Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

40Saberthieves · 09-03-2004, 09:22 PM

What do you define as a sport?

Ill give my answer after a few people reply, so as not to confine the discussion.

enigmagic · 09-03-2004, 10:57 PM

I had a discussion about this with a girlfriend who was an ice skater once. I contended that most of the activities most debated are sports, and that its pretty silly to delineate one or the other to a subordinate status. I've heard mentioned several times that "nothing that doesn't involve a ball is a sport", this is a pretty closed-minded approach to the whole definition. Really any sort of physical recreation is a sport, and any other way of classifying activities is semantics that just get batted back and forth vociferously and uselessly. In sum: it doesn't matter.

HillBilly · 09-03-2004, 10:59 PM

Isn't a sport a physical or mental (mental? Maybe not..) activity that involves competition against another person?

Epee_Pox · 09-03-2004, 11:24 PM

Let's see, you've got athletic sports (football), motor sports (F1), blood sports (hunting), aesthetic sports (synchro), and technical sports (shooting).

Which kind of sport are you talking about?

Bonehead · 09-03-2004, 11:26 PM

in my opinion

A sport is an activity that:

1) is competitive.

-unless you are competing with someone else it is not a sport. Jogging for fun is just an activity, sport is competitive.

2) is athletic

-increasing ones phyiscal abilities should directly and noticibly affect ones performance in a sport. This is why Chess is not a sport.

That is it as far as I can tell. This means that things like Fencing, Soccer, Badminton, table tennis, 100 meter dash, are all sports.

Golf I do not consider a sport. It is a game based too much on skill and not enough on athleticism. A good drive doesn't require a lot of strength if done properly. On top of that, even if it takes you one extra hit to make it to the green, if your accurate you will still fair quite well. Golf, to me, is more along the lines of billards.

Motorsports, are all not sports. Though they take a great deal of endurance, the primary means of success in a motorsport is 1) the quality of your machine, whatever it may be, and 2) the ability to naviagate the course. Stamina helps maintain focus, but is not directly affecting performance.

I would also divide sports into many categories to, but that is not the scope of the question

thats my 2 cents

glowstix · 09-04-2004, 01:15 AM

is bodybuilding a sport??? i've heard it referred to as such...

JackSparrow · 09-04-2004, 05:04 AM

Well weightlifting is an Olympic sport. But I guess that has a more obvious element of competition to it. Having said that, body building competitions are quite common, Arnold Schwarzenegger being an example of a champion body builder.

40Saberthieves · 09-04-2004, 09:10 AM

Is anyone here going to make a disctinction between a sport and a game?

I would define a sport as any physically demanding competetive activity.

I would define a game as any competition in which you attempt to hinder the opponent and cause yourself to win.

In track, you run, but there isnt any way to hinder your opponent.

In Fencing, you attack (trying to win) and parry(hindering opponent)

HillBilly · 09-04-2004, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RogueNine

I would define a game as any competition in which you attempt to hinder the opponent and cause yourself to win.

What about candyland? or Tag?

40Saberthieves · 09-04-2004, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HillBilly

What about candyland? or Tag?

Those are both games. Tag would also be a sport. (That would be much more fun to watch that olympic sychronized diving. Olympic tag would be pretty damn cool)

ViewtifulMisho · 09-04-2004, 09:57 AM

I agree. Running is not a sport. Throwing of objects is not a sport. A sport includes direct competition, which means that what you do has an effect on what your opponent does and what he does has an effect on what you do. This is not to say that running, swimming, etc. do not take any skill. They are very impressive abilities, but they are not sports.

S. Hunter · 09-04-2004, 10:09 AM

IMO, Sports and games are not mutually exclusive. A sport or a game is an activity where you compete against your opponent and your opponent competes against you directly. I don't believe running or javelin toss is a sport, but I still respect that it is physically demanding. I believe that games put emphasis on the mental side of things and not on the physical side, which according to everything I've seen and heard would make fencing MORE of a game with sportlike elements.

Of course, we could introduce the work ART here and create a flame war, but using the two words considered that is how I feel.

