[quote]GetTheHIT wrote:
Well the word agony comes from the greek word “agora” meaning sport. So I’d say a sport is something you have to put a good deal of suffering and hard work in to beat your opponent. Things like wrestling, boxing, American football, Rugby, track and field etc… are sports. Poker, golf, frolf; these are not sports.[/quote]
The general mental anguish I feel every time I hit a ball in the woods or otherwise fuck up in golf doesn’t count?
The word most on this thread are looking for is “athlete” or “athletic”.
The word “Sport” has been used for things like golf and cards for several hundred years already.
You can refuse to recognize this and pretend that word has a more limited meaning than what the whole rest of the world , the documented history of the whole rest of the world, the current and all previous incarnations of the international olympic committee and modern day multi-billion dollar business recognize the word to mean …but this just makes you ignorant.
this reminds me of the Seinfeld “when is sex, sex?” debate. in fact…
Bodybuilding is not a sport.
For that matter, neither is figure skating.
There has to be rules, competitions, and an objective measurement of scoring, which does not exist in either.
Yeah, I know there are theoretically objective means of scoring figure skating, but there’s such a huge disagreement over them that they’re no longer ‘objective’.
[quote]Tstud_9 wrote:
GetTheHIT wrote:
Well the word agony comes from the greek word “agora” meaning sport. So I’d say a sport is something you have to put a good deal of suffering and hard work in to beat your opponent. Things like wrestling, boxing, American football, Rugby, track and field etc… are sports. Poker, golf, frolf; these are not sports.
The general mental anguish I feel every time I hit a ball in the woods or otherwise fuck up in golf doesn’t count?[/quote]
Hmmmm, I dunno?
Here’s how I break it down:
If there’s a referee making the calls, it’s a sport.
If there’s a judge making the calls, then it’s a contest.
I tend to view anything I can do while still drinking beer and it not really affect my performance as not a sport. 
I got into an argument with a friend who said boxing is not a sport because the judging - when the fight goes the distance - is NOT objective like a regular, numerical scoreboard in football/bball/hockey/baseball.
I wanted to knock his teeth out.
You can simply clasify the difference between sports and activities by this simple test - if you can wear a belt in reasonable comfort (cricket, baseball, golf, snooker etc) and this belt is NOT part of the equipment/uniform (ice hockey belt in use in pads, or martial arts) then it is a pass time and not a sport.
I’ve been preaching this for several years now. There is a gray area with yachting etc, I admit that, but basically it’s bomb proof.
If a brown oblonged ball with laces is used it is a sport.
I’ll second the two-pronged definition that says sports require skill and athleticism. Any of your games like poker, chess, darts are not sports. Bowling isn’t a sport either since out of shape fatties are just as good as their thinner counterparts. NASCAR is definitely not a sport. Horse racing is a sport but only for the horses, not the jockies.
Incorrectly.
Perhaps it makes everyone else ignorant. Oooooh.
[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
Bowling isn’t a sport either since out of shape fatties are just as good as their thinner counterparts.
[/quote]
So baseball’s not a sport? Plenty of out of shape fatties there.
[quote]swivel wrote:
Bowling is a sport. Billiards is a sport . Golf is a sport. Even Bridge is a sport. Shit Golf was probably the first sport ever…actually Golf was probably the third sport ever behind Hunting for fun and then Fishing for fun.
Anyway if they’ve covered it on ESPN and you can buy stuff for it @ Dick’s Sporting Goods and the I.O.C. recognizes it as a sport, then it’s a sport. [/quote]
I totally agree that above are sports, especially bowling. Not everyone can throw a 300 game, nor can the average person probably shoot a 150. USBC leagues have different lane conditions (oil patterns), which make it much more difficult to get a high score. To be on the PBA tour, you must have an average of like 220+.
BOWLING IS A SPORT!
A weak, out of shape fatty playing baseball isn’t going to do as well as a strong fatty playing baseball. Athleticism will still help you out immensely in almost every aspect of the game. Bowling, no.
Right. It takes skill, but it’s still not a sport. Unless you count everything that requires skill as a sport. Not everyone can 5-star Through the Fire and Flames on expert, but it’s still not a sport(even though I sweat a lot more playing it than I do bowling).
All the discussions on this board about the definition of a sport quickly degrade into discussions about which activities ought to be called sports, not what qualities ought to define sports. Appeals to popular opinion or intuition don’t get you very far, unless that’s what you want… popular opinion. Then you might as well just take a pole about what activities are sports and make a list.
If you really want a theoretical discussion on the definition of sport (instead of some argument about whose activities are manly enough to count), you might want to look up Bernard Suits and his ilk. If you really want to know about the history of sport and common perceptions about the term, then look up what the anthropology people have to say. If you want talk about how your activities are manly enough to be sports, then, ignore my references.
(For those who are mildly interested but yet not enough to google “Suits”, he brought back philosophical discussion of games, play, and sport. He has quite the complete theory on the distinctions between games, play, and sport. While his approach is certainly not historical, it is consistent and theoretically interesting. He’s quite the writer as well, and his tome on the topic is a playful dialogue. There are of course more serious articles to be found as well.)
[quote]Ronsauce wrote:
A weak, out of shape fatty playing baseball isn’t going to do as well as a strong fatty playing baseball. Athleticism will still help you out immensely in almost every aspect of the game. Bowling, no.
[/quote]
You didn’t say “weak”. You just said “out of shape fatties”. I think you need to make up your own mind before you start telling others what a sport is and isn’t.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
You didn’t say “weak”. You just said “out of shape fatties”. I think you need to make up your own mind before you start telling others what a sport is and isn’t.[/quote]
Don’t be ridiculous. My mind is made up despite maybe not expressing myself very clearly.
People of any fitness level are on an even keel in bowling given similar skill levels. Put another way, it doesn’t require any sort of athleticism to be competitive in bowling.
People who are in good physical condition and are skilled will beat people who are out of shape but similarly skilled(even though certain skills require athletic ability to implement) in baseball.
That’s why I’ll give baseball the nod with respect to being a sport and not bowling.
And just to be extra clear, when talking about bowling, I’m talking about fitness levels of “normal” people. Clearly a normal fatty would have an easier time than some arthritic 80-year old who shuffles when they walk and is permanently on O2.
They’ve had Bowling @ the Olympics; They’ve covered bowling for years on ESPN and “Wide World of Sports”; They sell Bowling stuff @ Dick’s Sporting goods.
Ballooning is also a sport; So is Chess btw.
Being in the Olympics or recognized by the IOC doesn’t make it a sport. Chess is a board game, not a sport.
I have to agree that a sport, in my mind, requires both skill AND athleticism. I won’t disagree that bowling and chess require a great deal of skill (perhaps more skill than some sports), but very little in the way of athleticism.
I think baseball does qualify because every position requires some skill and all positions must at least run the bases or throw a ball, thus requiring athleticism. Of course boxing, hockey, basketball, football, figure skating, cycling… eesh even soccer are sports.
Bowling and golf are in a gray area, but I would say they don’t require enough athleticism to be considered sports. But I can see arguments both ways.
I’m not sure about NASCAR, F-1 and horse racing. I don’t think they qualify either. Again, skill is needed, but the athleticism required to compete and win is limited and with alot of help from a machine or animal. But I could be swayed since there are physical rigours to competing in these events. These are tough ones.
I don’t think card or board games, darts, billiards or the like can even be considered in this discussion. Yes, they may require skill, intelligence, strategy, have a winner and loser, be judged, be broadcast on sports networks, etc., but they don’t require athleticism. A sport should require athleticism to qualify.