Excelling at any sport takes a huge amount of skill, but is there one that’s harder than all the others? Ruby Murray, Kilmarnock
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Kerby (or Kerbsy, Curby, Kurbsie or Cribby, depending on where you live) is a deceptively straightforward but highly difficult urban ballgame. Two players either side of a street throw a football at their opponent’s kerb – the idea is to bounce it off the kerb and then catch it. There’s the distance to estimate, ball trajectory, throwing style (overarm or underarm) and weight of throw. Narrow streets with massive kerbs are best, together with a well-inflated football. We used to play with a rock-hard basketball, which pinged back with some gusto and could also be used to crack your opponent’s toes if they were winning. PunCrock
I reckon hurling is in with a shout. If you haven’t grown up playing it, the thought of charging towards someone who’s wielding a wooden scythe while a hard ball is being pelted around at 90mph is pretty terrifying. Also has a pretty niche and technical skillset. I’ll stick to watching it! Kipniko
This is maths and the answer is football. The sport played by most humans, by far; there are perhaps 1 billion players, playing on a global average of once every 10 days, trying their hardest. But how many of them are Messi? charliepiper
Of course, sports are difficult for different reasons, but I’m very confused at every answer that doesn’t include gymnastics. Most sports are based on skills that most of us have at a basic level (running, throwing, hitting), whereas the majority of us can’t do even the simplest skill in a high-level gymnast’s routine. As an adult, even if you are fit, if you start gymnastics from scratch you won’t be able to achieve a high level because of the amount and intensity of training required – not to mention that many of the skills are extremely dangerous. Mastering gymnastics is the ultimate physical test, and one that very few people ever manage. christianbyname
Then there’s water polo. Main difficulty – finding a swimming pool big enough to accommodate eight horses. exlangrandeflaneuse
Snooker, by a million miles. Every single shot has to be precise, especially when the right or left hand is in control of predicting the correct amount of friction, power, backspin and sidespin that the cueball requires to get out of a snooker, into a position of potting more balls, or safely out of danger so that an opponent doesn’t potentially steal a frame. More often than not, one bad shot is all it takes for a run of frames or a session to go horribly wrong.
Other pressures that come with taking a shot are minuscule things such as flies, or a bit of dust floating near the table surface. Playing in front of an audience, somebody’s mobile phone, cough or general fidgeting can break a player’s concentration. Players also have to deal with crowd applause from other tables, which can test their patience.
The margins are so fine and delicate when there’s so much at stake, including a bank-account-boosting 147 break. Especially at one of the Triple Crown events. It’s such an intricately, mind-bending sport. chris198927
I recently saw this video, which makes a good case for Formula One. The sheer number of decisions you have to make, at incredible speeds – as well as the consequences for getting them wrong – aren’t really matched in any other sport. I remember hearing about some eye-tracking device that followed Kimi Raikkonen (I think) around on a lap and he was always looking two corners ahead. Imagine driving like that. That goes without mentioning the physical demands: elevated heart rates, G-force, break pressure and so on. hruhsz
Isle of Man motorcycle racing? You have difficult decisions regarding the balance between staying alive and winning the race. The track conditions can change in minutes and you are on a 200mph rocket ship. Patfink
Jiujitsu has got to be up near the top. Let’s set aside the mind-blowing physical strength of the top athletes and just look at the complexity of the various positions and submissions. It’s like full-contact Twister meets chess, except your opponent is also trying to break your elbow. There’s got to be a reason it takes 10-plus years to become a black belt. from_syd
Horse riding – specifically eventing. The combination of dressage, cross- country and showjumping. Berbermoll
Hard if you’re the horse, maybe. EsIstGeschlossen
This makes a good case for quarterback. elGreco
I’ll never reach the level of the best kabaddi players. Trying to match them takes my breath away. Chancre
I think most people are answering a different question than the one asked. To excel at a sport, you need to be better than others. So the most difficult sport to excel at is the most popular, namely football (although there are 11 players on a team, so maybe that makes it easier).
If you’re a swimmer, you get medals only if you’re in the top three in the world, and one person can be the best at multiple strokes, so there’s an argument for that, too. sicrates
Skateboarding is easily the toughest. I used to skate all day, every day, as a kid, then later in my 20s, too. The level of pain and fear involved to still be shit at it is incomparable. Waddlewasmyhero11
In golf, the Gasp fundamentals – grip, alignment, stance and posture – can be taught in a few half-hour lessons. Most people can ingrain them with say 15 minutes’ daily practice for three or four weeks.
Beyond that, golf cannot be taught. Each golfer has to learn for themselves by trial and error what works for them, because each swing from driver to putter is ultimately a matter of subjective “feels”. The same golfer can make what appear to an observer to be identical swings – they can be proved by superimposition in slow motion to be virtually identical – and yet the golfer may sincerely describe them as feeling utterly different, and the outcome of each stroke may differ enormously.
Although its called “golf instruction”, it is in fact mostly golf suggestion – try this, try that, in the hope that one image, one form of words, one analogy, will help the student to feel what the instructor feels.
I doubt that any golfer has believed for more than a couple of rounds that they have “mastered” the game. Ben Hogan, often cited as the exemplar of consistent ball-striking, said that a good round was one in which he struck the ball as he wanted to three or four times. Those three or four random reinforcements keep us coming back. You never know when you will hit a good shot. AvidViewer
The greatest golfer of all time, Jack Nicklaus, wrote in his book that golf is a game of 10% technique and 90% brain and that the latter cannot be taught. hojo
Swimming is up there as a hard sport to master. Unless you were in a swim club from an early age, it’s very difficult to pick up later on. It requires coordination over four different strokes and a specific kind of fitness. Whereas some people have taken up cycling or rowing later in life and become an Olympic medalist due to transferable fitness, this doesn’t happen in swimming. People coming into triathlons later on generally struggle with the swimming aspect. Plus, the training at a high level is very tough. Chillyswimmer
Diving is a ridiculously difficult sport to master. So hard technically that Olympic champions can wipe out in competition. So hard physically on the body that not many divers compete past the age of 30 on platform. So dangerous that world-class elite divers have died in training accidents. And so tough psychologically that anxiety and depression are common. Mary_Quite_Contrary
Javelin catching. chriskilby
