What's the Toughest Sport of All?
The following article was originally posted in December, 2006. It started an argument that has continued ever since. Care to join the debate?
Weighing the combined challenges of endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility, nerve, durability, hand-eye coordination, and something called analytic aptitude, ESPN.com declares that ice hockey is the second-most difficult and demanding sport, right behind boxing.
The panel of "experts" arrived at a few suspect conclusions. (Baseball somehow scores 4.63-out-of-10 for endurance, but doesn't get its deserved 10-out-of-10 on the pot belly scale.) But it's about time they got something right over there.
ESPN.com's Top Ten Toughest Sports:
- Boxing
- Ice Hockey
- Football
- Basketball
- Wrestling
- Martial Arts
- Tennis
- Gymnastics
- Baseball/Softball
- Soccer
Postscript: The Toughest Sports: About Guides Speak Out
Comments
As for endurance,speed, strength, nerve, how is rowing not the top. You go absolutely full out so that you can’t walk or think afterwards. It is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Unlike boxing, you are inflicting pain upon yourself. Boxers are just out of breath after a match, yeah it’s tiring, but it is not the same as pushing your limits to the extreme. Rowing is so hard that often people pass out and their legs don’t work for quite a while. Cycling should be right up there too. The only difference is that they only use their legs, rowing is a full body workout. But the lactic acid build up is similar.
What! Boxers are just out of breath after a match? What utter nonsence. Boxers are fatigued to breaking point. Imagine the rower experiencing not just the lactic acid build-up, but someone trying to knock him out at the same time. Rowing – no matter how demanding – is not comparable to boxing in the tough-man stakes.
you are all fool’s water polo is by far the hardest sport you cant touch the ground for 32 minutes not to mention the mental awarness it takes to play. although boxing australlian football and rugby are all hard nothing compares to water polo try it and see
I think I have to agree for the most part with ESPN’s experts. Ive neverboxed but would imagine it is absolutely brutal. I think basically there are two main things to consider when talking about sports: athleticism and skills required. Given that hockey obliterates the vast majority of sports. Skating is not easy, and thats the first of umteen skills necacary. Besides that its almost as violent as football yet hockey players can play upwards of 110 games in a season while football players play what 18-19 games.
Obviously many of you have never rowed before. Rowing is the only sport I know that requires you to use almost every muscle in your body, every nerve of mental determination, and every ounce of strength. Boxing is tough, but think about it, you’re not using very many muscles, you have breaks every few minutes so you can take a breather and have a drink of water, and even during the actual rounds there are moments when you aren’t doing anything. Rowing is much different. Every stroke requires 100% of your effort, every muscle is used throughout every stroke, the entire time you have a little person yelling at you that adds weight to the boat, and the worst part is that you can’t stop pulling your hardest because there are 7 other people in your boat that are pulling there guts out and if you slack off then it will ruin the entire race. Boxing is just you in the ring, no one to let down but yourself, and if you really need it you can take a little break mid-round by keeping your distance. Boxing may be a tough sport but it is nowhere in comparison to rowing.
I never thought of that Cameron? Boxers can have a tiny rest between rounds. Have a nice drink of water. If they get hit too hard, lie down for, let’s say 9 seconds but they better get up before 10. Sometimes they don’t do anything in the rounds – maybe they’re just reflecting on life and contemplating quantum physics while they’re keeping their distance. They don’t even use all their muscles-I’d love to know which muscles they don’t use? Gees, I think all boxers should start wearing pink skirts. It’s obviously an easy peesy sport, and you obviously haven’t tried it.
