What do you consider to be a sport?

[Mac]

This thread is not meant to attack anyone/how they feel about a topic...I had a lady today argue with me that Drag Racing is a sport. I said it wasn't because it doesn't require physical exertion. She then told me that controlling a car is physical exertion/etc. And I brought up the fact that well me driving my car with precise control at 20mph in a school zone is a sport? She went dead silent.

A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. In a sport the key factors are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines or equipment. In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require primarily mental skills and only mental physical involvement. Non-competitive activities, for example as jogging or playing catch, are usually classified as forms of recreation.

Physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first often define the result of a sport. However, the degree of skill and performance in some sports such as diving, dressage and figure skating is judged according to well-defined criteria. This is in contrast with other judged activities such as beauty pageants and body building, where skill does not have to be shown and the criteria are not as well defined.

Records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news. Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition. However, professional sport is a major source of entertainment.

So now I ask people of BP what do you consider a "sport". I'm intersted in hearing what everyone has to say since I was a Sports Management major, and we had this argument in class constantly.

What I also do not consider a sport (even though they do have some characteristics of sport):
- bowling (although this one is on the fence)
- poker
- NASCAR



The quote I took from Wiki as a general argument, although most sports sociologists/psychs do make the same arguments.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Does it have a ball? If yes, go to question 2. If no - it's not a sport. It may be "sporting" but it is not sport.

Can my 80 year old father in law perform at a reasonably competent level while competing in this activity? If No, the activity is probably a sport. If 'Yes' the activity is golf, and it's not a sport.

 

[MaliBuckeye]

So now I ask people of BP what do you consider a "sport". I'm intersted in hearing what everyone has to say since I was a Sports Management major, and we had this argument in class constantly.

Here's something I wrote in an argument/discussion with another friend:

For the purpose of this conversation, we'll be distinguishing between "Sport", "Athletic Endeavor", and "Game". It's important to note that the differentiation between the second and the third is all about effort, while effort has very little to do with the difference between the first and the second.

To clarify: Just because something is difficult, does not make it a sport. Giving birth (I've been told) is difficult, but we haven't tried put it on ESPN (yet). Put another way- Not every athlete is competing in a sport. Read that again; it's the sticking point for most people. Example- Ed Viesturs is an athlete without peer. But "Climbing the world's highest peaks without oxygen" is not a sport. We'll get to "Why" later.

Again, there's nothing wrong with not playing a sport... You could train and train and perform at the highest level at your discipline, but that doesn't automatically make it a sport.

OK, so here are the criterion:

1) Scoring must not be subjective. If you do something, everyone in the world should know what that means in terms of your success. You shouldn't have to calculate "degree of difficulty" and the biases of a judges panel to know whether someone was successful. And yes, other sports have subjectivity (Ball or strike?, Feet in bounds or out of bounds?), but there aren't questions about points; golf is number of shots, soccer is number of goals, etc. You don't get extra points for a basket because you did it "pretty". So, under this criterion the following are not sports: Gymnastics, Diving, Ice Skating Events, most X Sports, etc. Remember, still incredibly athletic, not a sport. As a corollary-

1b) You shouldn't need an announcer to tell you who won and why. This is where boxing can start to get "cloudy", because unless there's a knockout, it ends up relying on judges. Also, if ski jumping was just "who can jump the farthest and not fall down", it would be a sport- but, they talk about "form", so it's out.

2) Competition should be head to head. Here's where other events fall by the wayside- Golf is not a sport, since it's the individual against the course. ("Skins" golf is a sport- head to head and hole to hole scoring). Downhill skiing is the same- skier against the course for time (unless it's SkierX). The one caveat to this is in the events where each person is attempting the same thing- throwing the javelin the farthest, lifting the most weight, etc. It is head to head, since people have the exact same task before them.

3) In spite of what I said earlier about level of effort not being the main criterion, there should be significant effort involved. Checkers and chess are not sports. Neither is poker, in spite of what ESPN has told you. They would fall under the "games" category.

4) The event should not hinge on extraneous "vehicles". An athlete should be able to win and lose on their own merit or within the realm of the event. Sports shouldn't hinge on someone forgetting a lug nut or a horse dropping a shoe. So, yup- NASCAR and horse racing are out, as is motocross. Bicycle stuff may be in, given that the riders do most of the work on their own equipment, but it can go either way.

5) It shouldn't be something can be done while drinking an "adult beverage". Bye bye bowling, darts, men's softball, ping pong. All are games, not sports.

