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We rank 'em. You react. That's how the Daily List rolls.8/10/2007 11:38:00 AM Five hardest moves in sports
By Lang Whitaker, SI.com
Mickey Mantle made switch-hitting look easy.Photo by Walter Iooss/SI
We watch sports constantly, but do we ever stop and think about what it would take to be a professional athlete? I could quit my job writing witty lists, train constantly for a solid year and probably still not be able to cut it on the floor or on the field. Yes, there are some things I might eventually be able to passably do -- pinch-run, shoot a technical foul shot, perhaps even kick an extra point -- but all of this got me thinking: What are the hardest things to do in professional sports?
1. Switch-hitting: It's tough enough to stand in the batter's box and hit a baseball traveling at you nearly 100 miles an hour. But imagine being able to do that from either side of the plate, either righty or lefty. I can barely even use my iPod left-handed.
2. Playing cornerback: You know how fast and agile wide receivers are? Then imagine trying to run alongside them, but backwards.
3. Rebounding in the NBA: You'll hear basketball analysts talk about guys who have "a knack for rebounding," but the truth is rebounding is a skill. You have to fight to keep huge opposing players away from the rim while keeping an eye on the basketball and simultaneously gauging the angles of a possible rebound. No wonder Dennis Rodman lost his mind.
4. Returning a tennis serve: Having never played tennis on a high level, I'm assuming there's a lot of guesswork involved in this. Either way, standing cross-court from a 100+ mph serve and then trying to hit a return that poses any kind of challenge seems like it would be impossible.
5. Returning a punt/kick-off: This looks relatively simple on TV: You get the ball, follow your blockers and then look for a hole to run through. But after playing EA's NCAA football game, in which you can return kicks using a ground-level view, I now realize it's nearly impossible to get much more than 15-20 yards on a return. You need to be elusive, blazing fast, tough, creative -- a skill set that doesn't exactly grow on trees.
What do you think would be the hardest things to do in pro sports? Let us know below...
Lang Whitaker is the executive editor of SLAM magazine and writes daily at SLAMonline.composted by SI.com | View comments |
Comments:
Not exactly a major pro sport here, but I would say landing any kind of jump in figure skating would have to be near the top of any list. A commoner might get lucky in the tennis or baseball examples just by blindly throwing out their racket/bat, but there is no way luck could be involved in an ice skating maneuver. Thank about how many people fall on their faces by simply stepping onto the ice, let alone trying to skate fast, change directions, or plant and jump.definetly hitting a baseball is the hardest and covering a wide reciever is almost impossiblewithout a doubt it would have to be pole vaulting. Running as fast as you can down a run way and then putting your faith into a big stick that is going to throw you 20 feet in the air requires some serious cojones. Not to mention the extreme difficulty in executing a jump effectivelyTipping a slapshot in hockey looks easy when the pros do it but try it once yourself.
I played roller hockey with my kids and they could shoot the puck with some pretty good speed but not nearly as fast as NHL players and I could only get the stick on the puck if it was on the floor. If it was in the air I whiffed every time.
I'm not a great athlete but I played baseball into my 40's (not softball) and could hit pretty well but tipping a slapshot... not so much...Stopping a penalty kick in soccer.I think deflecting a rebound into the goal after your teammate shoots it in hockey is pretty amazing, especially when some of those guys shoot near or above 100 mph.How about stopping a penalty kick in soccer? Seems so hard that mere mortals have no chance.We all get a little ethnocentric when it comes to what we consider the biggest, the best or the hardest things to do in the world [hence the fascination of all things baseball or football in the U.S.]. I would like to suggest that taking a slap shot at full speed with a 240 lb. defender hooking you with a piece of lumber and placing it top shelf ranks up there.Becoming a switch hitter is tough to do, without a doubt. For me my stance form the left in no way resembles my stance from the right. However one sports move that is very tough is well is switch shooting/stick handling in hockey. I've played and skated as a right hander for years. I started trying it from the left to give the kids I coached a chance in 1 on 1 drills. Damn near immediate embarassment for a guy that has played for 20+ years.
DWU WingerEating 59 hot dogs in ten minutes.Gotta go with several boxing skills here. Cutting off the ring, defensive boxing, even the stellar left hook (or off hand hook), while under siege. It ain't just instinct, it requires conscious thought and concentration while trying to maintain aggression, protect, and keep a clear head after getting your bell rung.
