Most physically demanding sport

[Ciceronian]

What's the most physically demanding sport you play / have played, i.e. which requires the most strength and fitness? I play football, tennis, table tennis, badminton and volleyball, and badminton is easily the toughest. Winning a point requires a lot of running about, you're moving almost permanently, unlike tennis which is much slower. You also need to put 100% power into most shots (except for drop shots and such) to get them to the base line or smash them hard enough, and doing that so many times can also really tire you out. Fitness isn't my biggest strength, so I usually try to take control of the point and chase my opponent about.

Please tell of your own experiences with the sports you have tried.

 

[Red Door]

Crew is awful. It's 5 minutes of the hardest you've ever worked, and it's basically running combined with weight lifting. At the end of the race, you're basically dead for 2 days.

 

[pboily]

I'll second badminton, and I used to swim competitively.

Hockey leaves me puffing and panting, but I am getting old.

 

[CaptainF]

Well, I don't play many sports, but i'll break it down:

Paintball: Very tough. It tires you out a lot because of the adrenaline rush that comes with it, and also because you have to hold your gun up ready to fire while you're running a crap load. Then there are the welts...

Tennis will kick the crap out of you. After an hour of tennis I'm more beaten than after two hours of American Football.

Soccer: Back when I played it it was pretty physically challenging, except you get lots of breaks, especially if you play defense and your team is really good on the offense.

Table Tennis: I don't play this in any formal club, just with a few friends, but even then it is pretty tiring, and we aren't even that good. I hear that at higher levels it will leave your whole body sore, sweaty and tired.

Overall the most challenging one I've played thus far would be Tennis.

 

[bigdog5994]

american football

 

[Hitro]

Depends entirely on how long you plan to play or do it.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Australian Rules Football looks completely impossible for a fat bastard to play.

 

[Hitro]

A marathon is also impossible for a fat bastard to complete. And for quite a bunch of non-fat bastards.

Lifting 200kg is completely impossible for pretty much anyone who can run a marathon.

And so on.

 

[thetrooper]

Please tell of your own experiences with the sports you have tried.

Italicized the important part.

Sports I have tried:

Football and floorball: depends more on skill than physique IMNSHO.

Mountain/Cross Country Biking: now, this is physically demanding.


Good to see you back here at CFC Ciceronian.

 

[Berrie]

Soccer (both indoor and outdoor): strenght and fitness is handy but not always necessary, skill and realy fit teammates are sufficient

Tennis: again strenght and fitness are helpful but not necessary; on lower levels the most skillfull player will almost always win

Volleyball: strenght is important, fitness is less important; much breaks in play so much time to rest;
Beachvolleyball: the complete opposite

cycling: if you go cycling were I live, strenght is very important (think Tour de Flandres); strenght is less important when you go the mountains; fitness is always important in cycling, it's a physically very demanding sport

Skiing and Snowboarding: it's bad for your body, but not so physically demanding; of course it depends on your skill and the chosen slopes

Badminton and squash: indeed, fitness is very important!

Sex: not really a sport, but if you want to do it right it's very physically demanding!

 

[thetrooper]

Sex: not really a sport, but if you want to do it right it's very physically demanding!

Heh, I thought about adding that too. It's physically demanding if you are with a nymphomaniac!

 

[dutchfire]

langlaufing, why aren't there any skilifts there??

 

[Berrie]

Heh, I thought about adding that too. It's physically demanding if you are with a nymphomaniac!

Don't tell me you are with one?!

Besides nymphomaniacs don't exist. There are just a male fantasy. No woman can satisfy a male's hunger for sex.

 

[MCdread]

Don't tell me you are with one?!

Besides nymphomaniacs don't exist. There are just a male fantasy. No woman can satisfy a male's hunger for sex.

It's more likely to be the other way around...

I've tried, competitively or just for a small recreation (or lack of it thereof ): football, road cycling, cross country cycling, long distance running, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis, table tennis, rafting, paintball and maybe something else that I don't remember. If I'm not active for a long period, I'll be completely wasted in the first day of a long distance running training or cycling, since I normally do it at my home town, which is in a mountain area. But since I have a reasonably good endurance for a normal person (heart rate per minute between 40 and 50 at rest), after a week or two I'll be ok (at least until I hit 30 in a couple of years and get a surprise...). Football and most other team sports can be tough, but depending on the level of the people you're playing with, your position, and how you manage your effort, it is perfectly bearable, unless you're not very strong and they put you as prop in your rugby team.

As far as water sports, I only experimented rafting, but if I had to bet, I'd say that for me that most demanding would be rowing. I never did it, but once a rowing exercise machine came into my hands and I practiced on it for a while. Unlike running, for example, it was always tormenting, and I could never get the better of it, whether I was in shape or not, or had been trying it for some time before. It always felt like having been beaten up after just a very few minutes, so I'd go for rowing. But that'd be for me, because like Hitro says, depending on your physical characteristics it can be something else. I have no body elasticity whatsoever so I could never perform any sort of gymnastics exercising, but I bet many gymnasts couldn't climb a mountain on a bike either.

 

[dgfred]

Competitive wrestling has got to be near the top of the list, heck even just
wrestling for fun will wipe you out.

 

[Fetus4188]

400 meter hurdles

You don't know demanding until you are dead tired after sprinting a quarter mile only to realize that you have to jump over an evil construct of aluminum and fiberglass or go sprawling to the delightful high-friction track surface. Best.sport.ever.

 

[emzie]

Water polo. I thought it'd be easy like playing around in a pool. Oh I was wrong....

 

[downtown]

Water Polo is crazy.

A breakdown, from the sports I've played

Soccer(Indoor/outdoor). I'm a goalkeeper. I didn't find outdoor soccer *that bad*, because I spent a good part of the match standing around...or at least I should have. I played with some mighty bad defenses, and I wasn't great a goalkicks, so I had to make a lot of saves.

Indoor is different. You get a few breaks, but then you have 45 seconds of hell, where you make 4, 5 saves boom boom boom all in a row. Plus, you get kicked all the time. I was usually dead tired...and dead dead after an indoor match. I suspect thats what screwed up my legs

American Football-You dont need to be as conditioned, but you need to have a lot more power. I was a Safety...as long as our offense didnt go 3 and out every time, I'd get enough rest.

Baseball-Only time I'd break a sweat would be stealing bases in the heat. Baseball is hard as hell, (hitting = teh impossible), but unless you're pitching or catching, it just isnt very physically difficult

Swimming- The hardest. You use just about everything, and then you keep using it.

Basketball-the second hardest. The physical intensity of football, without the constant breaks.

 

[Syterion]

There has been a lot of surprises for me in this thread (Badminton? Seriously? I play it in gym, not that hard, and you don't have to put everything into every shot), and I'll try to add something.

Somethign very physically demanding is Ultimate frisbee. Since the game does not stop and you need more space than most sports to be open, you have to be running all the time. And when you transition from offense to defense and vice versa, you have to catch up or get ahead quickly.

Swimming would also be hard, it uses all of the body.

Rowing sounds rough, I want to try it.

 

[CaptainF]

There has been a lot of surprises for me in this thread (Badminton? Seriously? I play it in gym, not that hard, and you don't have to put everything into every shot), and I'll try to add something.

At higher levels, which is what I'm assuming these posters are playing at, it really is one of the most physically demanding sports there is.

The shuttlecock has so much drag when moving through the air that unless you're hitting a drop shot or a serve you pretty much have to whack that sucker as hard as possible.

Table Tennis is another one of those sports that doesn't look that exhausting, but really is if you're good enough.