It's not a sport if you can't play it

kasperbbs

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If it's not a sport, then what is it? I can't think of anything. Therefore racing is not a sport it's just driving your car really fast.
 

Simon Pettersson

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The Red Goblin said:
Simon Pettersson said:
Trippy Turtle said:
Baseball and things are games. Sport is any type of physical activity... I think. I'm the least active person ever so don't quote me on this.
Nope sport is any kind of hobby you can compete in.

E-sport is getting more and more popular, and Chess is also a very popular sport.
Even Rock, scissor paper is a sport ....
No. Just no. If we go by this near everything is a sport.
E-sports are not sports. They are E-sports. There's a different name because it's a seperate thing.
Chess is not a sport. It may be a challenging competetive game, but it is in no way a sport.
I'm not even going to get into how retarded that last line is.
"Some non-physical activities, such as board games and card games are sometimes referred to as sports, but a sport is generally recognised as being based in physical athleticism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_sports

So yes chess is sport, E-Sport is sport, sport is not just about physical activity but also mental activity.
 

Aurgelmir

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Dys said:
Aurgelmir said:
Dys said:
Aurgelmir said:
I Have No Idea said:
In my Calculus class, there's this guy who sits behind me who plays baseball and such. He's been kinda vocal about things like sports, and today the class watched a video about bobsledding and skeleton (looks that last one up if you have to). Now, even though I still have no idea how it tied into the lesson for that day, it was pretty interesting. But the aforementioned baseball player said "That's not a sport. It's not a sport if you can't play it." You can't "play" bobsled, he said. You can't "play" swimming, he said. I (and several others in the class who heard him) think that's a load of bull.

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

By the way, I'm not trying to demonize the guy, I just think he's pretty dang wrong on this one.
Um most sports are not games.

Your Jock of a class mate is mixing up his words. What he meant to say is "it is not a game if you cant play it"

Sports = Athletics


But Baseball, Football etc are games of an athletic nature, which is why it is also a sport.
Actually, what he probably meant by "play" was "compete" (and it could be argued that competition is a form of play). One wouldn't consider working out or training to be a sport, weightlifting or long jump however is.
True, but play and compete ere very different words, with very different meaning. But yeah all sports has an element of competition in it. But still you cant play all sports.
In fact only team sports are played really...
Non-team sports are still regularly played (tennis, bowling etc). My point is that the guy isn't a necessarily a moron, illiterate or confusing words (as you earlier said) is a more apt description. Also, on a side note, not all sports are athletic (chess is considered a sport).
The Red Goblin said:
Chess is not a sport. It may be a challenging competetive game, but it is in no way a sport.
.
The international olympic committee seem to have a rather different view on chess and it's status as "not a sport".
I must Disagree with the Olympic Committee. They have most likely deemed it a sport in order to allow it in the Olympics.
If you ask me Chess is a Board Game, a very hard Board Game, but a Board Game none the less.

Just because you can compete in it doesn't make it a sport...
 

Dys

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Aurgelmir said:
I must Disagree with the Olympic Committee. They have most likely deemed it a sport in order to allow it in the Olympics.
If you ask me Chess is a Board Game, a very hard Board Game, but a Board Game none the less.

Just because you can compete in it doesn't make it a sport...
I don't mean to come across as a dick, but nobody on the internet is going to give two shits what your opinion is if it differes from standard definition. You're of course welcome to define sport however the hell you want, but it is generally accepted that chess is defined as a sport. If you choose to define it otherwise you are taking a point of view that most people will see as wrong, and it certainly doesn't give your argument of "just because you play in it dosn't make it a sport" any more relevent.
 

Aurgelmir

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Dys said:
Aurgelmir said:
I must Disagree with the Olympic Committee. They have most likely deemed it a sport in order to allow it in the Olympics.
If you ask me Chess is a Board Game, a very hard Board Game, but a Board Game none the less.

Just because you can compete in it doesn't make it a sport...
I don't mean to come across as a dick, but nobody on the internet is going to give two shits what your opinion is if it differes from standard definition. You're of course welcome to define sport however the hell you want, but it is generally accepted that chess is defined as a sport. If you choose to define it otherwise you are taking a point of view that most people will see as wrong, and it certainly doesn't give your argument of "just because you play in it dosn't make it a sport" any more relevent.
Um... I never ever argued that you cant play a sport. I have been arguing the opposite. But there are sports which you don't play also.

As for chess, sure it is considered a sport, and yes you come off as a dick... anyhow back to chess:
Considering that the word sport is generally in most dictionaries connected to physical activeties of an athletic nature chess doesn't fit in.

