Wrestling is sometimes called "the Marine Corps of high school sports." This nickname refers to the physical, mental and even emotional demands wrestling places on its participants. The only combat sport commonly practiced in public high schools, wrestling stands alone in terms of some of the challenges it presents.
Energy Output
Energy output is one way of measuring how challenging a sport is. According to health resource website HealthStatus.com, a 160-lb. athlete will burn about 365 calories in 30 minutes of wrestling. This is about the same amount an athlete of the same size will burn playing soccer. The same athlete would burn about 350 calories playing football, or 400 playing basketball. In all cases, the difference between the sports is smaller than the margin for error of calculation. By this measure, wrestling is no easier or harder than other popular competitive sports.
Technical Skill
Wrestling requires participants to memorize and master a repertoire of dozens of complex fighting techniques and then to apply those techniques against a resisting opponent in real time. This makes wrestling much more difficult from a mental standpoint than repetitive sports like swimming or cross-country. Although some other sports, such as basketball and football, also require snap application of technical skill, neither includes as much calculation and real-time strategy.
Cutting Weight
One facet that may qualify wrestling as the hardest sport is the weight classes. A wrestler is at a competitive advantage if he competes at lower than his natural body weight. This means that, unlike participants in most other sports, a wrestler eats a limited-calorie diet. This requires a level of personal discipline and mental toughness other sports don't ask for.
Pain Threshold
Wrestling is a combat sport, meaning wrestlers can expect to be in pain during many parts of competition. Although all sports expect you to deal with burning muscles and fatigue, wrestling is harder than basketball or soccer because impact and pain are part of competition. However, wrestlers experience less impact and fewer injuries than football players -- both in competition and during practice.
Bottom Line
Wrestling may or may not be the hardest sport, depending on how you define "hard." On the other hand, how much you enjoy a sport is often the most important determinant of whether or not it feels hard to you. Those who like wrestling may feel like it's easy. Those who don't will find the workouts and the competition untenably difficult.
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