Forget about the grind of 82 games, the toughest playoffs in pro sports and all the stories about playing through lost teeth, torn muscles, stitched up grills and even broken bones. From a science of sports perspective, the average shift extends until the end of the aerobic energy utilization area, so players are at full intensity until their shift ends and they feel like their hearts are going to explode.

As an individual sport, golf requires extreme mental focus – try making a big putt for a $4 beer with buddies, let alone a championship in front of the world – but tough to give the highest score when crowds are required to be mostly silent unlike many other sports where they can be loud and abusive.

Similar to hockey in terms of aerobic output, overcoming injury and rough play, but there is slightly more opportunity to coast mentally at times.

There are periods of inactivity and opportunities to pick daisies (games can last days). But the mental demands on the bowler and the batter, who stands in while that awfully hard ball is hurled at you, bump the score up.

Lots of ebb and flow and varying requirements by position that don’t allow players to be completely focused.

Understanding course layout is critical, and shot and club selection is key, but there is no time component or opponent avoidance.

Similar to hockey, but playing surface makes it slower and therefore a bit more conducive to setting up plays and defenses, which require more thought.

Similar to baseball in deciding where to best place hits and how to bowl to a particular batter, but there are not as many runners and having fewer wickets than bases simplifies the decision-making process.

Stamina gap between some of the best teams in the world and the wannabes is huge. There are lots of chances for rest and recovery within the game. Also variances in demand by position.

Never had as much variance among our experts; scoring a 1, a 3 and a 5. More and more in modern golf, the highly-conditioned golfer is the elite golfer, but many non-athletic golfers also do well for a long time.

Can take days to play, which requires stamina, but demands in the game are less physically.

No hockey player has ever had “great wrists” without having great hand-eye coordination. Goalies need outstanding coordination to handle 100 mile-per-hour shots.

Hand-eye and fine motor skills are the essence of golf and are measured highest of almost all sports. Also about technique and rhythm as some of the greats confessed to losing sight of the ball on contact.

The ability to “stick handle” with one side of the stick is tough. Players need to whirly-turn to protect the ball from an opponent, flick it 50 yards down the field spot-on and dive to tap in a goal off only that one side of the stick.

The ball flies through the air to be caught with a catching cradle only 6"-10" wide. Enough said.

If it were rated just on the batsmen score, it would be higher, but the play-to-play demand is not great for all positions.

Linear speed is very important, but not all positions display it all the time. Mobility and speed are often the difference between making it to the NHL or not.

The goalie lowers a high score again. More energy is required to travel end to end than in hockey due to the playing surface. It is important to take advantage of speed differences with match-ups, loose balls, breakouts, etc.

Speed matters for all positions except the goalie. Because the field is less restricting than a rink, there are more displays of pure linear speed than hockey. Speed creates scoring chances.

Speed of batters and fielders is important, but generally the pace is so slow that the bursts of speed compared to the number of players don’t occur very often.

Club-head speed is crucial, but that’s not what we’re assessing in this study, so the scores are way down overall.

Must react to a fast moving object and simultaneously avoid opponents looking for hits. Additionally, goalies’ reflexes are off the charts making this one of the single most reactive sports.

Swinging sticks, opponents looking for hits, goalies blocking shots and fast moving objects mean a highly reflexive sport. Only catch is that it all happens a bit slower than on the ice.

Reflexes are important, but since there is no contact and spatial confinement isn’t significant, the reactivity index goes down even when factoring in the goalies.

Batsmen have to be very reactive and reflexive, as do bowlers. However, this is where the need for strong reflexes ends.

Stretch/return swing cycle requires an exceptional ability to recruit the psychomotor, but that is not really reflexive in a reactive sense.

Quick bursts in multiple directions with opponents in close proximity are the fabric of the sport. Remaining balanced in times of contact is key and goalies are in dire need of agility to regain position and give them a chance to make a save.

Another very multi-directional sport, but as the rushes up the field or box are linearly longer than ice-hockey, there are slightly less measurable change-of-direction movements.

Important for controlling and reacting to the ball. It requires agility, but space is wide-open and there is a loping flow to the game so it does not rate as highly as hockey or lacrosse.

No player avoidance required, the runs between wickets are in a straight line and runs in the field are generally not multi-directional.

Avoiding media, thrown golf clubs and trees while escaping ex-wives might not be what we’re looking for here.

The best players are not always the strongest (Gretzky, Lemieux), but the game is too physical to be weak on skates. A frictionless surface reduces applied linear lines of force needed to skate, but the requirement to be strong is still significant.

Like hockey, except for the surface, so in theory it requires more strength. In practice however, there are actually less measured instances of physical jousting.

Requires explosive movements, which by definition require strength and put way more of a demand on core strength since the sticks are always down and backs are always bent over. But with no legal contact, strength requirements are not as significant as hockey and lacrosse.

Great batsmen have great core strength, as do great bowlers; however, great fielders do not need to be particularly strong.

Core torsion control is significant, as is strength to control velocity production and reduction. Many modern players are well-muscled and functionally strong, but the lack of an opponent and ambulatory movement cause a lower score.