what sport is the most difficult to master skillwise?

[KlokWyze]

I think boxing & mma can be up there dependent on pain, necessary endurance and skill. Ice hockey looks BRUTAL.... but technical skill? Skateboarding. As someone who skated for a few years I can tell you that few people that attempt even learn how to ollie can do so effectively. Having trust in your ability, the board, ramps, etc. is pretty damn intimidating. Think of a basic drop in on a 8 foot half-pipe. The level of skill and control it takes to pull off a lot of these tricks/combinations in a single run... when it comes to the other trick sports like it they don't compare. Skiing, snowboarding, rollerblading, etc. don't have shit on skateboarding.

Team sports are quite different as they have the added dynamics of communication & strategy.

Golf is also ridiculously hard. Tennis as well.

 

[SolMiester]

Really? Then why do the best f1 drives still beat computer controlled cars? The computers have far far far better reaction times. If you do any reading into "reaction time" in sports you find its all about recognizing patterns, not reaction time. A person who is good in their sport can recognize what is going to happen and set their reaction in motion far advance. For example batters have to start swinging their bat shortly after the pitcher releases the ball due to the slow speed of nerve impulses. They do this by looking at the motion of the throw and position of the pitcher, not tracking the ball and having better reaction speed. I remember interesting study where they would crop pictures of pro athletes to remove the ball from a photo (I think the did several sports, but I know volleyball for sure). They then asked them to place the ball. Pro players did this very accurately. They also showed the pictures in extremely quick flashes and the pro players again were able to extract a ton of info in a picture display so quickly you could even really consciously see it.

So TL;DR Reaction speed has little to do with how good pros are. Its about reading a scene.

LOL, how many computer racing cars do you see in F1 racing?....None is how many!.As for your patterns, its still reaction time to set position on the course AND reaction time when passing or avoiding crashes...

Golf has far more skills to master than racing FFS...rhythm, timing, power, course knowledge, green reading, weight, wind, stance and many more.....

 

[AznAnarchy99]

E-Sports!

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

In terms of sports which require athletic coordination and a high sport iQ, hockey. hands down hockey.

Pure skill though? Any, except car driver. That's not a sport. All sports require time to learn proper form. I see Golf is highly regarded and I'd agree. I think I would actually put billiards higher than golf though.

And ya, where is billiards on this poll?

 

[Ns1]

I think I would actually put billiards higher than golf though.

you don't have to battle variable winds/course conditions in billiards.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

What about penalties that rely heavily on the subjectivity of the officials?
All of your sports have game changing penalties that are extremely subjective.

Holding, pass interference, charge, ball/strike, etc.

I think there is a difference between sports in which referees are used to enforce the rules of the sport in a way that impacts the ability to score (or very rarely directly affects the score) and activities like figure skating where judges are the only manner of determining the score.

In football a penalty does not directly result in a score. It may lead to a score by placing the offense closer to the opposing team's end zone, but the penalty itself does not result in a score.

Same thing goes for hockey - a penalty improves one team's ability to score by placing an opposing team member in the penalty box or in some instances awarding a penalty shot.

Baseball - there is only one penalty that I am aware of which can result in a run, and that is a balk with a runner on third base. That is an extremely rare penalty. The calling of balls and strikes is subjective. Not going to argue that. But the umpires are generally so good and consistent that the strike zone they call on a given day does not determine the score. Particularly as they (presumably) enforce the same strike zone on both teams.

Soccer - the most egregious penalties award a free kick or a penalty shot, not a goal.

Basektball - Even egregious penalties result in free throws, which are not (as anyone who has seen Shaq shoot free throws) an automatic award of points.

Martial arts and Boxing - repeated egregious penalties can result in the award of a point. But that is rare and generally frowned upon by the participants.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

None of you have been on a track obviously. Sure you can park your car/motorcycle in the corner but every turn is different (even an oval). There's different camber, visibility, cross winds, surface can be different. If the surface is in the shade it'll be cooler which can effect tire traction. Let's say you're trying to pass someone. You might apex later or trail brake into the turn. I don't know if I'd call it a sport though. Should just be considered auto racing. I will say when you're on a motorcycle you're almost never in the seat when you're in the track. You're moving around a lot.

That said, I'd go with golf or baseball. With golf you could be practicing all your life and you probably wouldn't even make it to the pro level. The tiny ball is hard to hit accurately for most people. Probably no power either. Failing to hit the ball 70% off the time is good in baseball.