Our boy Steeve has it right. Water polo is an hour of wrestling in the water, followed by sprinting balls out to wrestle on the other side, all while trying to throw a ball up to 60 mph and avoiding the cheap shots and low blows that go on under the water. Even the goalie doesn’t have it easy. They have to try to keep up with the ball. Hard enough to stay with a ball on ground. In the water, you’re hard pressed to out-swim someone walking on the pool deck. I’ve seen busted noses, all sorts of oral injuries, including someone having their 4 front teeth knocked in, and lets not forget one Olympic match that turned the pool pink with how much blood was spilt. Wrestling, sprint AND distance swimming, mixed with hockey-style tactics in 7 feet of water minimum
Rowing…
I have rowed for years, and in that time I’ve known lacrosse players, football players, basketball players, boxers, cross country runners, and a hockey player row and they all (with the exception of a football player, but he was a nut anyway) said it was THE hardest sport they’ve ever played. Even if they went back to their other sport.
One of the only sports that started as a form of captial punishment…
Man i can’t believe you think rowing is tougher than boxing. First of all i box and trust me a lot of the power from punching doesn’t only come form the arms some of it comes from the legs even because you have to use your entire body to get full power. Plus you have to be at your full guard because someone is trying to knock you out and don’t forget about the amount of endurance you need.
I agree that boxing is tough, so is hockey..but football tougher then rugby!! let me see those 300+ lineman run for 80 minutes solid!!! no chance!!
You guys are all worng letstalk about wrestling. Using every muscle in your body for 7 minutes is very brutal.
I certaintly do not agree with any of you.You cn thnk wat u wnt, bt nothing is hrder than gymnastics. And for your boys information, its not just a girl sport,guys 2.It is hrd because you have to deal with injuries,pain,pressure. that is wat i think.
If you guys want to argue, i think you guys should read this first before you argue. And i know every single one of you would disagree with this thing. But man this is ESPN…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills
One word….Ironman
One word… Ironman…. watchthis and tell me this is not the toughest sport —> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w
I had to laugh at Jamie Fitzpatrick’s final point in the first paragraph: hockey is second to boxing. This all reminded me of the joke: I was watching a boxing match and all of a sudden, a hockey game broke out. And remmember, boxers don’t have to skate but hockey players have to know how to skate and box. And without gloves.
Great reading all the other arguments.
You can turn your mind off when you’re rowing and go on automatic. Try that in boxing and you’re toast.
Swimming is definitely one of the hardest, if not the hardest, sports. It’s low stress on your joints, but it uses every muscle in your body. It pushes your lungs and heart to full capacity. It combines technique in which placing one part of your body an eighth of an inch wrong can make you lose with tons of strength and endurance.
I’d like to see some of these athletes from other sports hop in the water for a two hour practice in which they swim a 500 meter warmup, 45 minutes or so for technique work, something along the lines of 100 free, 50 fly, 100 free, 100 fly, 100 free, 200 fly, 100 free, 100 fly, 100 free, 50 fly, repeat entire set, and then 20 50 meter sprints on 40 seconds (easy, easy time) and then a 200 meter cooldown. That’s not too difficult a practice. And, oh yeah, the catcher? They have to get in and do it again that evening. And the next morning. And evening. And someplace in there they probably have weight lifting and other dry land training.
It’s not uncommon to have people throw up after a practice, or to be so tired that they can barely walk. Swimming is a lot harder than people give it credit for. Mainly because most people think of ’swimming’ as being going to the pool and playing around for a few hours.
Jamie, Rugby can easily be in the top 3. Football plays last an average of 4 seconds, with about 5 minutes plus of standing around in between plays. rugby is continous phases of hitting, being hit, getting back up and hit again. Hockey has us as you get to have/hold weopons and the speed involved.
