Toughest sport on Earth? Karate? Pshaw!!! Hop on, son!!!
Oh and uh, I have a camera for sale cheap! Only used once...
Posted on 10/16/2009 11:22:30 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Actually, I'll refrain from watering down the spirit of my headline (like a Liberal writer would've) - and turbo-charge it instead:
I'm European and regardless of the fact that American football is an extremely physical game, it still isn't a true contact sport like Australian football or soccer is and compared to soccer, it is often pretty safe. Period.
Which part of the world houses the toughest sport on Earth?
The Far East?
Karate, Kung Fu and such hobbies are widely regarded as "true contact".
But, provided you really wish to injure an opponent, the runway is longer and the ref is more absent in soccer.
My position is this:
The two toughest people on Earth probably are the Japanese and the Scandinavians.
However, an average Japanese weighs something like 36% of an average Viking.
Therefore, no one ought to be impressed if a Japanese karate black belter knocks down another Japanese black smurf.
Instead, what we all should bow down to, IM(humble)O, is someone like this;
A young kid, having the words of "-Get off the field, you're too weak, you don't belong" ringing in his head while trying to fall asleep each evening, before surrendering to dreams of becoming a soccer legend, a kid who remains "tiny", but manages to beat the odds, yet somehow gets signed by a major club (thinking of Celtic F.C.) in one of the nastiest leagues of the game (that of brutish Scotland), gets assaulted from behind suffering an injury (clip below) that, literally, would cripple most men for good but still rises from the dead and among other things, manages to decide a CL final, score more league goals than any other presently active player of today and score THE most appraised goal of the most/second most prestigeous tournament of the sport.
Henrik Larsson isn't the toughest man I know of, but he's by far the toughest sportsman known to me.
Perhaps his accomplishments doesn't settle the initial question, but Larsson still drives a nicer car than those people who once counted him out of the game and the vast majority of people who refuses to acknowledge what a noble game soccer actually is.
Anyhow;
Some years ago, immediately after having explored the excavagations of Pomeji, I, rather deliberately, rested myself on the stairs of a primary school of Naples.
And yes, suddently, I was surrounded by young boys tearing me to pieces with questions of what I was was up to in their "quartiere", where I was from and what I knew about them and their home.
Upon telling them I was from Svezia, Thule, thirty young Napoletane throats began shouting something, in perfect chorus, I first could't make any sense of. But then, the leader of the pack began to, demonstratively, kick a ball that simply wasn't there in front of him and I understood they were all trying to speak Swedish to me in Nnapulitano;
"- LARSSON! LARSSON! LARSSON!"
Skål from Sweden to everyone who believes in self-reliance and dares to embrace challenges in life!
Lacrosse was all three.
“However, an average Japanese weighs something like 36% of an average Viking.”
An average Viking would appear out of the mist from their boats and hack unprepared villagers to pieces before carrying off the loot and children.
You are not supposed to make contact in soccer. Meanwhile American football is all about contact.
Down in the holler we grew up playing horseshoe frisbee. It was a little rough on the dogs when they played.
Toughest sport on Earth? Karate? Pshaw!!! Hop on, son!!!
Oh and uh, I have a camera for sale cheap! Only used once...
So why do soccer players fake injury? http://worldcup2010soccer.blogspot.com/
If you thought that the best actors and actresses in the world are restricted to Hollywood, Nollywood and Bollywood; think again. They actually reside on the other side of the white picket fence, where the grass is really greener. A soccer field, their stage, and free reign to improvise on the script, their blossoming acting careers seem to be a little too perfect.
These so-called ‘actors’ are professional soccer players, also known as footballers, who fake injuries to get a free penalty kick for their team. It usually happens when a player loses the ball to an opponent. Their natural instinct is then to flop on the pitch, as if the victim of a horrible foul that appears to have caused a career-ending injury. ...
- In combat sports, few last for decades on as far as I know.
Larsson has now been in the game of soccer for over two decades at professional level.
Let's not complicate things here.
