I was wondering what everyone’s opinion is as to the ultimate T-man sport. One can argue individual versus team sports. IMO, as a former collegiate wrestler, I would have to say wrestling and/or boxing. You have to depend upon yourself, your heart, being in shape and having the ability to think fast on your feet. Outside of our collective passion for weight training/strength training, what does anyone do now for sport?
I do the firefighter combat challenge. It requires you to run a 5 storey flight of stairs, followed by a hoist of a 45 lb. roll of hose to the top of the 5 storey tower, followed by a forceable entry machine (using a 9lb. shot sledge hammer to drive by hitting a 165 lb. steel beam 5 feet), followed by a 140 foot run around cones/hydrants followed by a drag of a charged hose line 75 feet (weighs 300 lbs. by the end of the drag) followed by a backwards drag of a rescue dummy (175 lbs.) This is all done while wearing complete bunker suit helmet, gloves and boots and air pack and while breathing from the air pack. World record is 1 minute 24 seconds. This requires maximal effort, great strength and power, great anaerobic threshold and lots of mental toughness. They call it the toughest 2 minutes in sports.
I think most martial arts/wrestling/boxing, etc., can fall into one category as fighting, and yes, it’s an ultimate T-Man sport. I also race BMX … yeah, those little “kid” bikes, which is such a misconception. Anyway, all out adrenaline sprint for 45 seconds over big dirt jumps, berms, and knocking elbows with your competitors. Yee-haw!
If you really want a sport that takes an enormous amount of sack I’d say surfing. I know some may say that sport is for slackers, but those are the people who have never tried it. If you have ever been out in a 10 foot day then you know what I’m talking about.
Just look at those guys that surf Mavericks, these guys are going down waves with like 50 foot faces. These guys got big brass ones that fit in dumpster trucks.
It depends on what ya mean when you say ultimate T-man sport. If you mean in terms of Macho, and studly…I don’t know. As far as overall conditioning, and in that reguard being a T-man, I would say martial arts, because it hits on strength, endurance, and flexability…so it is well rounded. As far as it being macho…put it like this, the most deadly martial artists I know, are the LEAST macho…any martial artist who “struts his stuff” too much to me…aint all that good!!
I kickbox currently and hope to switch to NHB next year.
However I feel that these sports depend upon your physical gifts(coordination, speed, strength) and so more gifted individuals have an advantage.
I think what defines a T-man is overcoming obstacles, accepting responsibility, resourcefulness and compassion. That’s why despite the fact that I’m a fighter, I think that the Eco Challenge races are actually the ultimate T-man challenge. Anybody can do it regardless of gifts but how well you do depends upon your heart and how well you take care of and motivate your teammates.
T-sports eh, wrestling is definitely up there, I don’t do it anymore, but that is a mental and physical strain between you and one other guy with a spotlight on you that you can’t escape, that’s a good one. Bolo is also right, I’ve tried surfing a few times, and ended up sea sick, I just didn’t know what I was doing, but I will agree that big waves demand so much respect that they are quite scary. Currently I play rugby, it’s pretty well known as a tough sport, tackling minus pads, scrums and all that painful stuff, I’d say it requires slightly large nuts.
Being a former wrestler myself i have to vote for that. If you never never wrestled before let me tell you you better be in damn good shape. If you are in good competition 30 seconds into the match you will be dying. Muscles aching and the worst cotton mouth ever. But seeing another post I have to say that the Eco-challenge is by far the best. I could never imagine doing what those people do. In that thing you have to push yourself to the limit and then some, litteraly. Running on 15 minute cat naps for 5 or 6 days is a killer. Well theres my 2 cents.
I agree fighting like in boxing or martial arts takes some balls. Currently i play rugby and soon I’ll be starting my motocross racing. Motocross has to be the toughest sport I do. Halfway through a moto you want to kill yourself because of all the pain you get in your forearms from arm pump. Oh yeah, the ninety foot triples are pretty intimitating too.
T-sports? They’re ALL T-sports, when taken to a serious level. It’s competition that makes it a T-sport. Cycling? Yep. Just watch Marco Pantani take a mountain descent on those European backroads and tell me that doesn’t take a huge set of huevos. Sky diving? 'Nuf said about that one. Spelunking? Get yourself into a tight spot and think about an earthquake. Huge huevos there too. T-sports to me are about battling competition, both external and internal. Of course I tend to exclude golf and billiards, as I think of those as pass-times rather than sports. Another $.02
Grizzly bear wrestling. lol
I love rugby…i’m not sure how big my balls are grin but it’s the best sport i’ve ever played!!
The ultimate Tsport has got to be Cheerleading. Seriously. Its the ultimate in functional strength. You also have to have enough athletic ability to do back tucks, back hand springs, and running tumbling. And you get to look up the shorts of some of the finest girls youve ever seen. Enough said.
You cannot be serious with frigging cheerleading. You got away with your last post on “cheering”, but enough is enough. A previous post wanted to vote off Avoid Roids, well, I nominate Goldberg.
I don’t know about t-sports but how about Hurling, crazy Irishmen running around a field with sticks at head height - YIKES!, and what about Australian Rules Football. In New Zealand we have this race called The Coast to Coast where competitors bike/ mountain run/canoe/bike from the West Coast to the East Coast of the South Island in 1 day, the fastest time is about 11 hours.
The best T-Man sport is by far, the Strong Man competitions. Nothing better than picking up a huge stone and walking as far as you can go. Or throwing long huge poles around.
I gotta go with what I know. BMX racing. It takes timing, power, speed, controlled agression, and BALLS,especialy to ride the triple crown. Anyone here jumped 50 ft. on a bicycle?
I would vote for track, its an incredibly demanding sport, you have to train smart as well as eat smart, in particular sprinting, those sprinters sometimes look better than some bodybuilders. Preparing for sprinting is just like preparing for a leg workout. Thats were my vote goes.
Hockey, bar none. Is there any other sport
where guys get cut open for over 30 stitches
and come back and play in the same game. And that’s just the beginning. Guys play with broken jaws, arms, legs, and seperated shoulders. Have you ever checked out the chompers on the average NHL’er. Half the teeth are fake and the rest are usually missing. And I haven’t even said anything but the pure athletic ability is takes to play the game.
Hockey players have to be some of the best all around athletes in the world.
Grose – I think I came pretty close in an adrenaline boosted bunny hop once. Here’s the story: There was a long straight downhill (dirt road) about 12% grade, over half mile long that had about 200 yards run out before going into a river. A buddy and I routinely took our mountain bikes on speed runs down this thing (he once was clocked at over 50 mph). One day I was riding alone after a nasty wind storm. I didn’t look down the hill first (stupid), I just took the top at full sprint going for my record. When I finally looked far enough down the hill, I saw a tree across the road, about knee high. I panicked, hit the brakes, but very quickly realized I wasn’t going to stop in time, so I opened it up, pulled and prayed. Seemed like I was in the air for ever, but I cleared it and landed smoothly. I’ve never been able to duplicate that performance. Damn, I’m feeling jittery just thinking about it.