What sport has the widest set of required skills?

[AngryAmish]

I'm watching the baseball game on ESPN and I'm trying to think if there is another sport that requires so many skills? Every player (in the NL at least) has to be able to field, throw, run and hit. Obviously there are certain pitchers who never hit but that is the exception. The best players can do it all. Everyone (except DH) has to play defense.

Swimmers have to swim and no defense. Water polo has throwing catching, defense and swimming so that is pretty complex. Soccer has some throwing but mostly running and kicking.

Any takers?

[bmbmd]

1. Decathlon? Biathlon? Modern pentathlon?

Sumpin llike that....

[barb162]

13. It would have to be the decathlon. I know it aint curling

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

26. Curling should not exist.

[HEyHEY]

33. What? Eat a dick!

Curling is a great sport with centuries of tradition.... plus after there's always a killer beer special on at the legion.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

39. Then keep it in Canada.

[Sanity Claws]

59. Do you mean a spotted dick?

Or some other kind?

[XemaSab]

2. All the players have to be able to catch too

No mean skill...

[wildhorses]

3. what is the one where they have to snow ski and shoot and

seems like there is something else they have to do...

[mzteris]

4. hockey

They have to be able to skate - backwards/forwards, fast, turn/stop on a dime.

They have to be able to hit - and to be able to take a hit.

Shoot the puck.

Pass the puck.

STOP the puck.

Hit (bat) the puck.

Catch the puck.

Bat down the puck.

They have to be able to play offense and defense - no matter what their position really ('cepting maybe goalie.)

And all on a piece of ice that's slipperier than you-know-what!

[democracyindanger]

5. Not to mention MLBers

have to know how to handle hypodermic needles.

[rurallib]

6. And preparing the right mixture that will work best against

whatever pitcher they face today. Christ, them guys have to be chemists!
With steroids, will women be able to compete soon?

[driver8]

60. Ha Ha -- good one!! n/t

[rug]

7. Basketball.

Anyone on the court has to play the whole game.

[jobycom]

8. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Throw, catch, shoot, dribble, jump, run, block, and unlike baseball, the players have to react to constantly changing situations while doing it.

[AngryAmish]

9. But they don't have to hit a really fast moving ball

Hockey is really clos, tho.

baseball does not require great aerobic conditioning. Hockey does. So does B-ball.

[jobycom]

10. That's a unique skill, true, but so is hitting a thirty foot jumper.

And yeah, hockey players are pretty damned amazing, too. I don't like hockey much (just because I never watched it much), but I'm still amazed by the speed of the game.

I think baseball requires a precision--hitting, pitching, and fielding--that the other sports don't.

[leftofthedial]

11. baseball

bar none

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. There's no way we can know this

Unless we've played major-league sport.

[never cry wolf]

14. Baseball, by far

THE hardest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a round ball with a cylindrical bat, and you have to hit it square.... consider that that ball is going at 90+ mph and moving, or 78 mph and diving.... consider that you can't get to the top without being able to field or throw or run at the very least adequately....

The minor leagues are filled with awesome fielders who can't hit a curve, and awesome hitters who can't catch a ball or throw or run....

hands down, baseball requires some modicum of professional skills in all aspects to make it to the show.....

[blockhead]

34. good one

They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square." - Willie Stargell

[northzax]

49. ok, but if you do it only 3 out of ten times

you are considered incredibly successful. that's part of why people say it is so hard. but on the flip side, maybe people say it is so hard because the bar for success is set so low? it's really comparable to three point shooting in the NBA, statistic wise.

[Benfea]

15. American football.

Not only does it require highly specialized positions with radically different skill sets, but it requires players with radically different body types.

[never cry wolf]

16. That is the antithesis of the OP's question

What sport requires the widest variety of skills? In American Football you can succeed by being very big or very fast, but not necessarily both. Of course each position requires certain skill sets, but few "require", size, speed, hands, etc. all in one package...

[Benfea]

18. American football has the widest variety of skills.

Just not within any individual player, however contained within the team is an enormous variety of skills.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

36. Well spoken by someone who has no clue.

[sakabatou]

17. Polo

[Tsiyu]

19. Anything equestrian

You have to have body strength; you have to know how to use a lot of equipment and you must also control the mind of an animal that weighs a ton.

[u4ic]

61. I don't think people realize

how incredibly tough equestrian sports are.

Three day eventing would be by far the toughest, but show jumping and dressage (components of 3 day eventing) are no slouch, either.