Hitting a baseball is hard because of the size and speed of the objects involved -- no doubt about it. Hitting a long iron shot with draw at the pin from 200 yards out is pretty remarkable too.Hardest moves?
Being a defenceman in hockey - skating backwards defending unbelievably fast and skilled players skating forward.
Being a quarterback throwing completions while standing in the pocket having 250 to 300 pound linemen closing in on you (talk about having athleticism and poise under pressure).
Dribbling a soccer ball and penetrating the offensive zone at speed with control while under pressure from defenders is very difficult.Unfortunately, I'd have to disagree with the pole vaulting thing. Now going up to a Bubka-like height of 20 feet may be difficult but most high school dual meets start out at 8 feet. You can straight pole that. You're right about the guts part of it but I wouldn't put the difficulty level anywhere near hitting a curve.I believe being a hockey goalie has to be one of the hardest things to do in sports. you hunched over for 3 hrs, with 30 lbs of equipment on trying to stop a small black object being shot at you at 90+ mph while everyone on the ice has black skates and black tape on their sticks. Not only that, these guys have pinpoint accuracy. Ive never played hockey but i have to believe being a goalie is very difficult. After that i would say hitting a baseball is next. And thats plain physics, hitting a round moving object with another round moving object is the hardest thing to do based on the rules of physics.Shooting free throwsI'm not going to claim the following is harder than the above mentioned. I've racked my brain for awhile now, I can't come up with something more difficult.
Watching people do the high dive blows my mind, and I'm not really a fan of the sport. Ever busted your gut or your back off the regular diving board? It'd be hard enough to get me to jump off, much less start all that flipping and twisting around.Gaurding a reciever would be very hard if you had to gaurd Chad Johnson you'd be thinking oh my God I have to gaurd a guy who out ran a horse and the other one is swith hitting if you have batted right all your life you would have to forget about hitting right for 1-2 years and then you have to go back to hitting right and it is the same for a lefty trying to hit right. O and one more thing something Else thats nearly impossible is hitting 757 homeruns in a career........Anything in gymnastics. I love football, but these are the most well-rounded athletes in the world as far as I'm concerned. They've got strength, quickness, coordination, flexibility, guts, everything an athlete needs. I would say the pommel horse is as hard as anything in sports.Charging a kid $100 bucks for an autograph is probably pretty tough - if you have a soul.I would expect a common sports writer to think that the "major" sports are the hardest things to do....but I will tell you from experience, that an iron cross, or even worse, a maltese cross, in men's gymnastics on rings, is probably the hardest thing to do...it takes an inordinate amount of strength, which is why male gymnasts are credited with being the strongest athletes pound for pound over any sport...I've watched EXTREMELY fit football players and basketball players crumble like little girls when just trying to hold themselves upright on the rings...that's just my take...agree with hitting the baseball and the playing CB which is even harder when your realize that the WR knows where he is going and the DB doesn't!It seems rather arrogant to suggest that any sport can claim to have the "hardest move." There are highly skilled athletes competing in dozens of sports across the world. All these sports require years of practice to complete their respective "hardest moves" to perfection Try hitting a badminton shuttlecock at 200 mph or completing a marathon in under 2 hours and 8 minutes.One of the Hardest... Playing goalie in the NHL. 100mph slap shots from 30ft away. Pads and ice to mess up moving. Of course something from baseball always is top on the list. Lets see some of these ball player try doing things on ice.Stopping a penalty kick in soccer.I like what someone once said, "the hardest thing to do is hit a round ball squarely with a round bat."I think that day in and day out the hardest thing to do is to play shortstop at a major league level- I am an unabashed Jeter fan, and before him I watched Ripken, and if you have a groundball pitcher (which you want) then you either are in on every play as the guy who gets the ball or you are trying to turn the double play on most other occasions. Has to be hard, and you have to lool cool doing it. Jeter just chews his gum and gets the slitty eyes and does his job. Tough if you ever had a ball hit to you at that speed....It would have to be running a sub-four mile. The mile is sheer agony as it is. To run a sub-four mile, you have to run 100 meters faster than fifteen seconds, 16 times in a row. It takes the endurance of a distance runner and the speed of a sprinter. Brutal brutal race.how about a backward flip or combination on a balance beam? Most people can't even walk five steps consecutively on a street curb, never mind landing a back flip on a 4 inch piece of wood and moving immediately into another manoeuvre.
