By Many athletes and sports enthusiasts have long debated which sport is the most challenging. Each discipline presents unique physical and mental demands. The sports editors of the Long Beach Current share their perspectives on the most challenging sports and detail the reasons behind their selections.
Baseball – Matthew Coleman
Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in all professional sports. Given that the average velocity of a pitch in Major League Baseball is north of 90 miles per hour, with different variants of pitches that make the ball break in unique ways, predicting and reacting is extremely challenging.
A .300 average, indicating a 30% success rate, is considered the best. The mental fatigue of repetitive failure throughout a 162-game season makes the psychological aspect of the game so rigorous.
Baseball players are often more equipped to transition into other sports because of their throwing mechanics and the skills they develop—even super athletes from different sports struggle to make contact with the ball during batting practice.
Hockey – Matthew Gomez
At 4 years old, I started playing hockey. I did nothing but learn to skate and practice my stick handles with every free hour. By the age of 10, I had my own mini rink pieced together on my driveway.
I thought I could keep playing forever and reach the highest levels, but the reality is that hockey is the most demanding sport there is.
There are various reasons for this.
Starting hockey involves learning to skate, often beginning with roller skating before transitioning to ice skating.
Aspiring hockey players must also learn how to adapt to balancing on the tiniest of edges while avoiding constant contact and controlling a piece of vulcanized rubber moving at 50-80 mph on any given pass.
Being the best at the top level does not only require learning to play hockey anymore. The newest trend is practicing figure skating while young to give you an extra advantage when it comes to being good on your edges.
Basketball – Alyssa De La Cruz
Basketball demands a unique combination of athleticism, intelligence and endurance, none of which come easily.
Players must be fast and strong, but physical ability alone won’t make you great. Mental strength is just as essential.
Beyond the physical and mental challenges, basketball is among the hardest sports to gain global recognition.
The struggle is even more intense for women, as many seek higher salaries overseas due to limited opportunities in the WNBA.
Basketball is a relentless pursuit of greatness, both on the court and globally.
Track & Field – Jack Haslett
To succeed in any sport, you must either run fast, far, jump, lift or throw; track and field asks athletes to do all of these.
Track and field encapsulates all these traits, which is why other parts of the world call it “athletics.” The events that define track and field are the foundation of every other sport.
The world champion in the decathlon, an event that combines most of the major track and field events, is unofficially referred to as the “World’s Greatest Athlete.”
The person who is the best at 10 different events that cover all the major skills that an athlete could use has to be the best athlete there is.
Golf – Davis Ramage
In the MLB, it is often said that you will be in the Hall of Fame if you get a hit every three out of ten times. In golf, if you execute your shot every three out of ten times, you will never step foot on the PGA Tour.
To succeed in golf, a near-perfect swing must be executed every time. Hitting the ball anywhere but in the center of the clubface or at the wrong angle can send the ball hundreds of feet in the wrong direction.
Golfers frequently encounter varying playing surfaces with each stroke, whether teeing off, playing from the fairway, or navigating the rough. Not to mention the wind that is almost always in play as the ball is launched high in the air on most swings.
The mental stability required to calculate every shot, execute it flawlessly in whatever the conditions are, and do it at least 60 times a match is why golf is the most challenging sport to play.
