<p>recently i’ve been playin basketball again after quite a while…</p>
<p>anyway, there are 3 sports that are indeed very hard:</p>
<p>basketball, football and hockey.</p>
<p>if you’ve played some hardcore basketball games then you know how hard it is to keep up. DAMN. you’ve gotta have nothing but SPEED on the court, and continuous focus on a person and a ball simultaneously. you’ve also gotta change spots every second therefore you acquire responsibility in every passing moment until the game ends. </p>
<p>football is aggressive and frikkin pounding. 'nuff said.</p>
<p>hockey is also damn heavy. one wrong move and you can lose your head with that stick.</p>
<p>BTW when i mention most difficult sports I mean traditional team-oriented ones (as those listed above) - and not ones that have been simplified (bull fighting, car racing, skiing, you get the point).</p>
<p>futsal is really difficult. it’s like soccer on a basketball court, only the ball is like half the size but heavier. you have keep within bounds (no walls like indoor soccer), and the ball rolls really easily. as a result, you have to have perfectly timed passes, excellent ball control, and it moves so quickly, so lots of sprinting and such. and if you play keeper (as i did), it’s a tough job. the goal is small, but so is the ball, and most of the time, shots are on the ground. so stopping and keeping control of the ball is very difficult. if you don’t have knee pads (i didn’t for awhile) your knees become black with bruises. on top of that, you have to be careful how far you kick the ball in the air. if it passes over certain lines while in the air, then the other team gets the ball.</p>
<p>Tennis, easily. 3 hours of sprinting back and forth on a hard court can take its toll. And even more difficult is the mental aspect. You’re all alone on that court. You have to will yourself to keep your level of play up, even when you’re down and likely to lose. And so often, matches come down to just one or two crucial points. I have huge respect for tennis players that can consistently win.</p>
<p>Pound for pound, gymnasts are the strongest athletes in the world and it’s an uber hard sport. Overall, basketball seems to require the most athletic skill with the exception of one position in football … NFL cornerbacks seem to have the hardest job in sports. Those guys have to move like cats and hit like bulls!</p>
<p>swimming, waterpolo, and… SQUASH. If you are playing an intense game of squash, it can be like sprinting for 3 hours. Plus you have to be amazingly agile and have great hand-eye coordination and the split second ability to strategize.</p>
<p>Soccer is very hard, but of all the sports I’ve played I’ve got to say distance running (anything 800 meters and up to XC). If you’ve never done cross country, I can’t really describe it. Basically, I start hurting around the third or fourth minute, and then come the hills and the pushing and such. Then there was the race we had where it was soaking out and I got spiked on top of my foot on a turn. For the rest of the race, I pretty much had blooding coming out of my shoe each time my foot hit the ground. It’s not an easy sport.</p>
<p>tennis isnt the hardest sport…not even close…i play soccer, basketball, and football but they dont seem to me to be the hardest sports…in my opinion, it’s gotta be lacrosse</p>
<p>I second tennis…everyone else names “straight line” sports…you know exactly where you need to go to score…tennis is a mystery…you could be center-back court one second, front left the next 2 seconds, top right the next…it not only involves strength and speed, but finesse and knowledge as well…you need to know how to control the other player…soccer is similar in that it requires finesse…but once again, you know exactly where you need to go…get the ball to the opposing side of the field and score…tennis anything is possible…you could be down 5-2 40-0…come back instantly 6-6 tie breaker…you need to practice power and control all at the same time…too much power you overhit…too much control you have a descent shot but it’s too slow…it’s not about balancing the two…it’s about having both in their extremes and learning to use them…never do you see so much run, stop, back to the center, run, stop, to the opposite side…you can’t just be beastly and fast…you need to be strong, fast, AND have rhythm…a match can be between half an hour and 5 hours…</p>
<p>secondly…unless you actually play tennis, don’t feel free to call it an “easy sport.” Get on a court and try it with a descent player.</p>
<p>Gymnastics and Horseback Riding. Gymnastics because first of all the tricks they do, the pounding the training 40 hours a week and then it comes down to that one second in that one all imporatant compeition and its really stressful. You need to have strong everything, arms,legs,stomache muscles. In soccer for example you jsut need strong legs. Gymnastics its everything. You have to be flexible, be able to rotate,twist,flip . Have power and grace at the same time. Its not like another sport where if your not good at this you jsut do this. You have to excell at 4 totally diffrent events. (6 for guys).
And when it comes down to it, it’s all you. You get one shot and thats it.</p>
<p>Horseback Riding. Your controling a 1,000 pound animal plus yourself. That in itself is very hard. You have to pull on the rein just so, you have to kick at jsut the right time. Time it from turn to jump. Its pretty stressful.</p>
<p>Baseball/softball is more difficult than people think it is, IMO. People go “oh, it’s not that hard to hit a little ball with a big stick!” but believe me, it’s harder than it looks. There’s also a lot of strategy/mental challenges involved, such as when to lay down a bunt or steal a base.</p>
<p>probably tennis. most people can’t even keep the ball in the court. now try running around playing a good opponent who puts you under pressure forcing you to hit great shots on the run. You will rarely find a top tennis player who didn’t start playing tennis before the age of 10 because it takes a tremendous amount of time to train, practice, and get better.</p>
<p>i’m assuming “HARDEST sports to play” refers to hardest skill wise and not just hardest to play physically.</p>