Summary: Sports require physical capabilities of a competitor that will determine if he/she is going to win. This is why the demand of having a healthy physique is essential to possess as this will give the person a competitive edge.
A panel of experts composed of scientists, academicians, athletes, and sports journalists identified 10 hardest sports. Ranking first on the list was boxing which was followed shortly by ice hockey, according to ESPN website.
Using determining factors like endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility, nerve, durability, hand-eye coordination, and analytical aptitude, experts measured the skills demanded for 60 sports they have chosen to evaluate.
The study came up with 10 sports that were deemed to be the hardest. The first on the list is boxing, followed by ice hockey, football, basketball, wrestling, martial arts, tennis, gymnastics, baseball/softball, soccer, skiing (Alpine), water polo, rugby, lacrosse, and rodeo (steer wrestling).
From sports training resources fishing ranked on the bottom of the list as the easiest among other 60 sports.
Boxing is not just the hardest sports, but also one of the most dangerous one. Head concussions and brain injuries are the two major result of ring fight. Boxers are more vulnerable to suffer diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons revealed a study indicating that 90 percent of boxers have sustained brain injuries due to cumulative blows in the head.
The ice hockey, the second hardest sports, also puts risk on its players. They are vulnerable to high-impact collisions which are mostly caused by contact with other players. Neck, spine, and knee injuries may still occur even with the protective gear (but this is still important to use to greatly reduce the risk of serious injuries).
Studies show that injuries occur during games rather than when practicing. It has been estimated that almost one-third of injuries are caused by foul-play, and so penalizing a player for his violent behavior is necessary to lessen this.
Football, which ranked third on the hardest list of sports, may cause a lot of injuries. According to British Journal of Sports Medicine, football players are more prone to neck injuries compared to people who play soccer and hockey. Being a contact sport, football puts also a high risk to head and spinal injuries.
As the sport’s main goal is to impede the motion of the opposing player, hard collision may result to serious fractures, lacerations, concussions, strains, and sprains. But overall, the number of accidents had declined for the past few decades due to the use of protective gear and the proper equipment.
If a person wants to be engage in sports, he should first seek the advice of a doctor. If there is underlying illness, the person must take extra precaution or consider the risk involved. Also take into consideration the person’s body type if he has the proper height and weight requirements.
Almost every sport has a risk, but with proper sports training and use of protective gear and proper equipment, accidents may be avoided.