[ds968]

IMO : Rugby ranks right up there. As does football ( soccer ) As does American football. As does a marathon. As does tennis if you're playing 5 hours in 100 degree heat. And hockey is certainly not far behind. For that matter tne triathlon is no easy feat , lol. And a Formula 1 driver's task is no walk in the park either. But having been a jock most of my life ( professional soccer, amateur status but black belt and highly competitive tae kwon do tournaments , amateur status again but state ( Ohio ) championship semi finalist in table tennis ) you'd think I'd be biased to one of those sports in terms of what requires the greatest degree of fitness, resolve, mental fortitude , and the most tolling on a human being's body. Nah.. In my honest opinion I can't think of any sport that even comes close, and I mean by a "country mile" to the Tour de France and the fitness demand on its cyclists. I cannot even comprehend how its humanly possible to complete a single day of it, much less all stages , and regardless of how steroid-filled your body may be. Ugh, these guys are cyborgs !!

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[Cloud9...68]

I'm not sure this counts as a "professional" sport, but while all the ones you mention certainly are very physically demanding, none of them even comes close to a Crossfit Games competition, at least in terms of the degree of punishment that must be endured and overcome. Have you ever seen one of those? As a somewhat serious (for my age, anyway) Crossfit practitioner, the things the people at the top levels of this sport are able to accomplish border on the other-wordly. I say it goes beyond any other sport because Crossfit demands excellence in every aspect of fitness - strength, stamina, coordination, balance, explosive power, steady-state endurance, and, admittedly to a lesser extent than the others, speed.



I don't think an endurance event like a marathon, triathlon, or multi-day bicycle race matches up to a Crossfit competition because they're too single-dimensional. No to belittle any of them, but practically anyone with enough perseverance can train themselves to perform at a reasonably high level in an endurance event. But no matter how much you train, less than 0.1% of the population can ever get to the point where they can compete with the best in the eclectic jumble of insanely brutal exercises thrown at them in a Crossfit competition.



Interesting topic. But as far as the single most difficult skill in all of sports, I have to say it's hitting a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher. I could be given 500 swings against a major-leaguer, and never foul a single pitch off.

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[94SilverCab]

http://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/...t/espn.htm



Boxing is #1, Fishing #60



I would say that a full day detailing the 968 falls between Archery and Curling.



Jay

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[ds968]

Interesting, never heard of Crossfit. Have to check it out ( and I mean that of course, as a spectator in my family room lounge chair while having a glass of wine..)

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[Cloud9...68]

Dan,



If you're into fitness at all, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I had (or so I thought) been in pretty good shape my whole life, when my wife suggested I try a crossfit workout a few years ago. Nah, I thought, how bad could it be. Thought (hoped...) I was going to die. The nice thing about it (as I found out after that first near-death experience) is that you can scale the daily workouts back to mortal levels, as needed. The variety of the workouts, and the fact that they focus on highly functional exercises, makes it interesting, and almost fun, in a masochistic sort of way. You don't have to be a fire-breathing maniac who doesn't think a workout is worth anything unless you pass out, or at least throw up, at the end. Actually, those characters kind of give crossfit a bad name. My wife even owns a crossfit gym, but she focuses on middle-aged people, many of whom haven't exercised in years, so there's really something in it for everyone.

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[Rap]

Cloud I agree and mentioned it here not so long ago! Dan respectfully disagreed!

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[Cloud9...68]

Hmmm... I don't remember. Do you do crossfit? Is that the secret to your ability to do a dozen DE events across the course of a hot summer without so much as flinching, lol?



I'd heard years ago that boxing was considered the most physically demanding sport, and from the standpoint of long-term damage, I'd have to agree. But even with boxing, you can take breaks, tying up with your opponent and what not. In a crossfit event, everything is either timed, or the number of reps you do are counted. So if you pause, even for a second, it counts against you.

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[ds968]

[quote name='Rap' timestamp='1406508158' post='160552']Cloud I agree and mentioned it here not so long ago! Dan respectfully disagreed![/quote]



True, but that was in a totally different context ( the amount of real play action during a game in different sports. ) And that aside, I still stand by my contention that as difficult as hitting a baseball thrown by an MLB pitcher may be, is it no more difficult than returning a serve from a top tennis pro, blocking a shot from a soccer pro, or a puck from a hockey pro, or trying to stop LeBron James dunking on you while stepping on your head in the process, lol.

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[Cloud9...68]

I think the difference between hitting a baseball and the other examples you gave is that you're dealing with a bat that's maybe three inches in diameter, trying to hit a round object of a similar diameter, spinning and moving in all sorts of unexpected directions.



