What defines a sport? Is fishing a sport? How about video game tournaments?

[Hot Lunch]

I think one defining aspect could be the free movement of ones body (combat sports, gymnastics, running); and/or the manipulation of a free-moving object (by "free moving," an example would be free weights as opposed to machines). This free moving object could be pool stick or a basketball. But it would rule out video games, since the video game controllers consist of parts whose movements are "fixed," nor does using the controller result in the free movement of any physical object. Should pinball be considered a sport then? I'd be open to it.

 

[Steve]

I think one defining aspect could be the free movement of ones body (combat sports, gymnastics, running); and/or the manipulation of a free-moving object (by "free moving," an example would be free weights as opposed to machines). This free moving object could be pool stick or a basketball. But it would rule out video games, since the video game controllers consist of parts whose movements are "fixed," nor does using the controller result in the free movement of any physical object. Should pinball be considered a sport then? I'd be open to it.

eSports are most definitely sports.

Someone can play football with friends or do karate as a hobby. Maybe when they take it more seriously then it becomes a sport? I go to my local pool to swim a few laps for fun but I don't consider myself engaging in the sport of swimming.

Playing catch with a football isn't a sport, but playing a game of football is definitely sport, whether it's with friends or in a league, whether you do so as a hobby or not.

I'd say swimming around isn't a sport, but swimming laps would be sport if you track your times and follow the rules of the sport. Playing water polo is also definitely a sport. Is diving a sport? I don't think so, but surfing definitely is.

Whoa! Foul mouth.

One of our sensei thinks "sports karate" is foul language he prefers to not speak of. He seems to suggest it's the other way around, that real serious karate is an art, and not a sport.

I personally don't think it's that cut and dry. Some very serious karate is sports oriented. I think most would agree with me that Kyokushin Karate, for example, is very serious karate. Conversely, some very unserious karate hides a lack of practicality behind anti-sport rhetoric, relying on this sucker's dilemma. "We aren't sports, ergo, we must be very serious and effective." Doesn't always work that way.

 

[Dirty Dog]

A sport is any activity whose primary goal is competition.

 

[Hot Lunch]

A sport is any activity whose primary goal is competition.

That's how "game" is defined. The objective is to find what separates "sports" from "games."

 

[Steve]

That's how "game" is defined. The objective is to find what separates "sports" from "games."

Played competitively, AND
Organized into some kind of league, AND
Requires some kind of physical skill.

That's it.

 

[Hot Lunch]

I don't think anyone addressed fishing. While there is plenty of kinesiology involved in fishing (you have to cast out the line, reel the fish in, etc), I feel like how soon you catch something, how big it is, etc is determined more by chance than the level of physicality exerted by the fisherman.

In team sports, movement of the ball is 100% determined by either the physicality of the person in possession of the ball, or by the physicality the person on the opposing team who intercepts or blocks it.

Same with combat sports. It's 100% physicality. Who's doing more than the other. Even if you say "technique," there still needs to be speed, power, or accuracy behind the execution of that technique.

I'm not saying that 100% of the game has to be physical. But the specific action that results in adding to the score needs to be 100% physical (like shooting a basketball in a hoop, for example).

Fishing? Eh...

Admittedly, I don't follow fishing on TV... so if points are adding by where you cast the line out to or how fast you reel something in, rather than if/when you catch something or what you catch... then I suppose it's a sport.

 

[Steve]

I don't think anyone addressed fishing. While there is plenty of kinesiology involved in fishing (you have to cast out the line, reel the fish in, etc), I feel like how soon you catch something, how big it is, etc is determined more by chance than the level of physicality exerted by the fisherman.

In team sports, movement of the ball is 100% determined by either the physicality of the person in possession of the ball, or by the physicality the person on the opposing team who intercepts or blocks it.

Same with combat sports. It's 100% physicality. Who's doing more than the other. Even if you say "technique," there still needs to be speed, power, or accuracy behind the execution of that technique.

I'm not saying that 100% of the game has to be physical. But the specific action that results in adding to the score needs to be 100% physical (like shooting a basketball in a hoop, for example).

Fishing? Eh...

Admittedly, I don't follow fishing on TV... so if points are adding by where you cast the line out to or how fast you reel something in, rather than if/when you catch something or what you catch... then I suppose it's a sport.

Fishing can be a sport, but the term is so broad that it also describes things that are definitely not sport. Working the line on a commercial fishing boat is not sport. I would say fishing to eat isn't sport, either. But competitive fishing is definitely sport... checks all the boxes.