Another amazingly difficult thing to do is block an nhl slapshot or as an nhl goalie, try to stop a deflection through a screen of players. Puck... 90 MPH, you see it, oops...hits a stick 10 feet in front of you and you react. Try hitting a fastball that is deflected 10 feet before it comes to the plate.pole vaulting and landing the ice skating jumps are both really good.
its hard for me to consider tennis serve and covering a WR when there are lots of guys that do it. With the vaulting and landing you either do it or you dont. you can kind of cover a WR or like someone said get lucky and return a serve or baseball pitchBeing a Cubs fan...stopping a penalty kick in pro soccer....extremely difficult to do.i would just say hit a golf ball consistantly is hard as hell to do.How can hitting a baseball be the hardest when the batter has someone behind them telling them which ball is good to swing at and which one is not? If batters would be required to swing at every pitch that comes their way, then I would agree......... There are other sports that require much more skill and ability than baseball. Baseball is a great game, but not one that requires that much skill.returning a kickoff or punt has alot to do with the big guys making blocks and clearing the wayPlaying quarterback in the NFL has to be the hardest. Imagine having 4 seconds to read a defense and get off a pass before some 275 behemoth sits on your head.Hitting a round ball with a rounded bat while said ball is being propelled 90+mph toward you is definitely the hardest. Scoring a double eagle in golf while mostly luck vs. skill is second hardest.It's got to be playing quarterback in the NFL. Imaging having 4 seconds to read a defense and get a pass off before a 275 pound behemoth sits on your head. Not easy.Hitting a baseball durning a game
Hitting a golf ball straight
Stopping a puck in traffic
Bull Riding
Running a marathon under 2:20Not exactly an american sport but I imagine screaming down an icy course in a bobsled cant be the easiest thing to grasp.get rid of rebounding in the NBA. how many point guards get 5-7 boards a game? rebounding is about desire. i'd add being a goalie and recording a shoutout in hockey or playing a round of golf without scoring a bogey on a PGA caliber golf course.Hitting a hole in one!! Ask Tiger!Definitely pole-vaulting 20 feetPretty much everything done in the X-Games is harder and crazier than anything in major sports.a bicycle kick goal is the hardest thing to do in all of pro sports. That's why it's so rare.i don't even know how the game is played, but not dying ina rugby looks fairly difficultTry doing a back 3 1/2 dive off a ten meter tower. You hit the water at 40 mph. Move divers would hit a baseball before a baseball player successfully completed a dive like thisI would have to say quarterback. Not only do you have to know what your entire offense is doing, but you also need to account for the 11 guys that are playing defense. For example, on any given pass play, you have to figure out what routes your receivers are running, throwing with the right strength and accuracy, all on top of eluding a defense that is trying to bring you down.i was thinking more along the lines of hitting for the cycle. It takes a some serious skill and lil luck to do it(except for the few like david bell where it was sheer dumb luck cause man that guy stunk)but you seemed to have taken a less specific route.I would say stopping a penalty kick in professional soccer is up there. You are 12 yards away, can't move until the ball is kicked, and have a large goal to defend. Goalie's are taught to merely guess which side to jump to, because you don't have near enough time to wait after the ball has been kicked. It's no wonder soccer people say a goalie has done more than enough when he stops 1 out of 5 in a shootout.My list ( I sincerely think these feats are a lot harder than the simple things you listed )
1. Hole in 1
2. Knocking out a Heavyweight
3. Shaun White's 1080
4. Fullback (imagine blocking lb's dt's and de's with a smaller frame, play after play after play)
5. Staying out of troubleI don't follow soccer, but blocking an in-the-box penalty kick as a goalie would be pretty hard.Definitely blocking a goal in soccer. Especially on a penalty kick.Walking onto the pitch at Aztec Stadium in Mexico City wearing a Red, White and Blue jersey.from da boy vince
5.i dont even like soccer,but i've seen goalies try to stop a free kick and dive the completely wrong way because you have no time to react,you just guess
4.diving or over the shoulder catch,needs great concentration
3.hit a 70 mph curve after a 95 mph fastball
2.tackle Ladanian Tomlinson
1.steal home plate
try them five times fastBlocking a penalty kick in soccer. They're like 10 yards away from you and even if you do guess the right side, it's still no guarantee that you'll block itThe hardest thing to do in sports is to beat a 10 count in the boxing ring after you have been bashed in the head. The second hardest thing is then to finish the round.Those are all fine and dandy... but what about knocking out a heavyweight champion?