When it's done right, it looks effortless, and that's where many people get confused that it's all the horses doing, that the rider is just along for the ride. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In a show jumping event, the riders walk the course beforehand - the course designer sets out specific challenges which to the casual eye, mean nothing (for eg a very tough obstacle past the in gate - horses naturally want to be near their buddies, and will lose concentration, so it's up to the rider to maintain that; a distance between obstacles whereby you'll have to judge what's best for your horse - a long 5 strides, or a short 6, for example; or fences that are coloured or marked so that it fools the horses vision, and again, it's up to the rider to maintain that concentration on the part of the horse).

Never mind that some obstacles will be more than 5 ft high, and perhaps 6 feet wide. The rider judges where the horse is to take off, that is done by training the 'eye' to judge from a distance the exact spot, and to adjust the horses stride accordingly. You need excellent hand eye co-ordination for that, and to keep your horse balanced - no easy feat.

It can be a very dangerous sport.

I also read stories of dressage riders training for the Olympics - they were riding 8 hours a day, the insides of their legs were chapped and raw from all that riding.


Many of the top riders are also trainers, so they themselves are also training their horses up to grand prix level. One has to compete, but also know the art and skill of horsemanship.

btw...none of the competition horses, even huge warmblood stallions, are near a ton. 1400 lbs would be the max by far. Still, nothing to sneeze at! :hi:

[Katina]

20. gymnastics

you have to be able to run, jump lift and swing your own body weight on a bar or horse, have balance and be able to flip, twist and land again without falling down...total body control and total awareness of where your body is in space. Strength, balance & grace.

[ScreamingMeemie]

21. I disagree on that... Many ballplayers are in the big leagues because

they are good fielders, but not neccesarily good hitters. And vice versa. Many power hitters are not good fielders...thank god for right field. Let us look at Don Money...one of the best fielders ever, but a mediocre hitter.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/moneydo01.shtml

The majority of baseball players are known for either their fielding or hitting/baserunning skills. A rare minority truly excel in both.


Hockey...You have to stay upright on blades, skate fast and be able to handle the puck while doing that. Let's face it though, they are all, whatever sport they are playing, having a blast getting paid for doing what they enjoy. :hi:

[jberryhill]

22. Lacrosse

Throwing, catching, waving around sticks, and doing it on the run.

Not to mention courtroom skills.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

48. Lacrosse gets my vote too.

I've never played, but my friend's little brother was on the team that (eventually, after an excellent season), lost in the High School Men's State Lacrosse Championship.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Hockey, no question

Just the addition of skates makes it more difficult than the other major sports, which are all played on feet.

[liontamer]

24. synchronized swimming?

[One_Life_To_Give]

25. Auto Racing

Driving - strength and hand/eye coordination.
Diagnostic abilities -
Mechanical abilities - At the lower levels most drivers are also the chief mechanic.
Salesmenship - The ability to sell the advertising space and sponsors products.

[Radical Activist]

27. hehe

I thought this one was going to be a joke but I guess you're serious?

[Burma Jones]

46. Don't forget Left Turns, have to make a lot of left turns.....

[jmowreader]

53. While there are 42 other guys on the track....

all trying to claim the Exact Same Millimeter of Track Space your car is sitting in.

It's time for another What Would You Do?

You're running a 500-mile race on a 2-mile track--either Michigan or California. It's lap 235 and someone brought out a caution.

You've got enough fuel to make it to the end. Your tires are okay to the end. Your car is a lot better on four fresh tires, but it's good on worn ones, and it's better on four worn ones than on two stickers--tires with the factory sticker still on them. You've got a set of scuffed tires (meaning someone's put them on the car and driven around for a couple of laps to take the factory glaze off) sitting in your pit. Your pit is right behind one of those four drivers who are in front of you, and his pit crew is better than yours. And you're currently running fifth, with four guys who absolutely must pit to make lap 250 sitting in front of you.

Here's your choices.
You can stay out and be the leader across the stripe, but with four cars that have fresh rubber right behind you.
You can take two scuffs, and hope at least a couple of those other drivers--especially the guy whose pit stall is right in front of yours--take four.
You can take four stickers and hope you're enough better to get around the people who come out ahead of you.

AND you gotta deal with the fact that Dale Jarrett is in sixth and Mark Martin in seventh, and twelve laps ago Jarrett was 25th and Martin was 29th--and BOTH of them are taking four.

So! What would you do?

[Burma Jones]

57. take it easy, it wasn't a value judgement.......

you do what the guy on the radio tells you to do......

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

28. Modern Pentathalon

You have to be an experienced epee fencer on top of your pistol marksmanship skills. Not to mention the equestrian skills, which will be followed up by swimming and finally a cross-country run.

