Most difficult sport to play WELL in the world?

Biased me says snooker.

Close behind: Table tennis, Billiards.

Mick

I cant imagine that hockey is too easy. Also, I hear tennis is pretty hard.

Skating or snowboarding because you can never do it all.You can always get better and learn a new trick.

As a baseball player, I'm going to say... baseball. It is really hard to hit a baseball, let alone to be really good at it. Of course it depends on what level you play at. But even in high school I face some pitchers who throw 90+ mph. You only have a split second to react. I really admire a guy like Barry Bonds. He makes it look so easy. (steroids or not)

All sports are extremely difficult to completely master but I would say baseball and soccer require the most effort to play extremely well.

Maybe it isn't the hardest but it should be up there: Darts, you try standing at the oche 7 and a half feet away from the board and throw a dart into roughly a 1" by 0.5" area (treble 20). Then try it three times in a row. Even if you master that, you've got to master the art of landing on a double which is even harder. Bloody hard and because it's a pub game it can get quite dangerous.

Baseball is gloryfied cricket. The fundamentals are the same. And even then I'd say cricket is harder. In cricket you don't have the option of recaoiling your bat before the ball is thrown because you've got to guard the stumps. You don't get three chances and your out.

I agree with snooker. I can play pool really well but my highest break in snooker is 9. Red, Blue, Red, Yellow.

Actually now that I think about it, the hardest sport in the world is golf. Now dont laugh, but if you have ever played golf, then you know how difficult it is. There are so many elements to a golf swing, and even if you master all of them, your only half way there. The element of golf that is most important, is learning how to control your mind. You psyche yourself out so much, sometimes without even realizing it. Yea, Im gonna go with golf as the hardest.

The sport with the most difficult practices is wrestling. I think we ran more than the track team. I would say wrestling is the most physically difficult sport.

Being a jockey!

Yeah, lets see anyone here fit the bill!

I'd just like to offer a link to a related subject. Whilst this doesn't deal with the hardest to master sport. It deals with the most physically demanding sports.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills?sort=total_rank#grid

Martial arts seems a bit vague though. You can't bunch Shoalin Kung Fu and Tai Qi together. I'm sure there are many other discrepancies worth debating.

I'm far too tall. I'd prefer to stand in the stands holding my betting slip.

Oh yes, Golf. I can hit a baseball, and make a basket, but I've been trying for over 10 years now to get even close to par.

damn golf

Bah, I need a huge handicap sticker on my golf bag when I hit the links...twenty stroke 'cap at least

Par? What is this concept of "par" ???

I think it would be very difficult to stand in the batter's box and face a 98 mph Randy Johnson slider. Another reason I would say baseball is that to be considered a "good" hitter, a batter needs to obtain 3 hits out of 10. Think about that - would your employer be satisfied if your results were successful only 30% of the time?!

bah, auto racing would own anyone. I wonder how many people right off the street could handle Laguna Seca raceway, or Sears Point.

The ESPN site listed above really brings home the point that there are sports that require a higher skill level than others and sports that require a higher endurance level and yet other sports that require a higher strength level. Which is more difficult to acheive? If you take David Beckham (soccer) and put him in a boxing ring - no contest. If you take Michael Jordan (basketball) and put him on the tennis court - no contest.
In general I agree with the ESPN site - except gymnastics should be higher (strength, skill, endurance).

Definetly something wrong with that ESPN poll or the "committee". Hand-Eye Coordination: Soccer scored a 6.50. and that was higher than Golf. Flush that survey.

How about competitive eating? Now that takes skill!

IM at snooker and pool (billiards) go to a snooker club same as joe swails like i said on a different topic.

IM good at snooker and pool (billiards) go to a snooker club same as joe swails like i said on a different topic.
I always stupid mistakes.

quote:

Or the Baseball diamond. :p

Tyr playing 90 minutes straight and being able to walk the next day. I would think most here would be unable to do it at the FIFA level of play. In fact, they can play up to 120 minutes straight and then have a penalty shootout that can last for awhile as well. Playin at that level for that amount of time makes soccer the most difficult sport.

True Busta but that is more about endurance and therefore my link earlier provided would be applicable. Then I'm sure the 26 mile London Marathon or another locations equivalent would come into play.

Surfing imediately came to my mind when I read this question. Anyone can play baseball or football well. What exactly is well? They can physically go through all the motions. Not many people can even stand up on a board let alone learn a trick to compete.

Wrestling -- hands down

-+- There's the 2-3 hours of practice...in the off season

-+- Then the hellacious (?sp?) weightlifting during the off season...

-+- Then the 4 hours a day, two weeks worth of conditioning.

-+- Then the 30 mintue runs, the 30 minute cardio, the hour and a half of drills, and finally, the "6 minute matches" that last for 30 minutes to an hour...

-+- Then the cool downs, weightlifting (yes, we lift two to three times a day), coaches talks, captains talk, beating up freshman, flirting with the cheerleaders, the going home and doing my homework to keep up my 3.3 GPA

And all this doesn't count the cutting weight, the morning workouts, the meets, the mental preparation, the not eating, etc.

Show me what other sport does all this? I wrestle heavyweight and still cut weight. (And I'm not fat. For weighing 280-285, 15% body fat is pretty decent I say...) Any other sport can go home and eat a whole pizza if they want. I can eat on Saturday and Sunday nights...occasionally Monday...

Ok, I'm done ranting...

I have a new take on the subject and this would eleminate sports such as soccer, baseball etc. For the sport to be the hardest to play well it really would only have a handful of good competitors. Soccer, baseball, football have upto thousands of professionals so the chances of making it into these sports must be easier than say playing on a professional level in snooker, golf, darts etc.

DonEthereal_313,

Are you in high school or college?

My opinion is, and I may be wrong about some sports that I don't follow, that you can't get multimillion dollar contracts and endorsements in darts and snooker. The following and competitors aren't there because the money isn't there.