HARDEST SPORT

[powerplant42]

And that is...approximately...4 feet higher than we are discussing. And I don't believe we should be discussing being able to 'hit' a fastball, we should be discussing being able to HIT a fastball, as in actually hit it for real, consistently.

[VaultPurple]

The correct way to analize what sports are harder is not how hard they are for the professional athleat to do, but how hard the training is to acchieve that level of athletic ability.

Like to become 19' vaulter it takes years of sprint training to gain speed, and years of technical training and a good understanding of how the vault works to be able to master the vault, and then even after years some could argue it may be impossiable to "master".

Whereas baseball you usualy start as early as the age of 3 and have to play until college and beyond to reach the pro leve. But you are able to start to learn and understand the basics at a young age. And you have more years of training if you become a baseball player until you reach the elite level. The diffrence is that most of those years of practice are doing repetitive motions of throwing, fielding, and hitting. But when it comes down to it, You are either blessed with the hand eye cordintation for hitting a 90+mph baseball or you were not.

[powerplant42]

I do not believe that to be the case. You can improve hand/eye coordination, as well as reaction time.

[souleman]

OK Kids, (all of this can probably be classified in the "Geezer hogwash file") BUT, I can make contact with a baseball coming out of the machine at 90 MPH at 60 feet. It takes me about 3 or 4 balls to time it up. I've always had a harder time hitting a machine than an actual pitcher. On the other hand I can't jump 10 feet, much less 17, 18 or 19 feet. Oh, by the way I'm 56 years old. Later................Mike

[nitro]

To be able to pole vault 17 18 or 19 you have be geneticly able to. ie. speed. The worst athlete in the world can be taught to hit a baseball

[gymnastsrock]

Here's one for you: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sp ... _rank#grid

I don't really agree with (a lot of) it, but it pertains to this conversation. Baseball is ranked #9, and Pole Vault is only #16.

[powerplant42]

ESPN is not realizing a crucial factor (nor would they ever be able to)... as are none of us. I think that pole vault is tougher than all of those sports, and will continue to be until there are more than just a few competent coaches. (Very small percentage...) I believe that many of America's best coaches are members of this board!

[VaultPurple]

Power rodeo, baseball,martial artis, football, hockey boxing
Speed: Lacross, Skiing, Soccer, Baseball, Tennis, Martial args, basketball, footbakk, iche hockey, boxing


It is evident that these calculations were taken from a singel jump of someone of High school ability.

1) Endurance is extremly low, yes it is not an indurance sport but if you take multiple jumps in a compitition it can become one... Takes more endurance than Baseball im sure!

2) The biggest evidence that these calculations are compleatly wrong are the SPEED calculation which has pole vault with only a 6.13 while Middle distance was awarded a 7.75.... It is quite evident that Brad walker is running signifigently faster down the runway than Nick Symmonds is when he runs an 800.

It is all biased on how people generaly picture each event. As you can see gymnastics had a percect 10 for flexablity, while diving and cheerleading were a lot lower even though they are all basicaly made up of the same people. ie. divers and cheerleaders used to be gymnist. Same way with some pole vaulters. And long jump has a signifigently lower rating for speed than sprints (it is about same as pole vault), when all the great long jumpers were also olympic sprinters.

[powerplant42]

How did you come up with that last point...?

[nitro]

I dont see what most of that stuff has to do with being the hardest sport. I mean what does flexibilty have to do with being an athlete lol. Also i think everyone would agree that Golf is harder than horse racing

[VaultPurple]

How did you come up with that last point...?

When you think of flexability who do you think... Gymnist, and that is how they rated it, with gymnist getting the 10 for flexability

Who do you think of being fast... Olympic sprinters, so they got 9.8 for speed

But when you accualy know how the other sports work as a track athleate you know that long jumpers are usualy just as fast as sprinters, so they should be atleast 9, but they were only given a 6.x because the people making the ratings probably thinks long jump has something to do with accualy jumping outward and thats what makes them go so far, while as a track athelate you know that they are really just running really fast and trying to jump as high as possiable.

Same comparison went with the Gymnist to diver thing... because gymnist got the 10 i figured divers or cheerleaders diserved close to that because they were mostly doing gymnastics into a pool or into arms and doing splits and stuff.

[powerplant42]

I just meant the long jumpers being ex Olympic sprinters... and please make a little bit more of an attempt to spell correctly:
gymnast
athlete
flexibility
actually
usually
possible
at least
deserve

Sorry, it's nothing personal, it's just really getting on my nerves...