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. Golf - you have to drink beer AND smoke your cigar; you can't let your

beer spill while you're driving around looking for your ball; you have to be able to hit a stationary ball; you need the skill to be able to call the beer vendor over and pay for your beer without holding up the game or dropping your cigar; you have to have the physical stamina to drive for 18 holes OR to let someone carry your clubs for said distance; you have to have the physical stamina to exert yourself once EVERY FIVE MINUTES; you need to be able to count, at least into the double digits, likely the triple digits; and you have to be able to stand around for entire minutes - ENTIRE MINUTES - at a time while waiting for your friends to hit their stationary balls; and, the whole time, you have to know enough calculus to judge the rate at which you can drink your beer so that you don't run out OR have any left before the beer vendor comes by again.

[HughBeaumont]

30. 43-Man Squamish

Being able to tell where the 9 Back-up Finks and the Dummy are on the field would be difficult enough . . .

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. Especially the Quarter-Frummerts

Those are the true athletes.

:P

Thanks for the memory! I loved 43-man squamish since first reading of it lo those many decades ago.

[flvegan]

31. Rugby

a/k/a professional kill-the-man-with-the-ball without much along the lines of padding.

[LostinVA]

56. I'd put that second after crew... having done both at one time n/t

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

35. ESPN did a scientific study on this a while back.

Can't find it, but boxing came out on top, followed by Ice Hockey and (America) Football.

Edit: here it is: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills

[Burma Jones]

40. I'll have to go with the experts, boxing has to be the toughest

And it does take great skill to box well. I don't skate, but I did play Football and will say that there's a lot more than size and speed involved......

I hear hitting a 98 mph fastball is damn tough.......

And I can't even computer golf (with cheats) as well as Tiger plays for real....

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

43. It's just too bad boxing has credibility on par with WWF wrestling.

It's not my cup of tea, but still, it'd be nice to appreciate such a sport for what it is without having to figure out which fights are rigged.

[Burma Jones]

45. Yeah, I still like Olympic Boxing though......

[ProfessorGAC]

42. Having Done Both Of Your First Two. . .

. . .i disagree with boxing. But, hockey i'm good with. And, i was better as a boxer than as a defenseman (all i really did was skate backward really well!) But, the overall skill set is limited. The goal is to understand what you do best, what you do the least, and how to line your best against the opponents worst, and prevent him from doing the same. It's way more cerebral than it is physical, because everyone's the same size. Unless one has absolutely zero fear and rage. Then, one is willing to take a beating to administer one.

The Professor

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

44. Well, mental skills are part of it.

That's why boxing's on top - the cerebral aspect puts it over the top. My qualm would be with the disparity between boxers and martial artists. Boxers get dominated in Ultimate Fighting by martial artists, and in a pure analytical sense, martial artists must do all of the same cerebral evaluations and thensome (knowing the attacks and defense of different styles) while requiring more speed, more flexibility, and nearly equal power in most cases.

[AngryAmish]

62. I've boxed and it is the most difficult sport

I don't see well and I ate a lot of right hands.

However, one does not have to do a lot of different things like one does in baseball. Or hockey. Or curling.

[Joe Fields]

37. Canasta. Hands down.

[bertha katzenengel]

38. Baseball. Besides everything that has to become absolute instinct,

to hit a thrown ball with a stick is one of -- if not the -- hardest thing to accomplish in all sports.

[deucemagnet]

41. Calvinball

The score is still Q to 12!

[RedCloud]

47. Fishing. It's not for the squeamish.

1. You have to know how to grab your rod correctly...
2. How to bait the hook masterfully...
3. And you have to cast straight off into the river...
I probably missed a few things there.

[jmowreader]

50. NASCAR. No question.

No other sport requires this many skills. Most sports don't require you to build cars. Most sports don't require you to qualify to get into the game by running around the field alone just as fast as you possibly can, then play the game with 42 other players on the field.

[Ramsey]

51. Crew

To be a rower, you have to use every single muscle in your entire body!! And do it backwards.

[SaveElmer]

52. Baseball...not even close...hardest thing in sports is hitting a baseball.

Next might actually be golf!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

54. well cricket requires a similar skillset...however i dont think either of

these two sports require much athleticism in general

[LostinVA]

55. Crew n/t

[Juffo Wup]

58. Clearly, soccer

Which is the most PERFECT sport EVER invented, and anyone who disagrees is clearly some meat-eating fascist warmonger pig.

[AngryAmish]

63. Best post of the day!