Yes yes it is accepted as a sport, but that doesn't change the fact that someone somewhere went against the meaning of the word when they decided chess was a sport.

And as I mentioned earlier, it was probably made a sport because they wanted to have it in the Olympics since it is probably the hardest board game to master in the world, and has had a huge competition scene for a long time.
 

TheRealJLars

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Tanksie said:
here is an argument you can use against this guy, you can play a musical instrument, both competitively and for entertainment but thats not sport
Even then, that's not really an argument you can use.
While I agree that playing an instrument in a concert setting is not a sport, competing in a marching band or drum corp absolutely IS a sport.

It requires as much coordination, athletic ability and endurance as most "traditional" sports. Probably more endurance, since you're required to run around a field for 20 minutes while constantly exhaling. At the same time, you need to make sure you're reaching your sets, you're dressed relative to those around you in the form, you've got good marching technique, you're playing the correct notes with proper articulation and good tone, you're watching the drum major so you're in time, and you're balanced and blended with the musicians around you.

That sounds rather athletic to me.
 
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Wait a minute I "play" video games, holy shit im a professional athlete by his logic. What an arrogant ass and how exactly is he doing calculus anyway (i don't what calculus is but im thinking its like Math B in Australia correct me if im wrong)
 

Brawndo

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I think there needs to be a more clear-cut difference between skills and sports. For example, being good at bowling does not make you an athlete, and I do not consider bowling a sport because there isn't any athleticism involved (endurance, reflexes, speed, strength). You can be 300 pounds and get winded climbing a set of stairs, but still be an excellent bowler.
 

HappyPillz

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I think that depends on the divide between team sports, which are more like games where a group of people work together to beat a different group of people. Or individual spots, which are more like events. Competitions to see who can do a certain action better than everybody else. The two different types of sports are both placed under the same title "sport", making the definition arbitrary.

When I think of sports, I think of team sports like hockey or rugby, because to me, individual sports like bobsled and swimming have more in common with cooking or drawing. They are demonstrations of an individuals ability to do something. They don't have a goal. It's not "Do this to get this", it's "do this as well as you can".

So to answer the question, yes, they are technically sports, but only because the definition of sport is vague.
 

robot slipper

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I personally don't like how F1 racing and the like are referred to as "sport". Sports are played by athletes, people who are displaying some sort of physical skill, strength, speed, or endurance. Driving a car is one of the least athletic things you can do, apart from sitting on your sofa and eating. People I have this discussion with usually argue that the F1 driver is driving the car in a skilled fashion and competing against other drivers. But, the driver is still that, someone sitting on their arse controlling a machine with very small movements of the hands and feet. It would be the same as claiming that someone using a remote-controlled robot to play a game of remote-controlled-robot football is an athlete. And I'm sure I could be quite good at eating skillfully and competitively against a bunch of others eaters, but I would not claim that it is a sport.
 

Reggie Rock

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Simon Pettersson said:
The Red Goblin said:
Simon Pettersson said:
Trippy Turtle said:
Baseball and things are games. Sport is any type of physical activity... I think. I'm the least active person ever so don't quote me on this.
Nope sport is any kind of hobby you can compete in.

E-sport is getting more and more popular, and Chess is also a very popular sport.
Even Rock, scissor paper is a sport ....
No. Just no. If we go by this near everything is a sport.
E-sports are not sports. They are E-sports. There's a different name because it's a seperate thing.
Chess is not a sport. It may be a challenging competetive game, but it is in no way a sport.
I'm not even going to get into how retarded that last line is.
"Some non-physical activities, such as board games and card games are sometimes referred to as sports, but a sport is generally recognised as being based in physical athleticism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_sports

So yes chess is sport, E-Sport is sport, sport is not just about physical activity but also mental activity.
Card games as a sport? I call bullshit.

Sport requires a certain level of physical activity. The dictionary definition includes it having to be adequatly physical. Like it has been said before, consider anything you want a sport, but if you call chess a sport you have changed the definition. The guy in OP's post changed the definition too.

I'm going to go play my own sport i call "Think really really hard about trees"
 

FalloutJack

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I Have No Idea said:
In my Calculus class, there's this guy who sits behind me who plays baseball and such. He's been kinda vocal about things like sports, and today the class watched a video about bobsledding and skeleton (looks that last one up if you have to). Now, even though I still have no idea how it tied into the lesson for that day, it was pretty interesting. But the aforementioned baseball player said "That's not a sport. It's not a sport if you can't play it." You can't "play" bobsled, he said. You can't "play" swimming, he said. I (and several others in the class who heard him) think that's a load of bull.