I run crosscountry, and even though it may not be the toughest sport, you have to be in great physical condition to compete with the top runners. Not to mention how strong emotionally you have to be. If you tell yourself once that you can’t finish, then you’re done.
and why is basketball up there.
baseball is the toughest sport without a doubt, i can go out n compete in football or basketball anyday. I want to see a bower go up and try to hit an 80 mph pitch, let alone a 90. This survey sucks donkey
The second toughest sport in the world is wrestling. The toughest sport in the world is, by far, Mixed Marial Arts or Ultimate Fighting. It is a combination of marial arts and wrestling. First, for both sports, it is very phsically demanding; there is no break between periods unlike in football and hockey. Second, you do not have ten(10) other teammates on the field to help you. Also you can put in a second or third string in, in football and hockey. In wrestling it is just you your opponent and 6 minutes. Lastly while you wrestle your opponent is trying to punish you, in football or hockey the play could go the other way.
okay, all of you except for one person have said that football rugby and wrestling are the toughest but no. GYMNASTICS. you know why. you try doing back and front flips on a four foot inch wide/12 feet long beam, and theres transfering without the slightest mistake from bar to bar as gracefuliy as you can while at least two jugdes ar watching your every move and your caoch is just waiting to see you do something wrong just so he can yell at you. ohhh yeah and then theres vault. can you say running full speed at a stationary object and then flinging youself over it in a matter of 12 seconds. lastly floor. doing a full out routine with at least 3 passes of tumbling. knowing that you could break a bone at any time possible. tell me how that is not the toughest sport in the world.
Ok. Have any of you ever wrestled a 6 minute wrestling match? after not eating for a week to make wieght, then wrestling through a 32 man bracket. breaking bones, bleeding, breaking all your limits. and espn decides to put sports like baseball, football, and WTF basketball? infront of wrestling. i know there are thousands of people that would agree with me.
I think a lot of people can get the wrong idea of a demanding sport, or, I should say “harder” sport. I feel wrestling is in a different category when it comes to tough. Yes, running in basketball for a long period of time is difficult, yes it’s tough to do a back flip on a balance beam. Every sport is tough. Wrestling is different. It’s all or nothing, one on one. It’s the toughest sport, bar none. They sacrifice their normal day to day lives to a sport of fighting. Where practice is 3 hours of street brawl, conditioning, and lifting. Wishing at times to run sprints rather than wrestle live at practice. All to prepare for a 6 minute battle at most. Keep in mind throughout all those practices, the energy from simply eating a normal meal is all you can think about. Every day were the other sports eating dinner afterwards? Yes of course that just seems crazy not to eat after a workout like that but making weight is a necessity. The only team effort in wrestling is at practice making each other better by challenging their enemy in the wrestling room but friend outside it with everything they have. Encouraging one another to work harder and make the weight to compete for team points. When it comes to the tournament that weekend, that first match, they stand alone with all eyes on them with no one to blame for any mistakes but themselves. No safety to make a missed tackle, no teammate to rely on. A head on collision between two opponents. Struggling to break each other down physically and mentally until one is defeated.
to those who think that rowing is the toughests sport in the world Bwaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaa get bloody real.
Wrestling is the hardest sport of all. You basically use every muscle in your body for 6-7 minutes with about 10 seconds rest in between the 3 periods. its not just the match that makes it tough. its the practice that makes it the hardest sport. you have to be both physically though and mentally tough. i had to wrestle a 40-minute match with no breaks. if you stopped you were punished by either sprints or 100+ push-ups. i have played many sports (football, hockey, baseball, soccer, just to name a few) and i am training to fight MMA so i know what im talking about. it is the second oldest sport(cave drawings of wrestling found in france that were 15,000 years old) and was the supreme contest in the olympic games in ancient greece. i can honestly say it is the toughest sport.
Wrestling
in my opinion if you are judgeing the sport by overall toughness it should be martial arts, boxing, wrestling, ice hockey, gymnastics, football, tennis, soccer, baseball
of course this is a little biased cause im a wrestler
“There are only three real sports: bull-fighting, auto-racing, and mountain climbing. The rest are mere games.”