I look at it like this: What's the likelihood of an average schmuck (like me, for example) being able to successfully do any of the really difficult skill events? If Rafael Nadal teed up 100 of his best serves, I'm sure I'd miss the first 20, but eventually, I bet I could get at least a part of a racket on a few. Same with blocking a shot from the world's best offensive soccer player. Very difficult, to be sure, but I bet that out of a hundred, I'd get a mitt on more than a few. But hitting a ball pitched by a major leaguer? As I said, I doubt I could even tip one out of 500. I could be wrong, as I've never tried any of these things, but that's my gut feeling.

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[Bulti]

I go for the Iron Man triathlon.

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[Rap]

No Cloud I don't but I'm now looking at it. The cool shirt will now be my reason for being able to do these events!! Most of you might not remember a receiver for the dolphins named jimmy cefelo. He came from our area and was just a great all around athlete. Years ago in a little league distinct game my team from forty fort went up against his team from Pittston. Now I was at the time , I thought, a pretty decent batter and baseball player. I never got the bat off my shoulder. It was a pathetic attempt at best to hit a ball that was thrown far faster than anything I had to that date encountered. It was at this time at age 12 that I understood the difference between abilities. For some like me, no matter how much I trained I would never be able to compete at the same level as that of a cefelo.

Interesting that at that young age I was able to cognitively understand that but it was just so apparent. Hitting a curve ball is hard!

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[ds968]

Not disagreeing that hitting a 95 mph baseball is hard. Very hard. And no doubt it takes an incredible amount of skill to do that. What I suggested is that you can't call something a "demanding" sport just be cause it requires skill.. Do you have to be an athlete in incredible shape to hit that baseball ? Uhh, ask Babe Ruth. In both threads we were talking about the amount of time action takes place during any given sport and how demanding it is on the pros that play them. You're at bat a couple of minutes in a game, then you get to sit around in the dug out picking your nose, then in the next half inning you go on the field and pick your nose again for at least half of the time you're there..this goes on for three hours, during which any single player ( other than the pitcher ) sees action for a few minutes. In the other sports mentioned , hitting those tennis balls, cycling up and down mountains, moving that puck on ice at breakneck speed, going from one end to the other kicking a soccer ball, or playing basketball , etc, is practically NON-STOP for hours ! You get SOME brakes but not many. How can anyone compare baseball or golf for that matter with any of those other sports and athletes is beyond my comprehension. That's all I'm saying.

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[94SilverCab]

I could totally get behind the whole cross fit thing...the perfect woman <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Rap]

What's with the picking of the nose ds? That takes talent. especially not to be seen!

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[ds968]

[quote name='Rap' timestamp='1406578645' post='160581']

What's with the picking of the nose ds? That takes talent. especially not to be seen!

[/quote]



did I say that it's wrong ? if you ask me, it's not <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/rolleyes.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Tahoe968]

Hmmm... <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/glare.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> ... does this count as Physically Demanding? These guys always impress me...

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[Rap]

Wonder what the training schedule is?

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[ds968]

I can lift eight tires similar to those, no sweat ! Well, they'd have to be Lego tires witn a chopstick connecting them, but those are just minor details.. I do like the preceding advertisement though :-) .

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[Chris Vais]

I vote for cycling after just having watch the Tour de France.



Then again working in a winery might qualify. Nothing like a day spent dead lifting 110 lb wine barrels off the floor and onto a barrel racks using just your fingers and forearms. But sadly winemaking isn't a sport it's an art.

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[Cloud9...68]

I think I diverted this thread a little by throwing baseball into the mix. I in no way meant to imply that baseball is a physically demanding sport. I was just pointing out that as a singular skill, my belief is that hitting a ball thrown by a major league pitcher is probably (arguably) the most challenging single activity in the world of sports.



As far as physically demanding, a lot of it has to do with the individual. For someone with a lot of slow twitch muscle fibers, endurance events like bike racing, marathon running, or triathlons actually come relatively "easy" (I use the term very loosely). For someone like me, who doesn't have a single slow-twitch fiber in their body (always been much more of a sprinter than an endurance type), training for a marathon or the equivalent would probably kill me - I may die of boredom before anything else, though! That's why I think crossfit is the toughest activity out there - whether you're better at endurance type stuff, or have the strength of Paul Bunyan, there's nowhere to hide - the events throw everything at you, so even if you can handle one of the exercises in the set relatively well, the next one will likely bring you to your knees.

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