Of all team sports - Hockey takes the most skill

[Grogo]

To be honest, I do not think anyone can even dispute this. Along with that, it also happens to be the toughest team sport to play physically.

[Kiasari]

I think I agree with you, the only response I can think up is hitting a curveball is pretty damn hard.

[Gestopft]

I would say Hockey or Soccer. Hockey requires one to skate and play a tough sport simultaneously, chasing a rapidly moving object around. Soccer has a lot of skills involved with the footwork and is up there certainly.

[Grrwaherr]

I feel it goes Hockey>Soccer>Basketball>Baseball>Football. Each has their hard aspects. But I mean really, you're playing on slippery ice.

[herpecin]

would be hard to quantify this as different sports take different types of skills.

with hockey you need to skate but at a certain point that becomes second nature.

and the "toughest team sport to play physically", rugby is an extremely demanding sport on the body, as is american football(i read a book on the physics of football and they did the math on how hard the collision between running back and line backer is and it is equal to that of an orca whale attacking its prey). but in hockey you get checked into the glass and there is a reason dentists love hockey players.

TL;DR, subjective shit is subjective.

[Cheddabezze]

I agree with the team play aspect. Its such a fast moving game, in such a small rink, that setting up offense and defense strategys becomes a blur. 1 second your playing defense because of your own teams turnover and the next second your racing towards that opponents net because of a big hit that turned over the puck. Each player has to play on their toes, and with work together with 4 other players.

On terms of a physical or physically demanding sport, its Rugby. No doubt about it. Everyday at like 4pm over where I live they play a rugby game from last weeks matches. I love watching it simply for the athletic ability some of these players have. Sadly, I still don't understand all the rules of the game.

[Reg]

Agree completely.

[KCguy]

Hockey and rugby can all take their toll on the body with football being close as well.

In terms of the most skill, I would say hockey as well. It's not so much skating (although that's very important in today's game) because that's not the hard part. It's the passing, shooting and having to keep your head on a swivel because of how fast the sport is.

[dieball]

Hockey is very difficult.

That being said, being a minor league baseball player, let me give a little insight. Hitting a ball that is traveling over 90 mph isnt a cake walk. Tests have shown that from the time the ball leaves the pitchers hand, to the time it makes contact w/ a bat, averages .3 seconds. thats three tenths of a second to see the ball, determine its path, speed, and trajectory; and you also have to adjust your swing accordingly. If you were to sneeze, the ball would already be in the catchers mit, and you are on the way back to the dugout.

Fielding is much easier, baserunning can be done by any derp. Standing in the batters box with someone standing 60 feet 6 inches away throwing as hard as he can is awfully intimidating. Especially after you get nailed by one in the knee cap or ribcage. Just some food for thought...

[Gucci Mane]

I play goalie myself in Hockey, but you will never win this argument haha. As much as I love hockey and agree with you, someone out there is just as passionate about another sport and it is extremely difficult to compare sports especially one you are not competitive in.

[Twiddly]

There is no way to judge which sport takes the most skill, they are all different, so your op is completely irrelevant.

[Scotchie]

100% agree and there are a handful of reasons.

1) Hockey is played on skates, on ice, not your feet. Running around doing your daily activities in life starting at your first steps will make you more adept on your feet; it will not help you skate faster or more effectively. This is a completely unique skill you have to master that 99% of other sports that take place on your feet do not have to consider. Also, if you play ice hockey then go to play on inline skates or even quads and try to stop or skate like you are on the ice, they are totally different.

2) Hockey uses a stick, not your hands. Similar to the skates vs. feet from above, you have to master this unique device as well and honestly, it takes YEARS. The use of your hands in various tasks throughout life does not make you more adept at using a stick like it will with many ball sports.

3) While I will say it is hard to determine which hit is harder, an American football hit vs. a hockey hit (and Rugby and Aussie football too), take in to consideration that you do not get the pleasure of falling onto comparatively soft dirt or astroturf with rubber pellets in it in hockey like you do in American football. In hockey you are smashed against a wall or fall onto ice. Did you know ice is about as hard as concrete?

4) The puck is meant to be essentially frozen cold in hockey. It is not a puffy ball of air. When a basketball or football hits you coming at 20-40mph... ouch. When a frozen puck hits you coming at 100+ mph regularly... you can die and suffer serious injuries. Don't forget there are razor sharp blades that can slice you open, and ice burn can flay your skin as easily as a baseball slide.

5) When an adult man call you out to fight in hockey, you don't act like a friggin pussy like every other sport in America especially. You man up and fight him. No gloves, face exposed. You aren't even allowed to wear a cage at the pro level unless you have an injury and yeah, myself and a lot of us laughed at you in college for wearing one too. Baseballers have to have their entire team fight for them. Soccer and basketball players are as girly as it gets. American football players never let their face show.

6) A great hockey mind will always be 2 steps ahead of his opponent's thinking like many other team sports with the exception that all your plans can go to shit in the blink of an eye. Your situational awareness and reaction times have to be exceptional. There is no turned based playstyle. Someone can smash you to the ground to retake possession, not just intercept/steal the puck.