As stated earlier, you can get lucky in baseball and tennis. If you get lucky in a boxing ring and land one of your punches, it probably will barely faze the guy. I'm willing to bet that the average person would need about 500 of those lucky punches to have a shot of knocking out someone like Tyson in the late 80s.
It'd be amazing if you could survive one round with one of those guys...what about trying to one-time a pass in hockey while your swithing your feet from front to side and shooting all in one motion.Now thats hard.I disagree on pole vaulting. The first time I tried it, I jumped as high as a year of coaching would ever get me. It's just a 'leap of faith' (from an athiest, even).
The hardest pro sport move I can think of is to go across the middle in the NFL - you know you're going to get killed, but you've got to catch the ball.Stopping a puck in hockey trumps all, sorry. Switch hitting is not hard, I think my sister-in-laws brother does that. Of course, he doesn't play baseball.How about a perfect game in baseball? Throwing takes a tone on ones arm, now throw all game and have no one even touch the ball.How about guys who participate in the decathalon? You're cross country skiing and then, while you're out of breath, you abruptly have to concentrate, stay perfectly still, & shoot at tiny targets with a rifle.Soccer...Defend a penalty kickHurdles are pretty tough as well, my track coach in high school tried to get me to do it because I am tall and have long legs. It is not that simple. Sprinting and having to count steps is not something easyI think it would be a professional soccer goalkeeper trying to stop a penalty kick. The penalty kick is a mere 12 years from the goal line - just 36 feet, or the other side of a large room in a house. The size of the goal is 24 feet wide by 8 feet tall - or 192 square feet of vertical space to cover, all in less than one second. Of that 192 square feet, takes only a small 12 inch hole for the ball to get through. And professional soccer players routinely kick balls in excess of 80 mph in these situations. You do the math ... the reflexes of a cat would be severely tested.pole vaulters can always make a vault, the only problem is getting an inch higher
it has been multiple decades since anyone hit a baseball sucessfully 4 out of ten at bats
if you fail to hit a baseball 7 out of ten times you are a great player worth multiple millions
if you fail to sucessfully hit a baseball 8 out of every 12 at bats, then you are a passable baseball player
how far would a figure skater get if he/she fell on 7 out of 10 jumpseither switch hitting or stopping a penelty kick in soccer. as a golie not knowing witch side to dive to a "PK" is almost a given goalAnything Dirk Nowitski does on the offensive end is impossible. Not saying he's the greatest player in the world, or the most athletic, just saying, he consistently makes shots where his head, feet, and body all go seperate directions, meanwhile he's got the ball 6 feet over his head when he shoots so it's unblockable...that shot required some serious honingi think playing QB and making that 3rd and 7 with 15 secs to go to get your team in field goal range got to be the toughest. First, communiate the call, read thedefense and make adjustments, get some audibles to make subtle adjustments on the fly, get the handoff safely, go through your progressions 1 by 1, make up your mind before you can count to 3 , get the ball out into a 3X3ft bow into the hands of your receiver - whew that needs a lots of brains and brawns -
my vote is for Peyton and BradyI think striking out a Major League hitter would be harder than getting a hit off an ML pitcher. I agree with the cornerback one though, especially in single coverage when you're on an island by yourself.How about survive a hit from Scott Stevens or score a goal in the NHL? You routinely see NHL Players taking swings in MLB batting cages but you NEVER see any other pro athlete trying to play hockey. Why? Because they know it's the most difficult of all Professional sports in North America to play.