-Ernest Hemingway
Well The ranking system is wrong. ive been playing waterpolo basically my whole life as well as many other sport like football soccer basketball track baseball and crew. out of all of those sports the most demanding was water polo. When you watch it it looks easy you get in the water its a different story there punches thrown kicks to the face. And these punches aren’t coming from and pipsqueaks your talking about guys who are six foot three 250 who are all muscle it is way harder than basket ball football soccer and especially tennis you never get into a full on brawl in any sport regularly i had teeth knock out my nose broken and several fingers and my wrists dislocated. waterpolo need to be in the top three or there some secret life aof a tennis star that i dont know about
Rowing is not hard at all…anyone can do that if they train…try going into a wrestling practice or a boxing match…you little pansy rowers couldnt even survive…what did the first olympians do…gareentee it wasnt rowing boats in the water…its all mental..its all on you…you screw up in rowing you have 11 other guys to catch you…you fall in wrestling who you got?
I’m not surpised that the TOUGHEST sport is on there.No one bothers to ever think about except EQUESTRIANS.Yes,I said horseback riding.It’s tough.People DIE!Equestrians go through pain,dissapointment,victories,falls to get to the top.They don’t think about the injuries they could get.Equestrian is a TOUGH sport.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFv3envdm4&feature=PlayList&p=C4DDB677CFDC9972&index=8
Almost in total agreement with the rankings…just there are a few sports that either deserve to be higher or lower. Ice Hockey should be #1, and baseball/softball should be way lower on the scale, and other sports like rowing, and hard-core endurance sports should be up near the top.
I play high school football, basketball, and rowing… In football I would get concussions, and I have dislocated my shoulder getting hit. In basketball I have broken fingers and gotten dehydrated. In rowing I have gone to the end of the earth… After a 2k erg test I collapsed and stayed on the concrete floor for 20 minutes. Its true anyone can do rowing, as once you get the forn down then all you need to do is add power. To play basketball you need a certain touch. Rowing, you need complete focus, and determination. Rowing is by far the hardest sport you have to wake up at 6 am to go to practice… So football and basketball players don’t tell me they are harder. I know
HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE THINK THIS!!!!???!!! Softball is WAY tougher than any other sport in the universe. Have you seen us girls hit? Piss us off and we will hit a line drive headed straght for yuur head. Try to slide into home and we will break your leg! -I have been known to do that.- I mean have you ever SEEN, HEARD, OR WATCHED us play?! Softball Softball Softball Softball Softball Softball all the way baby.
p.s- even baseball isnt as tough as softball.
wrestling is by far the toughest sport out there! try not eating for weeks and being dehydrated and trying to wrestle for 7 minutes none of you guys would be able to do it!
Wrestling may be the toughest 6 minutes in sports, but RUGBY is the toughest 90 minutes. Playing in the pack combines the hitting of football (without the pads or helmet), the continuous running of soccer, the one on one physical struggle of wrestling in the scrums, and requires skill and coordination to pass and catch the ball.
MMA is harder than boxing or wrestling as it combine all forms of professional fighting. And equestrian are you kidding?
You’re riding a trained animal. Ride a dinosaur and I may be impressed. How is baseball so high? A DH gets payed millions to do next to nothing.
toughest sport i beleive is TOUR DE FRANCE. boxing or icehockey stand no where even close to it.
MOTOCROSS, MOTOCROSS, MOTOCROSS. I have played baseball for atleast 8 years. I played football for a few, basketball for a few and hockey. I have been racing motocross for three. It is the toughest sport in my opinion. You have to be in top physical shape and you need endurance to ride your fastest for a few laps depending on your skill level. I just broke my leg in two spots, tore ligaments and just got out of surgery do to a little screw up at MX338 in Southwick Massachusetts. This is why I think motocross is the toughest sport.
