From fishing to golf to volleyball and tennis, sports come in all different shapes and sizes. And while basketball may be one of the most exciting sports, it’s not the hardest — at least, according to a study done by ESPN.
A panel of specialists ranked the difficulty based on several criteria including things like endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, flexibility, durability, hand-eye coordination, & analytic aptitude.
We identified 10 categories, or skills, that go into athleticism, and then asked our eight panelists to assign a number from 1 to 10 to the demands each sport makes of each of those 10 skills. By totaling and averaging their responses, we arrived at a degree-of-difficulty number for each sport on a 1 to 100 scale. That number places the difficulty of performing each sport in context with the other sports we rated.
Needless to say, the list is pretty controversial. The danger and skilllevel of a boxer is obviously unmatched and those guys literally risk their lives every day to do what they do in the ring.
But should basketball be higher? Obviously, there’s a lot more that goes into the game than simply putting the ball into the hoop. There are a lot of layers and components to the sport and it’s not easy to master. Of course, it’s difficulty level might be different depending on who you ask…