 

[PingviN]

I would expect hockey to be the hardest to master. It's a quick paced, physical and technical sport on skates.

 

[Ns1]

In football a penalty does not directly result in a score. It may lead to a score by placing the offense closer to the opposing team's end zone, but the penalty itself does not result in a score.

However the refs are free to make calls which take away points.

 

[ponyo]

I think there is a difference between sports in which referees are used to enforce the rules of the sport in a way that impacts the ability to score (or very rarely directly affects the score) and activities like figure skating where judges are the only manner of determining the score.

In football a penalty does not directly result in a score. It may lead to a score by placing the offense closer to the opposing team's end zone, but the penalty itself does not result in a score.

Same thing goes for hockey - a penalty improves one team's ability to score by placing an opposing team member in the penalty box or in some instances awarding a penalty shot.

Baseball - there is only one penalty that I am aware of which can result in a run, and that is a balk with a runner on third base. That is an extremely rare penalty. The calling of balls and strikes is subjective. Not going to argue that. But the umpires are generally so good and consistent that the strike zone they call on a given day does not determine the score. Particularly as they (presumably) enforce the same strike zone on both teams.

Soccer - the most egregious penalties award a free kick or a penalty shot, not a goal.

Basektball - Even egregious penalties result in free throws, which are not (as anyone who has seen Shaq shoot free throws) an automatic award of points.

Martial arts and Boxing - repeated egregious penalties can result in the award of a point. But that is rare and generally frowned upon by the participants.

It's all the same. Even with the fixed judging, figure skaters have to go out and still perform the required elements somewhat respectfully or else the cheating wouldn't work. As much as I'm disgusted at the cheating by the Russians at the Sochi 2014 Olympics figure skating, Adelina Sotnikova was good enough to stay on her two feet and not fall on her ass like Julia Lipnitskaya. So they couldn't give the gold medal to Lipnitskaya like they wanted. So the Russians did the next best thing and gave the gold to the fellow Russian, Sotnikova. Did Sotnikova deserve it? Absolutely not. Yuna Kim was the winner. But Sotnikova skated good enough for Russia to steal their first gold medal in ladies skating. Home cooking and cheating are part of sports. Especially when national pride is on the line.

You have to be blind not to see all the bias officiating at all the major popular sports like professional football, basketball, soccer, etc. If people consider boxing a sport, then pretty much anything can be a sport including figure skating. How many crazy and controversial decisions have we seen in boxing? I bet boxing has seen much more fixed results than figure skating since there's so much money involved. Do I need to say more than 1988 Seoul Olympics and Roy Jones Jr? Or how about 1984 LA Olympics and Evander Holyfield? The Roy Jones Jr fight was one of the worst cheating I've seen in my whole life. When the loser even can't believe the decision and acknowledges you as the winner, that's ridiculous. And how about the Yugoslavian referee who disqualified the dominant Holyfield so that the another Yugoslavian boxer wouldn't even have to fight for the gold medal match and the two Yugoslavian boxers would be automatically awarded gold and silver medals. Now that's cheating when you don't even have to play or fight a match and automatically win.

 

[ponyo]

However the refs are free to make calls which take away points.

Which is just as same as awarding points. Think about the invalid goals in soccer, hockey, basketball because of supposed penalty. Officiating is so subjective that they can easily influence the outcome of games.

 

[Mixolydian]

Hockey, for sure. Not only do you have to master working with the stick/puck, you also have to be a really good skater.

 

[skimple]

lacrosse.

 

[brainhulk]

racing cars, in the rain, going +170mph, no visibility, inches from car next to you, other cars might hit you, might hit wall at 170 mph

http://youtu.be/fj92JmlStFs

Racing wins

 

[Midwayman]

LOL, how many computer racing cars do you see in F1 racing?....None is how many!.As for your patterns, its still reaction time to set position on the course AND reaction time when passing or avoiding crashes...

That really only serves to prove my point. Well other than just being illegal. As for reaction time, seriously read any scientific research on it. Reaction time is not a defining trait of a good athlete. Human reactions are slow, anticipating things well is how we work.

 

[IronWing]

Looking at the poll results I conclude that sports dominated by white folk are more difficult to master than other sports.


This might be a troll post.