Sports teams

[Raistlin]

Cricket has meal breaks. I can't take any sport seriously that has tea breaks.

Actually, if you count UFC as a sport then they are probably the first. Those guys are nuts.

I have to agree with this one.

[DK]

5 days straight with no breaks?

Well, A game lasts 5 days, and they start at around 10:30am and finish the days play at about 6/6:30pm. And yes, they have meal breaks, but what do you expect when they play intensive sport for 8 hours of a day? They're going to need to get rehydrated and get energy back to continue playing.

[Resha]

If we're talking team sports, I'd say Cricket. Games that last 5 days in a row, where they have to concentrate mentally every second of the game, as well as a helluva lot of physical exertion, especially for fast bowlers. Couple this with the fact that Domestic competition has games that last 4 days as well, International series can run up to 5 matches long, some back to back, and this isn't even including the ODI's and OD competitions in domestic seasons. Plus the fact that any time Shoaib spears down a ball at 100mph that then rises up at your throat and could potentially kill you, yeah. Cricket.

I'd say cricket too. It's one hell of a challenging sport for both batsmen and bowlers, there's so much precision required for bowling...the tactics are insane. And batting? One days might not be too bad, but when you have to stay there for five days, with some batters at the crease for more than a day (depending on how well they play ) it'd be dead tiring.

Edit: Although I feel sorry for footballers, because they have to head the ball...it must be excruciating for the bald ones.

[Raistlin]

There's no way cricket competes with UFC (or even boxing). Cricket lasts longer, but training for any fighting sport never stops.

[Resha]

What is UFC? I don't know about training, but during the game...cricket is right up there.

[Raistlin]

Ultimate Fighting Championship. Two people in an octagon-shaped ring with very thin gloves (meant more to protect knuckles than peoples' faces) and they just have at it. I think that literally the only rule is no hits to the groin (and even if a guy gets hit there, the ref just gives him a minute or so break, and back to fighting).

Not only is the fighting intense, but the training is nuts. UFC fighters typically train at wrestling, submissions, and about five different types of martial arts (not even mentioning all the normal weight lifting, endurance training, etc).

[Madame Adequate]

UFC and boxing are both goddamn hardcore, and even most of the more 'respectable' martial arts are pretty intensive at competition level (Muay Thai is brutal.).

However, there's a difference between 'most intensive' and 'works hardest'. I'm sure that most sportsmen - be they players of soccer, cricket, basketball, hockey, whatever - work extremely hard to be at their best, and even though I'm not big into sports I'm not about to claim players are untalented or don't invest a lot of effort.

Jai Alai is pretty rough, too. That thing can top 180mph.

Of course, we can't really compete today with Mesoamerican Ball. Sometimes the losing team was sacrificed. At times, the winning team was deified through decapitation by the losing team, too. And on occasion the skulls were as the base for more balls to be made.

[CloudDragon]

Every sport has its own tests and challenges along the way. Now you can make an argument that one sports takes more physical strength than another, and one may take more mental strength. I'm not going to take a side on this subject for that reason because you can't really compare them in every sense.

[Deaths_Hand]

ive played all sports and Boxing and Hockey i got wore out the quickest, but overall id have to go with hockey, you are constantly moving at full speed and take some punishing hits from opponents as well as the ice itself

[Del Murder]

I think eye-gouging is also illegal in UFC.

[eestlinc]

Kumite! Kumite!

[Dingo Jellybean]

Gymnastics requires skill and strength as well as gracefulness.

Definitely gymnastics. The rate of injuries in gymnastics is unrivaled. You can literally tear muscles off the bone and end your career. It requires so much flexibility and concentration and an amazing amount of stamina that you would need to practice for 4 years to even become marginally average at it.

[Vaprice]

Okay I agree on a lot that you've said but still. When we play soccer/fooooootball you play three times a week maximum on avergae but in between those are practices. Not to mention somepone mentioned basketball you run constantly, not as much as Soccer.

Big guys run slow, they don't run like at a constant maximum speed.

I'd also agree that hockey nd boxing and martial arts require everything you could've thought about.