Will
PeteFiled under: Lists | Tags: basketball, drinking game, event, flowchart, football, list, pseudo-sport, soccer, sport, true sport
Blame my obsessive need to categorize everything.
What started as a lazy Sunday at Applebee’s eventually turned into an entire day of sketching and doodling on the back of a few seating charts. And the best thing about working at a restaurant is a steady stream of people with a steady stream of differing opinions.
The topic today is “What is a Real Sport?” What is it that fundamentally separates a classic sport like Soccer from NASCAR? Or Water Polo from Skeet Shooting? Most people can agree that defining everything as a “sport” tends to do a disservice to the ones that actually deserve it. Therefore, I’ve attempted to break everything up into a sort of hierarchy. The result is the product of countless debates had with friends and co-workers. Debates that turned into arguments that turned into personal attacks that turned into burnt bridges.
Thank you Philosophy classes!
A few clarifications:
- In the majority of arguments, people cite effort, skill, coordination, or simple passion as factors that make a sport a sport. I agree that real sports do require all of these, but they are not what defines them. It takes shear physical prowess to climb Mt. Everest, and it takes incredible coordination to do flips off my trampoline in the backyard, but these do not make them sports.
- Events such as Speed Walking, in which your full potential is purposefully inhibited, are pseudo-events. I would have fit in a question for it if I had room.
- Dictionary and encyclopedia definitions of sports are too broad. I won’t use them, but you are welcome to if you really want to define Scrabble as a sport.
Think of this as a work in progress. The more feedback I get, the more accurate we can make it. So leave a comment, and let us know what’s on your mind!
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