7) Hockey is intended to be a fast twitch muscle sport. By this I mean an ideal shift is about 45 seconds before you line-change. This allows you to essentially use almost all of your muscles' ATP and then recuperate over a couple minutes. However, like I said, shit can happen in a heartbeat and you have to push out another 2 minutes sometimes. You don't get a million time outs, you get ONE. You don't get to stand still on the field, base, mound, diamond, line of scrimmage, etc. This type of training is much harder on the body than a pure cardio or 10 second power spurts.

8) You have to wear 20 pounds of gear covering every joint in your body. This inherently takes time getting used to and slows you down versus being in just a pair of shorts and a shirt.

9) Hockey players take a beating. You finish out a playoff game or tournament and your bosy is pretty shredded up. How many games do the pros play? 84+ Yeah that's 5x more than an NFL player. It takes a real man to do that and serious commitment.

10) Superstars don't stand out in hockey at the higher levels, and par -level non-team players really hamper a team. You have to be excellent at both. You don't have quarterbacks, sluggers, and ballers carrying teams in this sport.

I hope this helps to all you naysayers. We know we are tougher than you, and we know it.

[Drunkenfinn]

I played hockey for 15 years and currently I'm playing American Football and I gotta say that Football/Rugby is more physically taxing than hockey.

Sure you might need to be in better shape in hockey but the contact you make/take in rugby/football is a lot harder than in hockey. It's a lot easier to get injured in Football/Rugby as well. Though ironically the hardest hit I've ever made and taken was in hockey, but then again I'm a lineman in football so the speeds of impact are different.

But as far as personal skill goes... Well I guess you need plenty of that in hockey. Football/Rugby is more about physical ability rather than skill (depends what spot you play, though).

[Clevername]

To be honest, I do not think anyone can even dispute this. Along with that, it also happens to be the toughest team sport to play physically.

Actually it's pretty easily disputed since it's an opinion. Skill I'd put basketball up there, sinking a 30' shot while running and someone guarding you is pretty freaking impressing or the Fact that MLB players can hit a round ball moving at 100mph with a round bat is amazing.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outd...hysics/4216783

Toughest physically... um you have 300lbs men in the NFL that can sprint faster than 80 percent of the population and hit you with the force of a small car.. might want to rethink that.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outd...hysics/4212171

[Jethrix]

I came here at first to rage about some post that was trying to glorify hockey to find a civil discussion on how rugby is more taxing physically which was my main point I was hoping to make, and that hockey is a very mentally demanding team sport. However OT throw David Beckham on skates, and i'm sure you'll find he cant shoot a puck in the back of the net, or ask Sydney Crosby to lace up his cleats and go QB the Superbowl and you'll see more turnovers than there has ever been in history.

TL DR rugby and football have been tested scientifically to have the same theoretical level of impact with hockey coming in close behind. Also skill is subjective to what sport you are talking about. Different sports use different skill sets that are not comparable.

[Deleted]

Depends what you call skill, there's so many different levels, especially in soccer. Sure you could say it takes a supernatural skill to play like Messi, but compare him to ... let's say Van Buyten who is also playing for one of the topteams in the world.

There's one sport I have admiration for, not because of the skill needed but the endurance : Water Polo, played it once and damn, that game is no joke !

[Xanjori]

I think its very hard to say one sport requires more skill than another. What you must remember is that people have different skills, and those in sports will have skills that they can translate into that sport. For example Beckham+Wilkinson did get together, and they were able to become quite adept at using the others ball. They simply have ball skills with their feet, they understand the movement, how to kick it and so forth.

I would go with Rugby being the most taxing team sport. The English Rugby team trained with the S.A.S I think it was, and the S.A.S said that the players were astonishingly fit, they were shocked at how they could just keep going and going. And it may not be the best way to look at it, but just look at the sheer amount of injuries Rugby players get, last world cup was an insane amount. My dad played Rugby for the Combined Armed Services team, and dislocated his shoulder 15 times in one season, they told him that if he did it again they would stitch the shoulder into place.

I will say that perhaps hockey looks very impressive when they play, the sheer speed at which it takes place is very cool.

[Deleted]

This is like arguing if apples taste better than oranges. Or if novel writers are more intelligent than musicians.

[Xorious]

Any sport takes skill, in it's own way, you can't say what sport takes the most skill. There's no thing like you have 10 skill in a sport or anything and how hard it is to reach 10 skill in a sport, so you just can't.

And all the people saying skating and a stick makes hockey harder and how it would require years for it to become perfect, it's the same for soccer, you have to practise a lot to be able to play soccer well, and then still most people who practise a lot won't even be that good.

[Logonov]

Are people confusing skilled with painful? yes, puck and stick control is a great and difficult skill to master, but so is standing back in the pocket as a quarter back and finding receivers and keeping the ball away from defenders. Defenders spend weeks study offenses trying to crack how to beat them and some cant do it. A soccer player perfectly placing a corner only where his forwards and mids can get to it. Basketball players manipulating the ball.......you get the point.

If youre gonna measure based on pain level, American football and hockey players win every time. Considering the rampant prescription drug abuse to deal with pain, its no surprise these guys die so young from concussions, rapidly deteriorating bodies, and dementia.

I did American collegiate style wrestling which is violent bursts of dropping guys to the floor, bending limbs in directions they shouldnt bend, and suffocating opponents to achieve victory.

Hockey is tough and all the more respect to people who do it, but skilled is a totally different thing from damaging.