Which sport is the most difficult to master?

David Foster Wallace makes a pretty convincing argument in "String Theory" that hitting a tennis ball, usually on the run, that's going 120 mph is much harder than hitting a baseball while standing still. The racket, obviously, it bigger than a bat, but the area on the racket where you have to hit the ball isn't much bigger than a baseball bat. Don't know if I agree, but it is food for thought. And plenty of people have heard the story of when Andre Agassi went to the batting cages at age 20, having never played a lick of baseball, and had them set the machine on 95. He got so bored with hitting line drives he started running at the machine and hitting liners while he was running. Not with a tennis racket, but with a bat.

I still think it's golf. Yes, you can get expensive clubs and expensive lessons, and even occasionally pull off a PGA caliber shot, but no one can teach you how to make putts from 12 feet with everything on the line. That's a skill you pretty much have, or you don't have. That's the hardest part about golf. The most important thing (putting) is so vastly different from driving it 300 yards off the tee. You have to master several different skills to be good at golf.

 

Thing is, about tennis.

The ball is coming from a much farther distance than a baseball....

It is soft... there is no fear of it hitting you.

There is much, much, much more area of the racket with which you can hit a winning return volley than there is on a bat to hit a line drive.

Most athleticism? Against a top-shelf opponent, yes. I would agree with that.

 

I was waiting for that response. As sure as the sun rises.

Goalies have to stop a puck coming in at 80 - 100 mph with a maze of bodies in front of them.
And 7 times out of 10 someone gets their stick on it so it changes direction at the last minute.

230 lb guys crashing into them at what, 30 mph?

Being able to react to the play on the ice in a matter of 1/2 a second.

And there are no huddles after each shot.

Sorry, QB's have my respect but it's not close to what a goalie has to put up with. And all doing it on skates with 25 lbs of equipment.

 

I played baseball and, now, golf, too. Disagree entirely. The questions is, which is the most difficult to master, not which is the most difficult to become sufficiently proficient as to not make a fool of yourself. As JR said, give someone lessons and the time to play three times a week and most reasonably athletic people can become proficient in golf. Consistently making contact with a baseball at even the Double-A level would be close to impossibe for the same reasonably athletic people. Hitting well (spraying line drives around the field) would be out of the question. I think USA Today did a series a couple yeaars ago about the most difficult skills in sports and hitting a baseball was considered the most difficult.

 

As hockey-centric as I am, hitting a baseball is probably the single most difficult act in alll sports.

Name me another sport where you fail seven times out of ten and you're still considered one of the best.

 

Used to have that debate with my dad when I was younger before I started playing golf, and made that point about the ball just sitting there. His answer was always the same and always shut me up, "Yes, but in golf we have to play our foul balls."

Now that I've picked up golf, it's not even close, it's far more difficult than baseball.

 

You're talking about a world class athlete. I'm guessing that wouldn't be the norm with your average Joe Blow from the local tennis club. Plus hitting off a pitching machine that you know is throwing straight 95-mph fastballs is a lot different than actual live hitting with pitches having movement, let alone curveballs.

In regard to your example, I'd wager that the best hitters in the major leagues could probably return a tennis serve coming from a machine. They'd certainly have trouble returning a serve in a match, but I'm guessing Agassi wouldn't get bored hitting line drives if he were facing Johan Santana, either.

 

In baseball, the pitcher has to put the ball in an area 18 inches wide and 3 feet deep . . . or you get a free pass to first base.

Heck, I'd argue that pitching is harder to master than hitting.

The returner in tennis has about 20 feet he has to cover.

Of course, in tennis you don't get to choose between being a server (pitcher) or a returner (hitter). You have to do both, and do both well . . . unless your name is Dementieva.

Remember Greg Luzinski? All-Star outfielder?

Couldn't pitch. Couldn't field. Couldn't run.

Would you say he had "mastered" baseball . . . even though he was below average in many of the sport's requirements?

But that's part of the argument, of course. You don't even have to master baseball . . . to be an All-Star. You only have to master perhaps one aspect.

 

One thing to remember with hockey, is that not only do you have to be able to skate well going forward, but you have to be able to skate backward too (especially if you're a defenseman).

 

And as a lot of hockey people will attest, only defenseman really know how to do it.

Backwards crossovers, baby. Most forwards will end up on their asses

 

golf for sure

 

I was about a 8 handicap when I was 15 because I played all the time.

A high school buddy of mine was a scratch golfer when he was 14 because he played every day.

Doesn't seem difficult to master--unless by "master" you mean making the pros.

I'm not saying golf ain't difficult because it sure as hell is. But the most difficult? No friggin way.