Comments on: What Is And Is Not A Sport

By: HaywoodJablomie

HaywoodJablomie — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:30:04 +0000

“You’re not going 200 mph, the car is.”

That’s not really true (from a physical standpoint). Both car and driver are going 200 mph. Like … when the car hits the wall the car abruptly stops … the driver doesn’t. Ask Dale Earnhardt.

By: Les

Les — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 05:30:29 +0000

I think what some people are getting into is which sport has the best athlete. I’m not quite sure being an athlete is a necessary requirement to being somewhat who plays sports (dance being one example where although not a sport, most people who participate are in better shape than probably mos baseball players).

Also disagree with the ranking boxing gets. It doesn’t get any basic in terms of equipment than gloves and hitting one another with your fists. It’s a sport that consists of direct contact between two individuals- no ball, no car, no dartboard. In terms of athleticism, you really won’t get anybody in better shape than a boxer. It’s a sport that requires anaerobic and aerobic fitness.

Another thing that is hard to quantify is specialized skill (which may not have anything to do with being in shape) and athleticism. This is actually a pretty hard debate. Now if I were to get out of an open and accepting point of view and go to a more cynical and judgmental viewpoint, I’d call everything but racing a sport for a couple of reasons. One, anything where men, women (in or out of shape) can compete on the same level professionally probably doesn’t have to do too much with athletic competition. Second is the problem of equipment. You’re not going 200 mph, the car is.

By: Z

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:36:18 +0000

“But John Kruk was a baseball player, I dunno if athleticism should be so high.”

He may not have been your perfect body image, but he was damn good at hitting a 90+ mph fastball, and nasty sliders and curves and everything else, which I’m told is pretty hard to do.

By: Jimbo Mercy

Jimbo Mercy — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:53:50 +0000

Say folks. You think boxers aren’t athletes? I want you to take an egg timer, set it to three minutes, and dance around while shadowboxing. Then tell me those guys aren’t athletes. Whoo, pardner!

By: Dynamic Hispanic

Dynamic Hispanic — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:11:04 +0000

Boxing under badmitton? Are you crazy? Boxing is probably the toughest sport there is. You need stamina, strength, speed, brains, and many other things. It is a team sport if you think about it with all of the training and sparring and such. Without that aspect a lot of fighters wouldn’t be successful.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:11:32 +0000

How is basketball more dependent on equipment that soccer?

By: twoeightnine

twoeightnine — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 21:58:08 +0000

Luge is fairly fun to watch. Actually make that the skeleton. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat. Okay, it was more like sitting up on the couch with a bag of chips on my chest, but I was gripping my beer really tightly.

By: SportbookDave

SportbookDave — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 21:46:15 +0000

That’s a pretty good ranking chart.

I however use the beer ranking chart. If you can drink beer while participating its not a sport. I’m not talking about halftime or between shifts I’m talking about while you are actually participating. Then its a activity not a sport.

I will give some examples. American Football, it’s not possible to drink beer while actually participating in the sport, so it’s a sport. Poker definilty possible to drink beer while playing this so called sports, so NOT a sport. See how easy this is?

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:48:35 +0000

On the topic of endurance, I’ll throw another one out there – how about exertion? For example, over the course of a game baseball players do not exert themselves to the extent of a cyclist … curling induces nowhere near the sweat snowboarding does … an ice skating performance demands more physical control than golf.

It’s a toss up on how you’d grade NASCAR. Yeah, they sit in a car for hours at a time pushing a gas pedal, but then again how many people can go upwards of 180 mph for hours on end and not get loose on Turn 3? Add in trying to take a piss in your own pants while Tony is going psycho in the rearview mirror, and that’s some pretty hardcore exertion.

By: Insomniac

Insomniac — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:45:38 +0000

This is an interesting exercise for a focus point of discussion, but it really gets us no further than when we started. It’s like if we were to create a continuum on which chicks are hot and which aren’t. I might want to allot 25 points for boobs and 20 for ass. But then someone will come along with a foot fetish and make that hte most weighted criteria. Then you have to factor in something like the ability to cook, which isn’t related to a chick’s appearance, but can affect her hotness quotient (similar to our “equipment” category here).

Maybe we can settle both debates by agreeing that sorority oil wrestling is the greatest sport of all!

By: Mr. Bojangles

Mr. Bojangles — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:21:25 +0000

Luge goes beyond strategy, it’s practically aerodynamic engineering. Now if only they’d add obstacles and/or trap doors, it’d be fun to watch.

By: yogi

yogi — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:21:16 +0000

nice job. i’m glad to see that this is bothering someone else, and even happier that someone actually took the time to think it through.i think you did well.
i do agree with the above comment – if a sports needs make-up then maybe it’s not a sport or else , according to your list , the Miss America pageant can also be considered a sport of some degree.
in any case – lots of food for thought here.

By: B.J.

B.J. — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:13:12 +0000

One thing I’ve always used to determine whether or not something is sport is this: If the best girls in the world are as good/better than the best guys in the world, then it’s not a sport. Goodbye cheerleading

By: runzilla

runzilla — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:42:20 +0000

A 10 equipment rating for running? Any runner will tell you what a big difference the correct pair of shoes make, especially marathon runners. That rating should be a 9 perhaps? Also, running could be done as a team event (relays, cross country racing), so maybe that rating should be a 4? (I cannot really rate it a 5, since most running events are individual events)

By: Fish

Fish — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:25:12 +0000

I’m going to disagree with your hypothesis. I’ll argue that you’ve introduced MORE grey areas with your rankings than one who tries to decide that x is or isn’t a sport. As evidence of this, look at comments others have made — debating your ranking of certain categories, etc.

To me — your questions that don’t have good answers are poor questions to use as criteria for judging whether or not something is a sport. I think it is better to categorize events, then ask the question whether or not the categories are sports.

For example: Create a category for ‘judged competitions’ The definition of a judged competition in this example is one where the ONLY way you can win would be to convince a panel of judges that you were better then the other competitors (thus Boxing is NOT a judged competition). Figure Skating, Diving, gymnastics all fall in this category. Now determine whether the category is a sport.

In many beer-induced bar debates on this topic, my friends and I have come up with the following categories:

No-Brainers: we’ve never decided on a good name for this category. The team events where two teams compete against each other with scores clearly defined and winners (or ties) obvious (i.e. soccer, basketball)

Fights — (i.e. boxing, wrestling, judo)

Races — (i.e. sprints, distance, swimming, speed skating)

Judged Competitions — see above

Field Events (i.e. long jump, discuss, etc.)

Racket Events (i.e. Tennis, Table Tennis)

‘Driver’ Events: We created this category for horse-racing, sledding, auto-racing, etc. Events where, while it takes athletic skill to compete in the event, the ‘thing’ doing the most work in the event is not the driver — but something else (i.e. car, sled).

Doing it this way — you are not judging whether it takes more skill to compete in something like Tennis vs. Table Tennis — (I would totally disagree with your ranking of these two items) — but you’re saying are racket sports really sports?