which sport....?
 

Which sport do you thnk generates the best overall athete? i'm talking about having the whole package to excel (e.g. brains, brawn, coordination, agility, speed, etc....)

I think Boxing would be up at the top. In order to survive you have to be quick, agile, have a high pain threshold, smart, coordinated, have good balance, good technique, etc..

what do you guys think?

I might argue middle linebacker in football. You need to be agile, fast, and really strong. You have to be smart enough to read the offense and call defensive audibles. You have to be observent enough to know when to drop back in mid-level coverage or come up strong to stop the run or sack the quarterback.

Any decent middle linebacker is a better athlete then almost any other kind of athlete.

While not my favorite sports, soccer and rugby would probably be up there.

While I agree with you dj I think our opinion in Baltimore might be a little skewed towards Middle Linebackers.

I would argue for Ice Hockey Defensemen. The pysical skills alone are enough to make them elite but the decisions that they have to make combined with the finesse necessary make them a very formidable package.

one of my friends was telling me about his freesyle wrestling last night, and that makes a really good athlete.

Decathlete. You need to master a wide variety of events, you need speed, technique, strength, and the brains to keep on track over the course of the competition.

Decathalon

Hockey players, any of them. I was going to say rugby, but I think they are the best in physical strength, endurance and tougness, but hockey players are not far behind in that, and have to be smarter.

I'm going to agree about hockey. Especially the goaltender. Ever seen a goalie after a game? Well, they're literally covered in sweat. They have easily the hardest job on the ice, and, one mistake, and the other team's got a goal.

The purity of it appeals to me as well. As one wall poster I saw a long time ago put it "Wrestling isn't a sport. It's a lifestyle." Outside of formal training, you need the discipline to eat right and stay healthy. Alcohol is empty calories and that's just counterproductive. You have to watch everything you intake. Nevertheless, very rewarding.

Basketball. It's the hardest sport to take some random kid with no experience and develop him into a varsity player.

Tennis, 90% mental, 10% physical is what I've heard. Longest match lasts around 5 hours. You gotta have some perseverance to play for 5 hours, this is totally "mind over matter" IMO.

Wrong, hockey is much harder.

Becoming decent at dribbling a basketball is about as hard as learning to control a hockey puck. Shoot is about the same, and passing is about the same. But hockey is on skates, and is faster.

Hockey.

Each sport has it's own requirements and will have its own definition of "overall" athlete. I think you need to be a bit more specific on what you are looking for (I know it was a general question). If you look at the people listed so far...

Hockey Players...good on skates, agressive, in shape, smart..but could they keep up with a receiver in football? Endurance athletes have great endurance and have to have the smarts enough to compete over the long hall.

I'll throw out out...how bout the Ironman Triathelete...racing for hours on end has to mean the person has some athletic ability. Of course that person hasn't bulked up because they are in an endurance sport.

I don't think questions like this can be definitively answered...???

Just some thoughts...

Hockey. I mean they have to skate on ice for cryin out loud.

wrestling.

Waterpolo. It's intense as hell. Isn't the average playing time in a complete football game actually just 15minutes? In a waterpolo game its 28, of nonstop intensity. Gotta have really high endurance, speed, agility, quite abit of pain tolerance, and alot of smarts to know what on earth is going on and what to do. Also played in water..

my original intent was never to find a definitive answer. it was just to start a discussion on which sport ppl thought produces the best overall athlete.

Have you ever played Water Polo, it's insane.

I wrestled, played football and baseball through High School, nothing compared to the times I played Water polo.

Definatley swimming, I was in it for 8 years and got into the best shape that I've ever been in, in my entire life...

But I'm not talking about splashing around the whole time. You have to have a specific workout set that will WORK you. Do it every day, and you'll whip yourself into great shape fast, and gain quite a bit of muscle, stamina, and breathing control.

easily rugby. I play, and you have to have amazing endurance, strength, and be tough as hell.

Definitely a hockey goaltender. They have to have the quickness and agility to make the saves and the stamina to do it for an entire game. And they have to be able to read the play to anticipate the saves. Plus, I'd say there's more pressure on the goalie to perform than on any other player on the ice.

ive played most of the major sports and i can safely say that Wrestling requires such insane amounts of mental/physical toughness as well as speed, endurance, coordination, balance

its so pure as well, no equipment or implements, just you and the other wrestler

i'd have to say boxing.

but, i think that Ironmen are also magnificently fit in an all-round sense.

i don't know enough about wrestling and ice hockey so i can't put forward an opinion on those sports.

I think that fighters in general, from wrestling to martial arts to boxing, are the best athletes. They're strong, quick, and tough but there is also a lot of strategy involved.

Gymnast, no question !

i disagree. i think that teaching someone to hit a baseball is much more difficult than teaching someone to shoot or dribble.

to me the game of hockey seems to require the most well rounded athlete.

I was going to say a tie between hockey and wrestling. However, wrestlers do not have team mates to fall back on, so wrestling tops hockey.

You beat me to it. A MLB on a team is the most amazing mix of speed, strength and agility that you can find in sports. On one play the MLB is making open field takles on a RB and the next he is doing pass coverage on a 3WR set. That is a tough set of skills to encompass.

An F1 race car driver maintains a heart rate of 120+ for about 1 1/2 hours. During this time they lose up to 5 kg. of body weight. They must make split-second, life threating decisions at 320 kph.
Oh, and they get the hottest girlfriends.

wrestling... you need indurance, strength, intelligence, speed, agility and balance... those are the reasons i was not too good at it

certainly amateur wrestling.

I would have to say baseball. I am biased though. The hardest thing to do in any pro sport is to hit the baseball. So that speaks to hand eye coordination. Baseball players have to run, use their hands for catching, use their arms for throwing as well as bat and run. I give it to baseball becasue all the players on the team have to use all the skills mentioned. You may have positon players in other posrts that do as much and others that surpass certain aspects not used as much in baseball, but for my money baseball players have to use the most.

I love baseball, and learning to hit a major league fastball may be the hardest thing to do, but I really can't say they are the best overall athletes. You get to just sit down for every other 20 minutes, for the majority of the time you are just standing there and thinking about what you would do if this or that happened. I think sports like hockey or rugby or wrestling where you are at max heart rate and trying to do 3 or 4 or 5 things at once is much more demanding.

Bowling.............. Case Closed!

I was going to say hockey, but im going to have to say water polo. I have played this afew times, and I have to say that it is probably the hardest sport I have played. It is tough let me tell you.

I remember reading somewhere that motocross racers where the most physically fit and agile athletes. I don't know about the brain part though.

Some F1 drivers without any doubt. it would be impossible to drive thse cars at racing speeds for any reasonable time without being superfit. No expense is spared to get their drivers to peak overall fitness, they spend millions on achieving tenths of a second over a lap with improved technology, it cost less to improve a drivers ability to maintain effort at maximum from start to finish, allowing more money for Tech. When testing drivers may cover hundreds of miles a day, thats why the drivers don't look nackered at the end of a race.
Try driving a good gocart for half an hour, see how you feel.
Fighter pilots are up there as well. (sorry about that one)

i'd opt for swimmers or triathletes

Hockey and Fencing.