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

By the way, I'm not trying to demonize the guy, I just think he's pretty dang wrong on this one.
Oh, by his definition, Magic The Gathering or at least poker tournaments on ESPN are a sport. I'm going to call bullshit on him AND ESPN for suspicious definitons of the term 'sport'. A sport is generally a physical competition or trial of some sort, requiring some sort of skill. Bobsledding requires balance, coordination, luck, and a wee bit of courage. Seems sporty enough to me. You could give a reasonable argument to pool since it needs hand-eye coordination, sensitivity, and a good mind for geometry and physics. Just barely, though, since pool is only a little physical.
 

TheRightToArmBears

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I'm sure this has been said, but you play games. Many games (such as baseball) are sports, but not all sports are games. Simples.
 

thylasos

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I think this essentially breaks down into the division between team sports and everything else.

You can swim, bobsled, shoot, (etc.) competitively, but one wouldn't describe them as being "played" because the instances of competition aren't described as "games". It's an arbitrary line, though.
 

omega 616

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maddawg IAJI said:
A sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants
Except chess?

To me sport is something that has competition, whether it be clay pigeon shooting, starcraft 2 or racing. This thing about it being physical is bull to me, I mean the hammer throw for example, is that more about strength or technique? 'cos all you do is spin in a circle. What about golf, I think we can all agree that is a sport but as far as being physically demanding it's a joke ... old people play it over football for a reason.
 

repeating integers

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robot slipper said:
I personally don't like how F1 racing and the like are referred to as "sport". Sports are played by athletes, people who are displaying some sort of physical skill, strength, speed, or endurance. Driving a car is one of the least athletic things you can do, apart from sitting on your sofa and eating. People I have this discussion with usually argue that the F1 driver is driving the car in a skilled fashion and competing against other drivers. But, the driver is still that, someone sitting on their arse controlling a machine with very small movements of the hands and feet. It would be the same as claiming that someone using a remote-controlled robot to play a game of remote-controlled-robot football is an athlete. And I'm sure I could be quite good at eating skillfully and competitively against a bunch of others eaters, but I would not claim that it is a sport.
Apparently, though, an F1 driver's repeated movements of the lower body to hit the pedals when they need to be hit is equivalent to a brisk jog. Considering how long such races are, I'd say that's not bad.
 

omega 616

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robot slipper said:
I personally don't like how F1 racing and the like are referred to as "sport". Sports are played by athletes, people who are displaying some sort of physical skill, strength, speed, or endurance. Driving a car is one of the least athletic things you can do, apart from sitting on your sofa and eating. People I have this discussion with usually argue that the F1 driver is driving the car in a skilled fashion and competing against other drivers. But, the driver is still that, someone sitting on their arse controlling a machine with very small movements of the hands and feet. It would be the same as claiming that someone using a remote-controlled robot to play a game of remote-controlled-robot football is an athlete. And I'm sure I could be quite good at eating skillfully and competitively against a bunch of others eaters, but I would not claim that it is a sport.
Sorry but you have no clue, just watch the whole of this.


At one point he says "we will have to get into the F1 car 'cos his neck will go soon".

F1 cars put so much strain on the body F1 drivers have to be super fit, like fighter pilots who have to deal with G forces ... which is ironic 'cos you actually have a jet as your avatar.

If you have ever been in a normal road car (not even one with a decent amount of power) and accelerate hard, you can feel the g forces, the same as when you brake hard. Now imagine that in something with even a little power, like a Ford St ... it's going to give you some strain.

Then you have cars like a supra or chargers, they can suck you back into the seat with ease. Moving on up to super cars like lambo's, which make you think you're going to become one with the seat. Then you have an F1 car which is incomprehensible.

It's like numbers, you can visualize 10 and maybe 100 but when you get to a million, all you can think is a fucking lot ... there is no real grasp of a million till you see it and even then a million is nothing, try imagining the population of the earth, all 7 billion of them ... that's what it's like trying to imagine what being in an F1 car is like.

Edit, not to mention how long they are in races (like the guy above said) it's like an hour of constant G forces being applied to the body and as Richard Hammond said, there is so much thinking involved in it ... when to brake, when best to over take, when to accelerate and it's all happening at insane speeds.

To compare it driving to the shops is like comparing flying a fighter jet to hang gliding on a pretty still day.