And it never gets teh respect it deservesVery few people can hit a round baseball squarely with a round bat when it is moving in a straight line at 50 mph, much less twice tha speed or curving/droppingThere are times when it appears that the most difficult tasks in sports are the basics. My father always said that if you can't bunt, you don't belong in baseball. I say ditto for the free throw in basketball. Why do so many players who can hit a three with ease have problems with an uncontested 15 foot "gimme"?
I'd also add the fair catch in football. With a wave of 300 pound guys headed your way at light speed, keeping your sights and hands on that ball has to be rough.sub 8-hour Ironman.1. try standing on a 4 inch wide balance beam then dong a back walkover combination into a back flip!
2. 3 meter or 10 meter diving where you don't do a belly flop.
3. How about the strength, endurance, and flexibility involved in International wrestling.Have to say landing a jump in figure skating is a surprisingly good answer. When you think about it, most people have enough experience hitting a pitch, rebounding or returning a serve to understand how to do it. We just can't at that level. But a triple axel? What avid sports fan would really have a clue about how to pull that off?
Pole vaulting is a good one too, and I'd add recovering from a knockdown in boxing to the list. Nearly getting knocked out but then being able to continue the fight is something I can't imagine being able to do.
Or what about a flipping, twisting dive from the high platform? Not much margin for error there.I gotta say, landing moves in gymnastics and ice skating are probably the hardest moves in sports. Just to be elite in these two sports take years of training. Most of the athletes in these two sports starts training since they are like five years old. Notably, their prime is in their mid-teens and their talent only lasts about 6 years or so.Try dropping flat on the ice facing a slap shot, timing it so that you don't slide too far and take it off your junk...or your face.
Tipping a slap shot from the point, while standing in front of the net with a defenseman and the goalie chipping away at your knees and ankles.
The list goes on really. Almost anyone can run. Try skating. If a cornerback has it tough, doesn't the defenseman trying to fend off Crosby or Ovechkin busting down the wing have it much, much tougher?Ask Scott Norwood what he thinks.The Balance beam in gymnastics looks awful. You routinely see the best in the world fall off during their routines. I don't know about other people's opinion, but cutting a backflip on to a six inch board sounds tough to me.Almost anything in ice hockey. Cornerback is difficult, but playinf hockey defence is like being a CB - on skates. The skates make everything harder. Try fighting on skates sometime....Apparently pole vault got #3 in USA Today's opinion of hardest things to do in pro sports...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gyIlllYlew
Woot!hitting a baseball is difficult but that is eye hand coordination which is used everyday...Kicking a soccer ball or even football is very difficult to do right.Having played tennis for about 10 years I can definitely say that I appreciate the sport being on a list like this. I can also say that there isn't necessarily a lot of guesswork involved. It's more just having a good reaction to where you see the ball going. Still though, it's very hard to return a little yellow ball coming at you at over 100 mph.I think that saving a penalty kick in soccer would be pretty tuff but fighting in hockey has got to be the hardest.
In the midst of a of an already brutal game you throw off you gloves (hockey has to be the only sport where you take the gloves off to fight), then proceed to punch you opponents helmet bare knuckled while trying to stay up on your skates. Maybe you get his helmet off and give him a couple good punches to his head. Maybe you wind up face down on the ice covered in blood. Either way you have 5 minutes in the box to revel in your own glory or dwell on your humiliating defeat.Not sure landing a figure skating jump is that big of a deal. You can go to the Galleria in Houston any weekend day and watch numerous girls younger than 10 nailing them all day long.
Hitting a baseball flying in at 100 MPH is extremely hard to do, but people do it all the time - however, getting a hit one three out of ten at bats gets you into the hall of fame. Probably the only act in sports where a 70% failure rate is considered superb.racing on a restrictor plate track. i'm infuriated enough going 75 on the highway w/ 5 or 6 cars around me...doing 190+ w/ 42 other cars literally inches away, including the guy behind me literally ramming my bumper to speed me up? for 3 1/2 hrs? no thanks. my nerves would be shot on the pace laps!Hardest thing in sports? Getting a hit off Mariano Rivera circa 1999.Lang, I disagreed with you on your list. I posted a list here:
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/forsythe/2007/08/11/five-most-difficult-things-to-do-in-sports/
...with a brief explanation why. Thanks for the article.
