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What constitutes a sport?

MyDoorsAreOpen

MyDoorsAreOpen

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There are a whole range of pastimes people engage in that, in many people's minds, lie in the borderlands between 'sport' and something else. I find spontaneous arguments of "X is/isn't a sport" are both highly amusing and thought provoking at the same time. When one of the arguers is a passionate participant in said activity, these arguments can get heated really fast, making them all the more amusing. And thought provoking.

To me, shuffleboard is a sport. (Barely.) To my wife, it's a game. Much the same for miniature golf. We both agree that ballroom dancing is a sport, but to many of our friends, it's a performing art y nada más.. Cheerleading in my mind used to be merely good clean lowbrow entertainment, but the way it's come to be competitively practiced, it's decidedly a sport now, whether or not it used to be. Chess is not a sport.

What is the essence of 'sport'? Why do people become so defensive of this label to their favorite pastime. What positive qualities does this label bequeath an activity in people's minds? Or, conversely, why is an activity not meriting the definition of 'sport' a source of shame upon eager participants?
 
sport comes from hunting and war (which are both extension of trying to survive)
but its done for fun
chess could be view as a mind sport, we dont see it as sport because we associate sport with physical activity
 
To me a sport requires some sort of time constraint. I see timed chess as a sport for example.
 
I think for something to be considered a sport it needs to fulfill 3 criteria, which are: 1) to be a competitive event (either team or individual), 2) for athleticism to provide a competitive edge, and 3) for skill, whether through strategy (football plays, deception through feints, etc) or technical execution (muscle memory) to provide a competitive edge.

While I have plenty of respect for and love chess, because it doesn't meet the 2nd requirement, I don't think it is a sport. I don't think this lessens it in any way. A spoon isn't any less of a spoon because it isn't a fork.
 
In the beginning, you either fought or you ran.
There are only two true sports; running and fighting.
Everything else is a game.

What constitutes a sport, then, is a goal to win that is not strictly defined by rules. There's some rules in track and MMA to ensure the safety of the competitors but besides that... You try to win.
In track it's "Cover X Distance as fast as you can" and that's really the only rule.
In fighting it's "beat that guy up" and that's really the only rule.
 
Haha I kind of like that outlook and wording. "Fight or flight" are the two sports, all the others from my definition are sports-like games.
 
What I can deduce from you guys' replies so far is that sports are a vestige of training exercises for primitive survival skills (fighting, fleeing, and feeding). They used to matter, and feel as if they still matter, because in our more primitive days winning an athletic competition was proof that you'd be an asset to the tribe when it was under threat or in need of meat. Logically, then, athletic prowess directly correlated to your social standing in the tribe.

This definitely explains why even nowadays, present or former athletic prowess is common, and held in high regard, by social circles that value any sort of 'killer edge'. Business, law, and law enforcement are the most obvious examples I can think of.

Based on this perspective:
* Martial arts are unquestionably sports. Their paramilitary origin is even fairly obvious today.
* Golf, shuffleboard, and bowling are marginally sports, since they do require good aim. But none of them are markedly similar to any effective hunting or warfare technique, nor does being good at them directly transfer over to being a better fighter, hunter, or evader.
* Figure skating, synchronized swimming, ballroom dancing, and gymnastics are not sports. The agility and coordination they cultivate might have been of value to primitive societies, but not on the same base level as fighting, fleeing, or feeding.

But what about pursuits like hiking or fishing? They're often called sports, but not thought of in the same way as baseball or soccer. Their value to the survival of primitive people is pretty obvious, though.

The word 'sport' used to be used more broadly than it is today, referring to anything done for fun. It's only used this way nowadays in the phrase 'for sport' and the word 'sporty'. I find this ironic, given how seriously sports are taken, and how serious the implications of their outcomes probably were in the olden days.
 
I'm not necessarily saying NASCAR is a sport and I don't even like watching it. But if you are flipping channels one day and come upon a race, wait until they show one of the cameras placed inside a car aimed at the driver. That type of driving is much more strenuous than what you do driving your Honda Civic around town. Just sayin'.
 
the only people this definition of terms seems to matter to are people who get bent out of shape when you tell thenm that what they're doing isn't a sport...

so you bowl. so somebody tells you you're playing a game not a sport. so fw?

alasdair
 
Jerry Atrick said:
I'm not necessarily saying NASCAR is a sport and I don't even like watching it. But if you are flipping channels one day and come upon a race, wait until they show one of the cameras placed inside a car aimed at the driver. That type of driving is much more strenuous than what you do driving your Honda Civic around town. Just sayin'.
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i understand the very hot conditions they're in but still that shouldnt make it considered a sport.
 
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