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.

A few months ago I would have argued soccer, but lately I noticed that when the ball isn't on their end, they stand around a bit, so that has swayed me from soccer a little..

There are a lot of good arguments for football, but the fact that a player is only on the field "half" of the time makes me reluctant to give it to football right away. I think 2-way college players, like Chris Gamble, are very high on the list, but once they enter the NFL they generally play either offense or defense.

A catcher in baseball is an incredibly tough position. They need brains (call signs, work with pitcher, etc.) strength (squatting for about an hour and a half every game), and also have to be reasonable hitters, although they are valued for their defense and game management more than they are their hitting.

Boxers are also high, as they are pretty impressive in all categories except brains IMO. I am not saying they are dumb and don't think a lot, but compared to other sports, I am under the impression that they think less, and instead rely on physical skills, endurance, and training, but don't necessarily think on the spot as much.

Adding thinking/brains into the equation really makes it a difficult decision, because it seems many of the sports that rely on strength and agility, may not necessarily include brains also.

Having just read a well-written aritcle about catchers in Major League Baseball, I am going to select them. I would have never considered them prior to reading the article, but after reading it and thinking about it, they really are the most "complete" baseball player IMO. And given the fact that they do so much defensively and also are expected to hold their own offensively, I consider them to be up there with other positions in other sports in the "complete athlete" race.

I dont believe that. Think about cycling. Try riding 130 miles at 25-30 mph over a 5 hour time period. Somehow I doubt a guy who rides a motor-powered bike could handle that.

Aussie rules football, hands down!!

S

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

As an overall athlete, obviously guys like Decatheletes and Triathletes are capable of mastering many sports and competing in them at very high levels.

But I think the sport you need the most god given ability to be successful at is boxing: speed, strength, endurance, durability, reflexes, intelligence (not school taught but ring generalship), will power - you need it all in spades to be a great boxer.

I think this is really a relative question. You could make an argument that most sports are the toughest to play, and it's true that most sports do require talent, skill, and practice. However, I think most people are going to call the sport of their choice, rather than the sport they think is the toughest, mostly because they have little interest in other sports, nor have they ever played any of them.

With that said, hockey is definitely the toughest sport out there. You have a 200'x85' ice surface, 12 guys, and one little eensy-weensy puck that you have to control with a stick. There are 6 positions to play, and each position has its chunk of ice to guard, but there are many cases when you must take a risk and venture outside of your territory. On top of that, you're on skates, which isn't natural for most people, and requires a hell of a lot more effort to move than running does. It has strategies (i.e. breakout plays, scoring plays, etc...), and unless you want to make your stay in the game a short one, you had better use your head.

Agreed, and Hockey is really the only sport where you have to be able to do EVERYTHING. Every defensemen has to be able to think like a forward from time to time and vice versa. The centers (at least the good ones) have to do both all the time. Defensemen even have to think like the goalie in that they have to stay out of his way and also cut off guys' lanes. And in hockey you also have to be REALLY tough, tough as any football player, easily. I remember hearing a story about Brent Gilchrist, where he was playing during the Stanley Cup Finals i think the year the Wings faced the Caps, and his groin was literally seperating from the bone. Between periods he had to go in and get pins literally jammed in to hold it in place... and he STILL PLAYED. That is fucking tough right there. Also, football is a lot more forgiving to the players. You get to stop all the damn time, plays only last for like 30 seconds apiece if that. And when your side isnt on the field, you get a looong break. Hockey the shifts can go on for several minutes and you're ALWAYS moving.... if you're not you just get burned. When your line goes off, it's always nice, but it's never for very long.

I would also vote Triathlete:
swim 1 mile
bike 62 miles
run 26 miles

...consecutively, on the same day.

Without a doubt amature wrestling. My son wrestles on Junior High in school. To
wrestle and be succesful at the state level
it takes a lot of hard work and discipline.
Wrestling is like a chess match where have to be able to attack and defend against your opponets every move.

I too am gonna have to go with tri, especially of the Ironman variety. Its even worse; Swim 2.5 miles, bike 112, run 26. Utter madness, you have to be a masochist to even start one of those things, much less finish it.

I say this as a rugby player for thirteen years, my vote would have to go to hockey, rugby, or water polo. I can see arguments though, for a fair number of other sports. Just be glad that you can get out there and do something.

Any sport that involves swimming would have to be up there, so triathlon of course and water polo.

I would have to say though, that in the last 10 years the level of athletes in all sports has become better. Remember the over weight baseball players and slow moving hockey players. Not to mention all the really bad linebackers who could barely stand up for 4 downs without needing oxygen. Athletes have started to improve overall physically and I think it is starting to show with better sports and more challenging match ups.

I dunno man, baseball players sorta sit around alot and when they do have to run it's only for a short burst and that's it. Much the same for football. Sit around and run for 10 seconds. I can't see how that would qualify one as the toughest sport out there.

I'd say MLB or hockey. Triathlon is all pure athletics, not skill. Sure, race car drivers have to be in shape, but it's nothing like the NFL. If you go back and read the first post, you have to go for something well rounded.

Race car drivers don't have to be in shape, but they have to pay attention to every detail and push their vehicles just to that limit. If they don't, they lose, if they go beyond they could die. http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=60295 check that thread for reference.

Baseball isn't even close. Besides hitting, which is extremely difficult, the running isn't that difficult, the catching isn't that difficult unless you're going for a catch only pros make on a regular basis, and the running is far less than that of other sports.

I think a triathlete should be disqualified just because it's just mindless competition. There's no strategy, it's just go out and swim, go out and ride a bike, go out and run. A race car driver on the other hand posesses a lot of skill and uses a lot of strategy, especially in compairison to a triathlete.

Hockey is still top in my opinion. First of all it's on skates, which is difficult enough for some people. Then throw in controlling a puck in traffic and it becomes much more difficult. Throw in the pure physical contact and the different strategies and positioning and the skill required of the goalies and it has to be number one.

A midfielder in the Australian Football League has to have power, speed and endurance (runs the equivalent of a 1/2 marathon each game) and also plays full contact without any pads. You need to be a good athlete to be able to do that in my books.

Hockey for sure.

How about cycling?? Go for 6 Lance!!!!!!!

Here is on that hasn't been mentioned but should be near the top: Downhill Ski Racing
Most of the racers have each course memorized when they start, and thay still have to remain focused throughout the race.
You need to be ripped to flex the skis that the World Cup athletes uses, not your ordinary everyday ski.
It takes alot of agility and coordination to manuever around slalom and GS gates.
Speed: 80 mph on ice with very little protection, thats just insane.

Ohh and skiers have won the last two competitions in which athletes of various sports face off against one another in various agitility, speed and coordination competitions.

Id say Aussie Rules Football or Soccer.

Middle linebacker