Henrik Larsson has the physique of a Bolshoi Theater ballerina, yet he has lasted longer, in a very tough sport, than many rock legends did after finding out drugs, sex and the luxury of smashing hotels involved selling your soul to a record company.
I guess I should add that the biggest hit I ever saw at a “sporting event” in my life was a bull hitting a matador. That bull caught the matador square with his head [not the horns] and knocked him up to about eye level with in the stands. The poor guy fell back to earth with a thud, but was able to get up and stagger away as the bull was distracted by I think the banderilleros.
great movie!! damn, I don’t know how many times I have watched it, (why do you guys all sit on your helmets?!!!) along with ‘full metal jacket’ and more than a few WW2 movies.
Few last for decades because it’s brutal. That’s a no brainer.
I've always admired the downhill skiers. 70+ mph on a pair of knifes, on uneven ice, all out, just one wipe-out away from a destroyed knee.
Or the ski-jumpers. I remember in one winter olympics there was a windy day and it seemed like one after another crashed in a knocked-out heap at the bottom of the hill. Nasty cross winds.
It must be kind of hard to have the nerve to start down that ramp when you saw the guy before you half kill himself.
****It must be kind of hard to have the nerve to start down that ramp when you saw the guy before you half kill himself.****
That gets into mental part of sports, when the challenge becomes if you can survive what just took out a competitor. Sports that include the forces of beast and nature are less predictable because the energy is highly variable. When this is what you train in and you see a competitor fall from those intense natural energies, the massive amount of adrenalin must still be controlled.
This comes closer to war than man to man competitions, and that is what sports are attempting to recreate in a civilized way.
Samoans.
“Few last for decades because it’s brutal. That’s a no brainer.”
- If you’re 10 years old or below, I forgive you.
If not:
Who hasn’t grown tired of using/hearing the expression of “no brainer” by now?
I gave a lession in the obvious above and you weren’t there.
Am I to blame?
If Samoan is in a combat sport (MMA, Boxing, Kickboxing) he is often shorter but heavier than his opponents, has bricks for fists, and can take the equivalent of a baseball bat to the head.
I compare them to the guys that do freestyle motorcross. Skill there? yes. Insanity? It’s in there.
- They deserve respect, but if you ask me, being “tough” is not so much coping with the constant nagging of the elements on your way to America/Moscow as it is about disposing the mental strength required to lead others into the void, risking everything and still sleep well at night knowing you dare to look beyond what is commonly known.
Christopher Columbus was “tough”.
This former monarch of my nation was “tough”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XII
In the end, Charles XII wasn't victorious, but he stood up to the situation which is more than you could say of any leader of our big Eastern neighbor throughout History.
I like ordinary Russian people a lot though. It's a damn shame they always seem unable to produce competent leaders.
Today, Peter the “Great” is widely romanticized. He declared war on Sweden, a nation which actually was a major European power at that time, proving a fatal decision paving way for both Russian, Swedish and Baltic economical disaster.
Sweden is today one of the world's richest countries.
Russia could prosper too.
All it takes is they give up Feudalism, Imperialism, Marxism and Alcoholism once and for all.
Motocross is another one of those sports that require supreme conditioning and fearlessness. They’re always on the edge.
****They deserve respect, but if you ask me, being “tough” is not so much coping with the constant nagging of the elements on your way to America/Moscow as it is about disposing the mental strength required to lead others into the void, risking everything and still sleep well at night knowing you dare to look beyond what is commonly known.****
By that criteria many ignoble leaders would qualify. Are you trying to redefine toughness into goodness standards?
Erm, American football! That's a joke. The game stopping every couple seconds! Pads! A third of the players grossly overweight!
Compare that with Australian Rules Football, or for that matter plain straight professional Rugby! The players not only have to be very fit (far fewer stoppages), but they have next to no padding, and the level of contact is obscene (e.g. in Aussie rules football literally running up an opponent's back and jumping off the shoulders to catch the football).
I'm sorry, but professional Rugby and Aussie rules are way tougher than American Football. Easily.
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