Sports all around are challenging, tiring and down right hard. But some students and athletes believe that certain sports like softball, lacrosse and golf aren’t as difficult as others.

The insulting and put downs of these sports are evident in student conversations and online in Twitter posts, pictures, comments and gifs. It could be the stereotype of how these teams don’t train as hard as other sports like soccer or football. There’s also this notion that sports like football and soccer are better because they’re more popular.

Softball players train heavily through conditioning and drills. They run laps around their field and practice sprints from third base to home. It’s key to have enough stamina in order to sprint to base to base. And there is always the danger of being cleated in the shins.

Golf players have a different kind of training, less vigorous, but nonetheless still challenging. Hitting a 1.68 in. ball with a golf club perfectly is no joke. It may look easy, but it’s a lot more than just swinging a metal stick at a ball. It takes a lot of concentration and control, not just with your muscles but also your mind.

Lacrosse is no fools’ game either and is in no way an easy sport. As a lacrosse player myself, I know that it isn’t easy. The team runs up to six laps around the soccer field and sometimes has full practices of conditioning. Practices could last up to four hours.

Students and athletes are wrongly putting these sports down, it’s not easy to do what lacrosse, softball or golf players do. It isn’t just them either.  These are just a few of many sports that are looked down upon and that shouldn’t be happening.

Being emotionally and physically battered after every practice and only to go at it the next day is a triumph. What any athlete does is certainly not effortless and should be respected, regardless of the type of equipment in their backpack.