What is a Sport?

... or more precisely "what activities qualify as a sport?" It seems like a pretty simple question but I've had many conversations with people who were discussing exactly that. First I'll make a short and incomplete list of sports and non-sports as I see them. Then once some of you are sufficiently aggravated I'll give my reasoning.

Sports: Football, Futbol/Soccer, Hockey, Baseball/Softball, Tennis, Basketball, Boxing, Table Tennis, Water Polo, Auto Racing (begrudgingly), Volleyball, Cycling (non-time trials)


Not Sports: Figure Skating, Track and Field events (except running events where runners are allowed to leave their lanes), Swimming, Diving, Darts, Skydiving, Water Skiing, Gymnastics, Snow Skiing, Surfing, Bungee Jumping, Cycling (time trials) AND... Golf!

So there you have it, an incomplete list of both sports and non-sports. Reasoning time!

I use two simple guidelines in determining a sport. Guideline 1: If judging is the only component to determining a winner, then it's not a sport. Guideline 2: If someone isn't trying to impede whatever you're trying to achieve, it's not a sport. Or put another way, no defense, no sport.

I'd like to make an important distinction here. Just because I don't believe a particular activity is a sport, does NOT mean I think the participants are not athletes. In fact, running fast, jumping high and far, swimming fast, hand eye coordination, foot eye coordination and body control are practically definitions of athleticism in my book. But if you are restricting the athleticism to a comparative event, then you're basically engaging in a "skills challenge"; let's see who does a technically better dive, let's see who runs faster, let's see who can jump further, etc. These might compare and measure athleticism but they are not sports. Gymnastics is a great example of athletes in a non-sport. Is anyone more athletic than a gymnast? Athletically they have it all: speed, strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination. But what they are doing in competition is a skills challenge not a sport. They are being rated on the technique of their discipline and are actually in competition with their own selves to perform the discipline as flawlessly as possible. A panel of judges then decides who was closest to perfect. This is akin to watching batting practice, fielding practice and pitcher warm-ups for both teams before a baseball game and then deciding a winner based on the batters' swings, fielders' form and pitchers' "stuff!" Thus, gymnasts are athletes but gymnastics is not a sport.

Sport vs Skills Challenge examples: Cycling time trials (when cyclists are separately timed over a set distance) and running events that require staying in a lane involve athletes. But after both competitions, times are compared and a winner declared; not a sport. Cycling or running in a pack can involve defense in that your progress can be purposely impeded by another participant; sport. Golf is a funky type obstacle course; not a sport. Combat sports (MMA, boxing, etc.) use judges but only after an allotted time (for fighter safety) in which the fighters themselves can decide the outcome; sport.

One last example to wrap up my Sport vs Skills Challenge argument is the NFL Scouting Combine. Many college football players who are eligible for the NFL Draft are invited to this event so they can be weighed and measured in an attempt to impress an NFL team. They run the 40 yard dash to measure speed. They jump vertically from a standing position to measure vertical leap. They broad jump to measure leg power. They have several change of direction drills designed to measure quickness and body control. All of these are athletic skills. But the scouts are there to try to figure out how an individual will translate those skills onto a field in the sport of football.

There you have it, my take on Sport vs. Non-Sport. I'm expecting to hear from angry golfers but we'll see.

Just Joe


NEXT WEEK:  Story Time with Grampa Joe

Dear Television God (or is it Gods?)

There is a certain entertainment and sports programming network that has gotten on my last nerve… again! Sometime around 2000 I began realizing that this network was trying to manipulate me into caring about aspects of sports that I really don’t care about and that don’t make much sense.  Imagine that, media manipulation for profit!  I’m not sure what awakened me to the light. Perhaps it was turning 25 years old. I would have thought that would put me square in the middle of their target demographic but what do I know?

So a couple of Thursdays ago the NFL held their annual amateur draft.  A few days before I had been flipping through TV channels and happened to do a “drive-by” of this particular channel. Their NFL show (that I will refer to as “Live NFL”) was having draft coverage, as one might expect on a show about professional football. However, in the lower left corner of the screen was a countdown timer that read 75 hours and however many minutes and seconds! Seriously?! If I’m an NFL fan I already know when the draft is so the timer is as necessary as a humidifier in Miami on the 4th of July. Do they think some college kid is slamming energy drinks, watching the show and counting down? “Hey, guys, come here! Look!  Look! Seventyyyyyyyy… FOUR hours left!!  WOOOOOOO!!!!”  Not even at the peak of my sports fandom did a countdown timer increase my excitement or anticipation.  And I used to watch a minimum of four episodes per day of their flagship show “CenterSports!”  I’m ashamed to say that I would view four consecutive episodes, repeats and all!

Okay, so maybe the countdown timer’s purpose was to inform the borderline fan when the draft was taking place? Well, I’m not sure a countdown timer of over 75 hours is much help. Personally, I would still need an abacus and a calendar to figure out a countdown timer that’s that far out.  If you’re actually interested in pointing someone to your coverage of the draft, instead of the timer, why don’t you just put the time and date that your coverage begins!!  “What?  Impossible! Having all this technology at our hands yet keeping it simple? Preposterous!”

Sure, this is one tiny detail that is easily lost amongst millions of other details that are also insignificant but this was just the latest to draw my ire. (Don’t get me started on why the “information scroll” won’t tell you what channel an event is on unless it’s within the genealogy of the original channel! Maybe I’ll give up looking for the Super Bowl and just watch this World Series of Poker rerun.)

In conclusion, a certain televised, well listened to radio show host (Dan Patrick) refers to this particular channel as “The Mother Ship” as a nod to their pioneering status. I, however, shall henceforth nickname this channel “The Ship of Mothers” as a wag of the finger to all the people who have mangled what I once loved. [Please note that I’m not referring to “women with children” type mothers.]

Sincerely,

Just Joe

PS  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!

*  This was my first attempt so please don’t give up on me. Obviously, I plan on improving with each entry!