CatherineI'm a soccer player and in my sport stopping a penalty kick is by far the hardest thing you can do. The shooter is standing just 12 yards away and he or she can score by netting the goal anywhere within the 24'x8' goal. I understand that hitting a baseball is no small feat, but pro athletes collect a hit at least 25% of the time. A goalie is lucky to stop 10% of the penalty shots taken on him.climbing a mountain at tour de france speedsMost skateborading vert tricks seem to defy physics.Throwing a knuckleball. A standard answer is "hitting a baseball", but there are at any one time a thousand guys who are hitting big-league pitching between .250 and .330, and thousands more who could. Think of it: all you have to do is figure out how to throw a knuckler near the plate and, it's so easy on the arm, you have a 15-year career easy. But only a couple of guys at any time who can throw it at all.i would say any thing on the X games should be ahead of number 5. i played football, and returing kicks is not even one of the five hardest in the sport, tho it does take skill, alot of skill, but playing on either line, or running a route is most deffitinley harder than returning.I am surprised there is zero mention of ice hockey or soccer here. There's absolutely no way a normal person would stop a shot in either of these sports.
Take rebounding of the list, that's not even in the top 100 of hard things to do in sport.
I agree switch hitting is #1.
Others to think about:
-luge
-ski jump
-freestyle ski
-mogul ski
-tour de france leg
-triathalon
-high diveBeing a goalkeeper in soccer during penalty kicks. the ball's 12 yards out and you have to stay on the goal line. Statistically you have less than a 10% chance of stopping the kick.
scoring on a "bicycle kick" in soccer.
getting out of an armbar UFC
being a hi-profile baseball player and hooking up with a stripper and not have the media find outStatistically speaking, one of the hardest things to do in sports is score a goal in big time soccer. From a minutes played to goals scored average, soccer is lower than NFL touchdowns, etc. From a realistic view, I put scoring a goal in ice hockey as the most difficult (I am a California boy who can't even ice skate). Think about it, trying to knock a puck into a net with a goalie in front, while on skates, on ICE,, with a weirdly shaped puck, using a weirdly shaped stick, while the rules allow the other team to knock you on your butt whle you possess the puck. Now tha's difficult.blocking a d-linemen!!!1) cycling through a rugged mountain terrain. i could get goosebumps just by looking how deep the cliff is.
2) hitting the ball to the putt with a water hazard between it.
3)doing a balance beam routine in gymnastics.
4)running a 10,000 m race.
5) boxing a 12-rounder with a heavyweight.Although it may be amid controversy now , nothing is harder in sports than the Tour de France. Riding at the least 90 miles a day for three weeks, including the Pyrenees and the Alps is the most difficult sporting event around.Hitting a softball pitched by a top "Big League" soft ball pitcher.
Nearly as fast as a major league pitch thrown from a shorter distance and rising as it comes to the plate.Try to stop a small rubber disk coming at you from 30 feet at 100mph on a icy surface and you will have more respect to hockey goalies.The hardest thing I have ever done in sports is to get off a bike and run in a duathlon. Don't laugh until you have tried it.I think you have to give some props to the NHL goalies stopping a slap shot or trying to keep the opponent out of the net on a breakaway. These guys are tough, and with the amount of players in front of the goalie, many of which are blocking his view, it can be very difficult.Ive always thought that being a goalie in hockey looks incredibly hard.uh how bout playing quarterback, hardest position in any sport.How about playing goalie in the NHl. Having to stop a puck coming up to 100 mph at you seems pretty tough to me, especially considering most people cant even stand up on skates.Riding every leg of the Tour De France and being competitive. MOst people could not complete one of the climbs in a full day. Let alone keep your hands of the brakes as you fly downhill in the rain side by side with 100 other bikes.lacrosse goalietwirling that ribbon on a stick in the Olympics, on a gymnastics mat. That seems really tough and highly skilled. Both feet in the air while you circle your wrist as fast as you can. Now that is hard.1) Saving a soccer penalty kick
2) Switch-hitting
3) Pitching a baseball, with movement, into a 3 square inch area to hit the cathcer's mit.
4) Returning a tennis serve
5) Covering a wide-reciever1-5 ---- hitting a baseballthe hardest thing has to be hitting a 50-60 yd bunker shot(the hardest shot in the hardest sport)I think the hardest thing to do in pro-sports is to "Score a Goal" with a hockey puck during a proffesional hockey game, let alone playing a full 3 quarters.