40Saberthieves · 09-04-2004, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViewtifulMisho

I agree. Running is not a sport. Throwing of objects is not a sport. A sport includes direct competition, which means that what you do has an effect on what your opponent does and what he does has an effect on what you do. This is not to say that running, swimming, etc. do not take any skill. They are very impressive abilities, but they are not sports.

Running is a sport, but it is not a game.
Chess is a game, but not a sport.
Tennis is both a game and a sport.
Reading a book is neither a game nor a sport.

daveappr · 09-04-2004, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonehead

in my opinion

Motorsports, are all not sports. Though they take a great deal of endurance, the primary means of success in a motorsport is 1) the quality of your machine, whatever it may be, and 2) the ability to naviagate the course. Stamina helps maintain focus, but is not directly affecting performance.

I agree- motorsports aren't a sport- more like a game. It won't be a sport in IMHO until they pump their own fuel and change their own tires. Seems more like an expensive game to me

Katman · 09-04-2004, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViewtifulMisho

I agree. Running is not a sport. Throwing of objects is not a sport. A sport includes direct competition, which means that what you do has an effect on what your opponent does and what he does has an effect on what you do. This is not to say that running, swimming, etc. do not take any skill. They are very impressive abilities, but they are not sports.

If you a running a race and someone's beating you, you have to try and run faster. If the other dude in the object throwing event throws farther than you, then you have to throw farther than him. I'd say those are pretty direct effects.

Also I don't see why we of all people should be saying what is and isn't a sport. We're often not labeled a sport any more than professional wrestling.

ViewtifulMisho · 09-05-2004, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katman

If you a running a race and someone's beating you, you have to try and run faster. If the other dude in the object throwing event throws farther than you, then you have to throw farther than him. I'd say those are pretty direct effects.

Also I don't see why we of all people should be saying what is and isn't a sport. We're often not labeled a sport any more than professional wrestling.

That's true, but they're not direct effects. What I mean by that is that you can watch someone run a race and plan out how you will run your race according to that. Also, the fact that (if you are very, very skilled, of course) you can "compete" with your eyes closed makes it a non-sport.

It's just terminology, anyway, and it's usually personal interpretation. No one's putting anything down.

EDIT: ...except for foil. Seriously, who thought that up?

gulebukser · 09-05-2004, 01:13 AM

So, the blind can never really compete in any sport?

RebelFencer · 09-05-2004, 03:01 AM

Not if they know what's good for them.

But I would say a sport is anything physically and mentally demanding in which there is some measurable system to defeat an opponent through either direct action against him/her or by altering your own tactics. I like that definition better because it can include running and swimming as sports, which they are (difficult ones at that). Then you have sports like Wrestling and Fencing covered as well as the "other" ones like football, basketball, etc.

JackSparrow · 09-05-2004, 09:35 AM

There was a blind fencer at my club. I used to fence Epee against him. I'm not kidding! I had to wear a blindfold then you would plug in the bodywires and cross ends of the piste, holding onto your opponents spool wire as a guide line. You basically had to find you opponents blade to locate him.

Anyway, he trashed me. Without sight his footwork, balance and orrientation were a different class to mine. It was really good fun too!

esskreemr · 09-05-2004, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViewtifulMisho

That's true, but they're not direct effects. What I mean by that is that you can watch someone run a race and plan out how you will run your race according to that. Also, the fact that (if you are very, very skilled, of course) you can "compete" with your eyes closed makes it a non-sport.

It's easy to dismiss something as not being difficult if you don't understand the sport. I'm not a competitive runner, but I've dated runners and I run recreationally and for training. There are alot more tactics involved than just running faster than your opponent. In addition, each of the different lengths, 100m, 200m, 5k, 10k, marathon, hurdles, etc. require different strategies.

There is a VERY sizeable mental element involved in running ; watch the "pack" closely, plenty of maneuvering, constant changing of positions, elbows flying, spiking (track spike scars are common amongst top competitiors). To dismiss the mental aspect of any sport usually only reveals a very superficial knowledge of the sport.