So do you consider horse racing a sport. Those little jockeys are pretty athletic. What about figure skating? Figure skaters might be a hell of a lot more athletic than Rusty Wallace or Mark Martin (Richard Petty has been retired for years except as a team owner) but I don't consider it a sport. The perfect person to ask whether NASCAR is a sport is Joe Gibbs who has been successful both as a football coach, then a NASCAR team owner and is now returning as coach of the Redskins. I don't know how to get in touch with Joe but I would be willing to bet that he would say its a sport.
I came up with criteria of a sport a while back. This is just my opinion: 1. Requires athleticism. Sorry, I don't believe car drivers are athletes. Don't give some crap about taking turns at 300mph or something like that. 2. Only man-power is used. Good-bye car racing and horse racing. Maybe you can call them a sport for cars and a sport for horses, respectively. 3. Objective scoring. Eliminates cheerleading, figure skating, and even boxing (even though I'm not a boxing fan, I hate to eliminate it.) 4. There is some degree of strategy involved.
Re: I agree...Baseball is the hardest a 95 MPH curveball? I want to meet the man that can hit, or throw, that!!!!
What a lout! You probably need an oxen-horn skull cap when you play that reads HEADHUNTER on the front. The sheer number of shots and techniques to master through muscle memory in the game of golf is nearly endless and far, far greater than baseball. The reason Tiger and others take so long ... they are CREATING AND VISUALIZING THE PERFECT SHOT to a target 10,000 times smaller than a baseball field fence. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed ... the ball is much smaller, the club is much longer and travels a different swing path ... though maybe not in your case ...
NO ONE has yet mentioned the "Sport of Kings and King of Sports." I am speaking of professional wrestling. To be able to have your arm twisted around 6 or 7 times, to absorb devastating blows to your head and midsection, to be placed in sleeper holds and submission holds, to have folding chairs broken over your back, to have your eyes gouged and hair pulled, and THEN to get up off that canvas and waylay your opponent - THAT is by far the toughest sport!
1. Golf does require physical skills, just as auto racing does but a fat tub of goo can still be a great golfer like Craig Stadler. Not all good baseball players are good athletes. David Wells comes to mind. He is also a fat tub of goo who loves to drink beer but he is a very good pitcher. Many good bowlers are fat tubs of goo. 2. Hunting and fishing are considered sports by most people. While stalking a wily beast of prey through the woods requires physical ability sitting in a deer stand and pulling the trigger dosen't. Many bass fishermen have thousands of dollars worth of high tech fish finding equipment that reduces the human element of Man vs Fish. Competitive cycling requires that participants be suberbly conditioned athletes but the bicycles that Lance Armstrong rides up the mountains of France have about as much in common with the bikes that you and I ride as a model airplane has with a Stealth Bomber. Yes, Lance Armstrong could take my bike and give me his and still beat me by miles and miles but without his $30,000 or $40,000 high tech state of the art racing machines even he wouldn't stand a chance against world class cyclists. 3. While I hate the fact that boxing is scored by judges and I have seen lots of fights that I'm sure were bogus judges decisions its still a sport because one of the participants can win at any time through his own skill by a knockout. 4. Track is a sport. What strategy is involved in running as fast as you can for 100 meters or jumping as far or as high as you can? You can't call time out at the 50 meter mark and change the play if you are behind. There is plenty of strategy in chess. Is chess a sport? I don't think so but a few years ago Sports Illustrated had a story about some world class chess players. What is a story about chess doing in a sports magazine? A couple of weeks ago SI ran a story about bird watching. Laugh if you want but what some of these bird watchers put themselves through on a rocky, isolated Alaskan island just to beat the other bird watchers to be the first to spot a rare bird was pretty grueling and physically challenging . Come to think of it these bird watchers are pretty strange birds themselves. Are video games sports? It does require manual dexterity, good eye-hand coordination and strategy? Professional wrestlers are great athletes. Is pro wrestling a sport?
I believe that the most difficult sport I have played is golf. With some measure of athletism(sp), and practice, you can be decent in almost any sport. Golf is the most difficult to be "just decent". Now, if you are talking the professional level, I believe that contact sports add a degree of difficulty due to injuries. I can't skate & know little of boxing, so I've left hockey/boxing out. For me, endurance has always been a problem, so track & basketball, wasn't my forte. Short bursts of speed, was easier for me, so football/baseball was easier. After having rambled on, I still vote golf.
Among professional athletes ... they have selected "golf"as the toughest ... hockey players, baseball players, basketball players, football players ... many are insanely attracted to GOLF Why? It is the sport that requires "MASTERY" of the final Human Frontier THE HUMAN MIND If you love and want your kids to be successful in life ... expose them to Golf and Chess at an early age ... they learn to develop the tough mental discipline, thinking skills and willpower it takes to get ahead in this world.
i dont run track, but i imagine there is some strategy to getting the most consistent starts as well as pacing and running style and form. as for high jumping, technique is clearly a factor, like dick fosbury proved. he beat the other jumpers with his mind.