I've never played hockey in my life, nor have I ever put on a pair of ice skates.Switch hitting and returning a tennis serve, yeah are hard to do well at, but can be done with practice, it's a skill you can develop with time (and the patience of a saint). What I want to know is; what are the hardest moves to do in sports that require an athlete be 'born with it'?? Speed? I was always told you can't teach speed... what else though?Hole in One.
hands down.Talk about cojones . . . how many people in the world can safely and artfully land a triple somersault, twisting backflip off a high dive and not break their neck? Imagine being in training and doing one of those for the first time!How about winning a mountain stage in the Tour De France? Doping or no, when you look at the stats (average speed, altitude, multiple climbs and descents), it's hard to believe a human being could do this.A triple forward summersalt off the 10m platform in diving. Knowing if you don't quite make it you face plant on the water.How about blocking a penalty kick in soccer? First you have to guess the right side, then you have to extend your body all the way out and stop the ball. I'd also think stopping a well-shot hockey puck would be pretty damn tough. It's hard enough to see one of those things on TV; I can't imagine trying to pick it up at eye level wearing a mask.Ski jumnping. The jumping might not be hard, but landing on two feet sure is.Notice hitting a 300 yard drive is not on here. I have had a lot of people make that argument. Drives me crazy. Anyways, I would also say a receiver going over the middle would have to be pretty tough. Just knowing you could be layed out takes a lot of guts to make that catch.Try stopping a 100 MPH slap shot in hockey. The puck is only a few inches wide and those NHL shooters can put it anywhere they want.With all due respect, I don't think it is figure skating, or pole vaulting. It would have to be something adversarial, something where an opponant is trying to stop you. Hitting (where the pitcher has much of the control and is trying to fool you), or hitting a fadaway three with a guard in your face, perhaps scoring a goal in soccer. I think that golf, and pool, and olypmic track competitions are hard but not on the same level as sports where an opponant is physically trying to stop you.I'll throw in my personal experience and say sweep rowing 2000 meters. Requires coordination, teamwork, timing, and absurd physical conditioning. Nods to the rest of the list too, amazing the amount of dedication required to do any of these tasks.I played college football...but i gotta admit that the idea of throwing a 105 lb woman up in the air.... so she can twirl around once or twice.... while shes wearing razor sharp blades on her feet while Im skating backwards....and then catching her...just strikes me as impossibleWhat comes to mind is being a goalie in the NHL. Standing in front of a puck with the hardness of a rock traveling at speeds over 125 MPH with five or six guys blocking your view. There is just not enough padding or thick enough mask to make your mind say it is OK. Baseball catchers have the same problem with foul tip balls then have to hit and run the bases.I would add standing on the first tee, in a major, with a gallery of 100s wathcing. It gotta be difficult to block that out and make a smooth swing, with that pressure.Scoring a goal in hockey. Never played the game and can't remember the last time I watched more than just the hightlights. However, I can't imagine trying to skate down the ice(which I can't) while some 190 lb guy is trying to knock me into last week and concentrate on hitting that little piece of rubber past a guy so enveloped in pads that he takes up nearly the entire goal.Scoring a goal in hockey. Something about trying to skate as fast as you can on ice while controling a puck well enough to beat a professional goalie all while being chased by 200+ pound guys that want to kill you and can skate very well seems pretty tough.Some harder things:
Overtaking Tiger Woods on the last day of a a Major.
Saying you thought it was flax seed oil with a straight face.
Play for the Bengals and not get arrested.I think there are probably few things more difficult than making a 5 foot putt to win a major. Maybe not the most physically challenging, but mentally hard to beat.the hardest move or shot depends on how you look at it would have to be holing out a 60 yd bunker shot(the hardest shot in the hardest sport)When you look at the hardest things to do in sports you can not consider anything that an entire sport is base around. This eliminates feets such as driving a golf ball long and straight and hitting any type of major league pitch. If these tasks were truly so difficult there would not be sports based on them. For me the hardest task in sports is stopping a penalty kich in soccer or avaoiding a crash in Nascar. Its hard enough to drive those cars never mind avois others when they fail to do so.How about a hole-in-one?Being a former Hockey Goaltender as well as a Soccer Goaltender, I can say that both stopping a puck and a penalty kick are very difficult. In Hockey, it's much more about positioning than pure skill. In Soccer, it is pretty much total guess work once you get into any competitive soccer (i.e. Premier Travel, ODP, etc.).
