you hit the ball like 9/10 times if you are an average hitter, it’s just actually succeeding when you hit the ball that is the hard part. A great hitter gets a hit about 1/3 times</p>
<p>Also, while you are right that it is not the most strenuous sport by any means, it is also not even close to ridiculously easy. An MLB team plays 162 games a year, double what the NHL and NBA play and ten times what the NFL plays. Sure, one individual game won’t leave you sore for days (unless you are a pitcher, in which case it surely would), but a whole season will definitly wear on you.</p>
<p>I run XC, and it’s pretty punishing if you take it seriously. I’m a 16:50 ish 3-mile guy, and our workouts are pretty tough. 4 mile repeats at 5:05-5:10 per mile, 3 minute recovery time. It doesn’t matter how talented you are - if you’re serious about your efforts, it’s a painful sport. </p>
<p>Football also looks really bad though…running and getting tackled in the heat with padding on.</p>
<p>I also played basketball before, and it was alot easier when compared to XC/track.</p>
<p>i love xc, but i wish it was harder for me. My coach is way too easy on us. The only reason our team is decent is bc we have competitive guys. After my year, our team is dead.</p>
<p>I would say swimming is hard, but i can’t swim. I go into the water, and my legs just drop.Its like they are too huge from running. does that happen to anyone? I try to float, but my legs just drop below the water</p>
<p>Football–due to the physical abuse, exceptions are kicker/punter
Hockey–same, only more running (skating?) involved
Swimming–In the top because my school team has 5 AM practices and is insane</p>
<p>Note: Sports in the same tier are equal in difficulty.</p>
<p>Tier Two:</p>
<p>These are the “running” sports. They may not have the same physical abuse, but are still tiresome and respected by other athletes.</p>
<p>Basketball
Soccer
XC/Track</p>
<p>Tier Three</p>
<p>I put country club sports here or sports that are more mentally challenging than physically. </p>
<p>Golf (the most respected of this tier IMO with the toughest learning curve)
Baseball (I had this in tier two at one point, but switched it here)
Tennis
Diving? Not sure on this one</p>
<p>The Final Tier</p>
<p>Sports that aren’t really sports</p>
<p>Cheerleading (without the flips and other stuff, I’m talking more about like a pom pom or spirit squad).
Volleyball
Ping Pong</p>
<p>Sports that really don’t fit into any tier: These are more individual or Olympic sports, not always respected but still painful/more likely to get hurt </p>
<p>Gymnastics/Cheerleading (with all of the flips and fun formations)
X-Games stuff
Ice skating (for the same reason as gymnastics)
Wrestling (had put this one into tier three at one point)</p>
<p>Anyways, I play/have played basketball, soccer, XC, and tennis.</p>
<p>toshime, you’ve obviously never played pingpong competitively. You need insanely good reaction speed to keep up.</p>
<p>and with your physical abuse, you missed alot of stuff. rugby, mma, and boxing will really mess you up. Then above even those, you have the various bloodsports in developing countries. muay thai fighters in thailand typically train from birth, start competing at maybe 18, and retire at 24 or so because their bodies are so messed up.</p>
<p>Sorry, but you can’t compare gymnastics to cheerleading. A competitive gymnast has likely trained an average of 20 hours/week, year-round, beginning at age 5 or 6. From the ages of 10-16, an elite gymnast is generally training at least 36 hours/week (again, year-round). To even be a collegiate gymnast, you have to have trained 20-24 hours/week from age 7 on. Gymnastics may not be a “mainstream sport” like baseball, soccer, football, etc., but it is a sport, nonetheless, so it can be included in this discussion. Gymnastics requires incredible strength, flexibility, mental toughess, air sense, coordination, and the ability to compete on four completely different events (it’s like 4 different sports). My husband is a baseball coach, and while he feels baseball is a sport that requires much skill and is extremely difficult, he will be one of the first to agree that gymnastics ranks as the most difficult. (We have a gymnast, soccer player, and baseball player in our family). Also, gymnastics training prepares you for other sports. Three of my daughter’s teammates quit gymnastics during their sophomore and junior years of high school. One became a track and field phenom in the strength events, gaining a full scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill and earning a spot on the Olympic Team (Greece); another earned a scholarship to UConn as a hurdler, yet another (male…not miniature… and an elite-level gymnast) went to college on a wrestling scholarship.</p>