 

[Mike80]

bowling? Nah - Anything you get better at as you drink more isn't really a sport.

NASCAR? It's probably the definition of a borderline. You have to be in some sort of athletic shape to succeed in that sport. sitting in a car going 200 MPH in 100 degree heat isn't exactly easy and a lot of the guys who do well in it do quite a bit of conditioning. That said, it's DRIVING.

Poker - I don't know why Poker is even in the discussion. If poker is there, then Go Fish and spades (among others) are in the discussion.

 

[MaxBuck]

5) It shouldn't be something can be done while drinking an "adult beverage". Bye bye bowling, darts, men's softball, ping pong. All are games, not sports.

BS. I can't tell you how many times I have played volleyball while holding a pounder. And volleyball is unquestionably a sport.

I didn't say I played it very well.

 

[buckeyebri]

If 'Yes' the activity is golf, and it's not a sport.

Woah back the truck up there BKB.....Golf is definitely a sport....

To play it well and competitively, one must possess, rhythm, timing, muscle control, mental toughness (acuity), hand-eye coordination and if the game is played as it is meant to be (walking) stamina.....

of course, I think sex might fit a majority of those items as well.....

 

[ScriptOhio]

All I know is that bikini contests are definitely a "spectator sport":

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Woah back the truck up there BKB.....Golf is definitely a sport....

To play it well and competitively, one must possess, rhythm, timing, muscle control, mental toughness (acuity), hand-eye coordination and if the game is played as it is meant to be (walking) stamina.....

of course, I think sex might fit a majority of those items as well.....

Golf is a game. It takes skill to perform at the highest level. It is a competive game. Some people seem to like it very much (though it bores the hell out of me)...

But..

It's still not a sport any more than ball room dancing is where one must possess, rhythm, timing, muscle control, mental toughness (acuity), hand-eye coordination while doing far more than walking.

You are entitled to disagree with me. But, you have chosen to be wrong.



/thread.

 

[fourteenandoh]

If it has defense, it is a sport.

 

[Muck]

And I brought up the fact that well me driving my car with precise control at 20mph in a school zone is a sport?

She went dead silent.

She probably realized the futility of arguing with someone who could say that with a straight face.


Now if you're pulling close to 6 Gs while accelerating & again when decelerating (and suffering the risk of retinal detachment) during your 'precision' run I'll happily rethink my position.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

A sport is a competition that combines athleticism and strategy.

Pure athletic events like sprinting, shot put, weightlifting are not sports because there is no strategy involved.

Games like poker and Monopoly involve no athletic ability and obviously are not sports.

Golf, racing, boxing, wrestling, and bowling involve just enough strategy to be considered sports.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, soccer is not a sport.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

A sport is a competition that combines athleticism and strategy.

This.

Accordingly, I submit frog giggin' and catfish noodlin'.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

See, LJB and FC chose to be wrong. Except about soccer. Good point


A simpler test is this: Does JCOSU consider it a sport? If yes, it's not a sport. Unless it's football or baseball. Those are sports regardless of JCOSU's opinion. Even a blind squirrel find a nut from time to time.

 

[Muck]

Pure athletic events like sprinting, shot put, weightlifting are not sports because there is no strategy involved.

Actually there can be quite a lot of strategy involved.

For example in weightlifting there is a lot of thought that goes over picking the initial weight for each category.

You only get three lifts, do you start low for an easy guaranteed lift? Or do you start higher to put pressure on your opponents but increasing the chance you'll miss an attempt.

Track & field is similar with an even greater role for energy management...do you coast in early heats or push more for better positioning later on etc etc.

 

[MolGenBuckeye]

Here's something I wrote in an argument/discussion with another friend:

2) Competition should be head to head. Here's where other events fall by the wayside- Golf is not a sport, since it's the individual against the course. ("Skins" golf is a sport- head to head and hole to hole scoring). Downhill skiing is the same- skier against the course for time (unless it's SkierX). The one caveat to this is in the events where each person is attempting the same thing- throwing the javelin the farthest, lifting the most weight, etc. It is head to head, since people have the exact same task before them.

While I tend to agree about golf's non-sport status, I don't see how "player vs. course" is any different than "player vs. javelin/ski course/weights".

Also don't buy the "has to have a ball" theory. Fencing comes to mind as a sport that passes all the relevant criteria regarding head to head, has defense, etc, but doesn't have a ball. Same with things like rowing and wrestling.

I sort of like the "has to have strategy" concept, but that introduces some very gray areas of its own. Is running a marathon a sport, while a 100m dash is not?