Many people have wondered: What is the hardest sport? As humans we like to believe that whatever we do must be the hardest. If you play lacrosse chances are you think it’s the hardest, if you play basketball you think it’s the hardest. It’s all a part of human nature.

 “I think that the hardest sport is ice hockey as it is a very rough sport and you have to be good at a lot of different things to be really good at the sport,” said sophomore Deven Pandey.

The things that make a sport hard are the skills that go into it, the amount of things you’re doing at a time, and the physical strain. Ice hockey is an amazing example of all three. It takes precision along with skill. It’s also a very brutal sport, so to play through some injuries is very difficult. 

An example of a sport that has two of the three difficult aspects is boxing. Boxing takes a lot of physical effort on your body and there are many injuries that come with it. It also involves a lot of multi-tasking which is very difficult. It doesn’t involve the same set of skills that many other sports require. 

A sport that just has one aspect is golf and it is all skill. “I think that the most overestimated sport is golf because I always hear people talk about how really hard it is to be good at golf but I think it is not that hard to be pretty decent at it because it is very easy to practice and there is not a lot of unpredictability,” Pandey said. 

For some sports, it is easy to play at a lower level, but not at a higher level because of the skill difference. An example of this is tennis. “I think that the most underestimated sport is also tennis because a lot of people think that it is as easy as just hitting a ball over the net. Yes that is some of it but to be really good at it you need to learn so many different skills and it is also a very mental sport at times,” Pandey said.

Tennis takes a lot of skill to hit the ball with certain spins and with some techniques. Tennis is also a very tough mental game because it is only you out there and you have to deal with all that pressure on your own. It is also a very long game. They can go as long as three hours of running in the heat. 

“I think the hardest sport is wrestling because it’s more than just a sport, it’s a lifestyle that has to be lived with cutting weight all the time. It’s also a very physically demanding sport. You can get seriously hurt by many things, kids have even had seizures on the mat,” shared freshman Kamryn Crookham. 

Regardless of opinion, it is undeniable that all sports require a specific amount of skills. At the end of the day, each sport is draining in its own way. Whether it’s emotionally, mentally, or physically draining, it does not mean your sport is less hard than another.