Top 10 Toughest High School Sports
This is not toughest sports, but it's the toughest high school sports. Ones which you dreaded all day, but you just couldn't quit.
The mental toughness is surreal. Watching every runner look strong, then cross the finish line and collapse, vomit, sway, or nearly break down is eye-opening. All of a sudden, their body realizes they can finally be weak. It's astonishing to see what they put themselves through, particularly here in the South, where it's hot and humid.
Pacing yourself, outlasting your opponents, and judging the distance so you still have enough to sprint for a fast finish when you feel like you have nothing left - now that's tough.
Even the spectators have to be fit! What other sport demands running from the spectators!?

I myself am a freshman who just started wrestling. I have done many other sports like soccer, jiu-jitsu, and basically everything in between. This is the hardest sport I have ever done. Period.
The conditioning we have to endure is brutal, but it makes you a better person. As one of my coaches has said, "After doing wrestling, everything else becomes easy."
If you are looking for a sport that takes all you've got - and more - to make you better, this is the sport. Wish me luck!
The practices are insane and require both mental and physical toughness.
The way it is structured, it makes you want to quit, and that's the mental part.

You don't "play" swimming. That's that. If you think your sport is hard, try doing it while holding your breath. You need to have incredibly honed skills just to make sure you don't get disqualified and extreme endurance to even finish the race. On top of that, you're racing others who want to beat you just as badly as you want to beat them.
You must be exceedingly mentally tough. At the end of the day, even though you hate it, you don't know what you would do without it.
Swimming is a sport that takes a lot of skill. You can never quit! The countless hours we put into this sport are unrealistic. To swim, you have to have an unbelievable amount of endurance, skill, strength, and mental toughness.
It's not only a race against your competitors. It's a race against the clock, and the clock never makes a mistake.

Gymnastics is the hardest sport known. This requires more strength than a football player, more endurance than a track person, and more skill and balance than dance. This sport is all three: cardio, strength, and endurance in one.

It's hard on the body. It's harder on the mind.
My kids are both excellent pole vaulters. My daughter is a multi-season state champ in high school and is a heavily recruited high school senior. My son is a D1 sophomore vaulter. Pole vault is the hardest event in track to excel at, and frankly, you will find that pole vaulters typically excel at all sports.
My daughter did XC one year for conditioning for her pole vault and earned a varsity letter as a freshman as the #5 runner (she is a sprinter for the pole vault). She didn't love the distance, so she picked up volleyball and after one season on JV in the best program in the state, she was a varsity starter. My son excels at any sport he tries, from mountain biking to snowboarding and everything in between.

Playing at a high level of water polo is definitely one of the most physically demanding sports possible. It's swimming while you're getting beaten up and trying to do a million different things at the same time. Go watch a college water polo game and you'll see for yourself.
Definitely the dirtiest sport due to refs not being able to see underwater.
Throw the best wrestler or quarterback you know into 8 feet of water and tell them to tread water without using their hands for 45 minutes. Then tell them to do that while passing and catching a ball with one hand while someone else is doing their level best to drown them in the process.

Ice on blades, fighting, big sticks... It's a man's sport.

In soccer, you are trying to beat out every other player in that position for your spot. If you lose, you're JV, and nobody wants that. Many kids are specialists in a position, so they can't play well anywhere else.
In soccer, your mind always has to be aware and prepared. The ball can go anywhere, so you have to stay on your toes.

Aside from the skill, mental preparation, and physical contact, football requires loads of work to prepare you for the game.
It's a lot harder than a lot of people think. It takes a lot of time, preparation, and it takes everything you have to play.
The Newcomers


Running, conditioning, skill work, nonstop, and then practice starts.
I've never had so many blisters everywhere. While people might think playing football is hard due to the physicality, crew is even more challenging. You use your entire body, going as hard as you can with good form and power, all while keeping pace with everyone else on the boat.
I haven't even mentioned catching a crab during a race. If your blade doesn't enter the water perfectly straight, the water can grab the oar and slam it into your chest. You'll have to stop the boat to fix it, which can be brutal during a race.

Conditioning is the equivalent of cutting off both of your feet and walking through the Sahara Desert.
If you have no physical stamina, no leg and arm strength, and nevertheless no skills to actually dribble and run at the same time, then sorry mate, this isn't your sport.
Sweat! Sweat! And sweat some more!
Rugby is just football for men.
Rugby, when you can't tell if it's your blood or someone else's... Toughest sport ever.

Volleyball is not the hardest sport, but it is harder than lacrosse and football. This sport involves a lot of running and jumping constantly. The sport is also physically hard because of the speed the ball goes at all times.
You have to be quick, decisive, and able to keep going at your full strength while predicting the other team. One mistake can cost a lot. The whole team has to work together as one, or there is no chance to win.
Volleyball, like most sports, isn't a competition to see who is better, but rather, who makes fewer mistakes. Stack that on with throwing your entire body on a hardwood basketball court at least 20 times a set, and the chance of a 6'4 manchild with the swing of a bear hitting a ball directly towards you, and you've got yourself one of the fastest and toughest sports.

Tennis is often seen as a joke sport, but it's far from it. Tennis matches can last for hours with only short breaks in between each game, and it's only you out there. While it might not be as physically demanding as some other sports, it is definitely necessary to have stamina and be able to play for a few hours alone.
As well as physical, there is the whole mental game. If you doubt yourself for even a moment, you might as well give up the game then. It is so difficult to keep your confidence up if you have had a few errors. Some of the best players are the most technically sound, but those that can get into your head are even more dangerous.
And finally, the most difficult part in my opinion (maybe the mental is more important, but I'm not sure) is the technicality of it. If you've never played tennis or had real coaching from someone who really understands tennis, then you have no idea the amount of thought and care that goes into each swing. A single change in a swing could affect the spin on the ball, the speed, the angle, the height, and the direction. It's absolutely insane. And even more challenging is deciding where to hit the ball. Often people wonder why some people don't just hit the ball where the opponent isn't standing. It's very, very difficult to take a ball that was hit with even a small amount of speed and spin, and then change the direction. It's possible and maybe even easy for the pros who know exactly how much spin they can put on a shot, but otherwise, it's extremely hard in my opinion. Other than gymnastics, which is all technical, it is the hardest sport technically. But overall, I believe it has to be the hardest.
Side note: Another thing is that tennis is probably the simplest game. You just have to hit one more shot back than the opponent. But it is still the hardest sport.

Why do people say golf is easy? No one has even played the game. I bet none of the haters can hit a ball.
Softball is a team sport, kind of like baseball, but the pitching is much different and much harder to learn. The ball is also bigger. The fields are normally smaller but are also larger sometimes.


Yeah, cheerleading is all core, shoulders, and legs - the hardest things to control for a lot of people.
Football players catch a two-pound ball. Cheerleaders catch a 100-pound girl. You do the math.