Someone earlier mentioned Biathlon, but didn't call it as such. I would have to agree with that one. Another sport that I would have to throw out there is competitive mogul skiing. Thre is so much stamina involved in that, along with the ability to do tricks while inverted, not once, but twice during a single run. Add to that the speed that they compete in, the height they achieve during their jumps and the physical toll the sport takens on your knees, hips and back. Absolutely amazing.Keeping all your dogs alive between fights.
-Michael VickYou are all idiots. Sorry, but it's true. Everyone knows body slamming Andre the Giant is the hardest move in sports. Duh.It seems odd, but the two hardest things are scoring a goal in soccer, (A very rare occurance) and blocking a penalty kick in soccer.1. Hole in one
2. 59 hot dogs in 10 minutesdating the head cheerleader when you're a 3 string scrub.Purely my thoughts and opinions on the hardest feats in sports...
1. Riding a bull that weighs 1800 lbs and staying on for 8 seconds
2. Hitting a 95 mph fastball
3. Playing QB in the NFL
4. Alex Ovechkin's sliding goal
5. exploding like Dennis Green (purely joking, but yet it is still priceless)Recruiting above average players to play basketball for the Illini1) Hitting a broken bat home run.
2) Two tackles on one play.
3) Breaking a bat on a check swing.
4) Doing a 1270 degree on a skateboard.
5) doing a high dive.dont know how many of you guys have seen much of it but cricket is an incredibly skillfull sport. when batting, bowlers will regularly release the ball at over 90 mph from 20 yards away, and although the ball bounces before reaching the batsmen it is perfectly legal to target the batsmen head to intimidate him (the ball is about the same size and weight as a baseball) take into account the natural sideways movement off the pitch when the ball lands it is an incredibly skillfull sport.Heading into turn 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 230 mph with the gas pedal flat on the floor.Winning the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.Winning the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.lacrosse goalie..more net to protect and less pads to do it in than hockey. takes a mentally disturbed individual to take a 90-100 MPH rubber shot to the shins from 8 yards out.I'll have to agree with a previous poster that rebounding has no business being on a list of toughest things in all of sports. It IS about hustle, height and not much else. Hitting an NBA three... that's tough. Try it sometime and see if you can avoid an air-ball.Let's just admit it. There's nothing in sports that is easy. That's why they pay these guys millions of dollars. They play a game, yes. But, they play a game that 99.9% of the population can't play as well, so that 99.9% of the population can watch them.what the chinese call Ping PongYou can't say Hockey is harder than any other sport just because it's on ice. Skating becomes equivelant to walking or running for even the most juvenile hockey player. And being a goalie? I played for many many years and have heard/read enough to know that even in the NHL, a goalie relies almost totally on guessing where a shot will go and putting some oversized and incredibly well padded piece of equipment in the vicinity. Trust me, it is impossible for a goalie of any skill to be hurt by a slapshot, and it's much harder for a shooter to score on any given shot than the goalie occupying 3/4's of a net to make the save.I saw someone say stopping a penalty shot in soccer. Well, duh, given the fact that the penalty shot was designed to be a goal. I played keeper for one of the top DIII programs in the nation and saw more than my share of PK's. Simply put, any PK that doesn't go in was the result of one of two things...the keeper moved early or the shooter screwed up.swimmingI'm sorry but stopping a penalty kick is as hard as flipping a coin. It's rare but it's not hard. Guess a direction and dive when the guy kicks the ball. Hitting a baseball is difficult but hundreds of guys do it hundreds of times every season. Running really fast doesn't seem that difficult. It takes training, discipline and some good genetics. I hate to admit it because I don't even watch the sport but the triple-jumps that the little teenager skaters do has to be the most difficult. Their careers are over by the time their 18 because it takes so much wear and tear on their bodies. Most athletes are just getting started at 18.Definitely hitting a baseball. In what other sport can you fail 7 out of 10 times and be considered a superstar?Recent Posts
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