“Wrestling is different. It’s all or nothing, one on one. It’s the toughest sport, bar none. They sacrifice their normal day to day lives to a sport of fighting. Where practice is 3 hours of street brawl, conditioning, and lifting. Wishing at times to run sprints rather than wrestle live at practice. All to prepare for a 6 minute battle at most.Wrestling is different. It’s all or nothing, one on one. It’s the toughest sport, bar none. They sacrifice their normal day to day lives to a sport of fighting. Where practice is 3 hours of street brawl, conditioning, and lifting. Wishing at times to run sprints rather than wrestle live at practice. All to prepare for a 6 minute battle at most”
What? how is that ANY different from other sports like, rowing, swimming, or gymnastics, or iron- man competition? olympic gymnasts spend 6 hours a day six hours a week 52 weeks out of the year training. name one wrester who can hold themselves in an iron-cross on rings.
Like someone else said, watch this and tell me this isn’t as physically demanding and straining as wrestling or any other sport on this list!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w
let me know if you can find a wrestler who can do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go5acWIOKNE&feature=fvw
How can ESPN rate tennis as a harder sport than soccor, or gymnastics?
This should be the REAL list.
(I’m putting some together because some sports are just as hard as others, and some I placed with a similar type of sport)
1. Iron-man/Mountain Climbing(tied)
2. Rowing
3. Mens Gymnastics
4. Wrestling/MMA/Boxing
5. Ice-Hockey/Swimming (tied)
6. Football/Rugby/Lacrosse
7. Skateboarding/Long boarding
8. Baseball/Basketball (tied)
9. Tennis
10. Golf
where the hell is squash??
it is an EXTREMELY tough sport which not many people are aware of!
i would have to say water polo is the toughest or one of the top five. I broke a finger in a practice scrimmage with my team! And it was just a ball hitting my finger too. I have scars all over my legs from other girls. And the workout is beyond killer. I totally believe water polo is the toughest or one of the toughest. You have to be aware of multiple players at all times, staying above water level (not drowning), all the players of the constant changing of positions. And all the brute strength you need to serve two minutes of a game. Thats just girl water polo. From my own experience i see differently. I’ve played water polo for three years too.
The truth is the difficulty of a sport depends on many things. How hard you work, what level you compete at, and your genetic advantages/disadvantages in regard to the sport. For example, a wrestler needs to build up high levels of anaerobic endurance to be able to explode and and work intensely for 6 minutes, whereas a rower needs to build up anearobic power and anaerobic endurance also, but not as much a a wrestler would. A rower should concentrate more on building up their aerobic capacity. Yet at another end of the spectrum is the 400m runner, who needs to work at physical power capcity for around 50 seconds, bringing a meaning to power endurance that neither a wrestler or rower would understand. Yet if you forced a 400m runner to wrestle for 6 minutes or to row a 2000m race, he would burn out, as he could not last more than a minute and a half in a wrestling match and certainly not row anywhere close to 2000m. The point is that the energy systems involved differ greatly from sport to sport, and the level of competition changes dramatically depending where and who you compete against, and everyone’s body has a genetic disposition towards certain athletic traits, making the toughest sport quite an unclear and certainly controversial title to give.
Horse back riding.
Every time you put your foot in the irons, everytime time you hold those reins, something can happen. Many people have died riding a 1,200 pound animal. Horses have a mind of their own. They have a flight or fight instinct. Most of the time they choose flight. And that means they spook. And when you fall off it hurts.
Have you guys ever ridden a cross country course? Probably not. Those fences are SOLID. If you hit it, you’re coming down. Hard. Many of people have died on cross country courses. Broken necks, brocken spines, collorbones shattered, heads opened, even death are a few of the risks we take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFv3envdm4&feature=PlayList&p=C4DDB677CFDC9972&index=8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yuxC2Czk4&feature=PlayList&p=C4DDB677CFDC9972&index=9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvJVTHk2m74
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCf-aa-kGB4
And just because a horse is trained doesn’t mean it can’t kill you.
I play rugby which is pretty tough but have to go for Tennis.
Physical – 5 hours, one on one against 130mph serves?
Technical – 10 years for the average pro to perfect every shot?
Mental – Just watch any of the Murray games from Wimbledon this year. Your playing against the 15,000 people in the stands as well.