Work debate

[Aeromyth]

After reading some of the responses here, I now consider drinking to be a sport.

Should BG start its own International Beer Pong League?

[Pyree]

Did I read this correctly? Trading card games are a sport but gymnastics isn't?

I think it's time for you to scratch your definition and start over.

[Remyo]

fencing has a scoring system using a vest that has a sensor over the heart of each fencer. you score by poking the sensor. I think its first one to X amount of pokes.

It's just personal opinion, I don't like wrestling either college competitive or fake/pro wrestling on TV. Juiced up men wearing next to nothing or wrapped in tight spandex and getting all sweaty and groping each other and grabbing each others crotches to try and mount the other dude I just think is gay, pardon my use of terminology.

well the aim isn't to grab the other guys crotch...
Though I guess some people are not as secure, or just outright homophobic. But those kinds of things happen in other sports too, I guess football, basketball, rugby, soccer, etc. are all gay too because the guys touch each other sometimes? hell in football one guy puts his hands in the other guys "no-no" spot for a few seconds just about every down, and then there's tackling that should open up a huge can of worms for people with insecurities.

[archibaldcrane]

I define a sport as a game that meets the following criteria.

A.) Requires athleticism.

Chess, card games, board games, video game competitions, etc. do not apply.

B.) Involves -direct and active- competition between competitors.

This is the sticking point for most people. When I say direct and active, I don't mean "turn based". This eliminates a ton of things that many others consider sports. For instance, in golf - you try to shoot the lowest score possible. In bowling, you try to score the highest score possible. In racing, you try to run/bike/swim the course in as short a time as possible. These are individual pursuits, independent of an opponent, and therefore while often requiring extreme athleticism, are not "sporting" in my mind. Frequent to constant changes of action depending on what your opponent does in a real-time scenario is "sporting" to me.

The other important thing here is this: Just because something is or is not a sport, doesn't make it more or less valuable. Golf, track and field, bowling, and chess are all perfectly fine ways to spend your time, and not being sports doesn't make them not valuable in any way. I find them all more valuable than women's field hockey.

There's a big hole in your argument about racing. You're describing time-trial style races, but those are often the exception, not the norm. And if you're competing in a time-trial against others where the best time determines the winner then, ipso facto, there is direct competition between participants regardless of if they are spaced out or directly clumped together on the racing course.

In time-trial style racing, your objective (complete as quickly as you can) does not change based on how quickly your opponent completes a race, or if it does, it's a negative (i.e. well, he didn't complete it very fast, so I don't have to do it to the best of my ability, only better than his). It just doesn't strike me as sporting.

As far as racecar drivers go, while I acknowledge that driving a car at 185 for 500 laps is physically difficult, I wouldn't describe it as athletic. I feel like there are not holes in this definition.

Archery and sharpshooting fail both the athletic and direct competition criteria - martial arts and fencing succeed at both.

[Khamsin]

In time-trial style racing, your objective (complete as quickly as you can) does not change based on how quickly your opponent completes a race, or if it does, it's a negative (i.e. well, he didn't complete it very fast, so I don't have to do it to the best of my ability, only better than his). It just doesn't strike me as sporting.

Although, in some situations, it is a positive influence (i.e. well, he completed it very fast, so I have to do it to the best of my ability, and push myself to be even better than I would have been had I not had his time to compare with). In those cases, it is very sporting.

[Huggo]

Please don't call surfing a sport since that would technically make me a jock.

[Remyo]

whats wrong with that?

anyhow unless you compete in surfing that doesn't make your surfing a sport.

[Roranora]

Poker = sport

[Elesirdur]

Poker = sport

I love sports where I get drunk and lose my money.

Same goes for beer-league softball, heh.

[Charla]

Poker = sport

I love sports where I get drunk and lose my money.

So does fishing count too?

[MikedeeFenrir]

Poker = sport

I love sports where I get drunk and lose my money.

Same goes for beer-league softball, heh.

Poker is not a sport it's a hobby. If you're sitting down to 'play a sport' it's not a sport > >

Beer league softball is a way of life.

[Foof]

Poker is not a sport it's a hobby. If you're sitting down to 'play a sport' it's not a sport > >

http://paralympic.nortia.org/Images/...ketball_01.jpg

[Khamsin]

Simplest way to end the debate is just to consult a dictionary. Afterall, why define words if we're not going to abide by them?

Here is the official definition of sport in the English language, which we should all adhere to.

Main Entry: sport
Function: noun

1 a : a source of diversion : RECREATION b : sexual play c (1) : physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in
2 a : PLEASANTRY, JEST b : often mean-spirited jesting : MOCKERY, DERISION
3 a : something tossed or driven about in or as if in play b : LAUGHINGSTOCK
4 a : SPORTSMAN b : a person considered with respect to living up to the ideals of sportsmanship <a good sport> <a poor sport> c : a companionable person
5 : an individual exhibiting a sudden deviation from type beyond the normal limits of individual variation usually as a result of mutation especially of somatic tissue
6 : Sportacus, a pedophile appearing on the children's television program LazyTown