Define "sport" for me

[thirddan]

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It's not merely lowest score wins. It's how you get the lowest. Sure, you can have the lowest score after 3 rounds, but that determines how you play on the 4th round to finish up the play. Let's say you have a 4 stroke lead, are you going to play the same aggressive style that gave you that lead? Probably not, you'll play more conservative to ensure you maintain your lead. If you play aggressive, you risk making a bad shot. Simlarly if you are down by several strokes, you can't play a conservative round. You need to make the more aggressive shot. Try to shoot over the hazard instead of laying up. Try to get on in 2 on a par 5 instead of 3. However, these aggressive moves will have risk and you either take the lead or drop several places. So, other golfers do affect how one plays their game.

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Too bad you weren't Jean Van de Velde's caddie at the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie. Blew a 3-stroke lead on the final hole. LOL at French golfers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dR1pkCGY80

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jeez, watching that is brutal...

[bisonbison]

Any game can be a sport if

A) it requires live human physical skill beyond just sustained concentration
B) the game ends with a winner/winning team

Things feel sportier when there are established teams/many rules/leagues/championships/etc. but I'm happy to say that this definition works for me.

Sports: football, bowling, billiards, darts, wife-carrying, drag racing, horse-racing, kite-fighting

Not sports: poker

Unfortunately, this still doesn't eliminate remote-controlled robot combat from the sports list.

[tarheeljks]

i think a sport is an activity that

a) has some sort of physical component that is integral to the sport that tests, also this physical component has to require a non trivial amount of physical exertion to perform. (i add the last part to exclude things like horseshoes or cornhole).


b) has an objective scoring system



-imo a) is what separates sports from games
- i include boxing despite b) b/c you can win by ko.

i don't see the need to reference the mental aspect b/c basically every game, sport or not, has a strategy.

i'm not sure how i feel about your point about defense. i assume that by citing defense you mean to exclude things like track, xc, etc. i don't think an active defender is necessary to classify something as a sport. for ex, in a race i think an opponent is a passive defender.

edit: there's some other stuff i didn't post but those are my most important guidelines

[kerowo]

I define it the way the Supreme Court defines porn; I know it when I see it.

It's subjective but breaks down like this:
Doesn't really involve motors. Usually involves sweating. Usually involves some kind of skill:
Sport:
Cycling
Skiing
Golf

Not Sport:
Chess
Anything called motor sports
Poker
Video games

[Quadstriker]

There was a radio personality in St. Louis who used to always say that for something to be a sport, it's gotta have a ball, and gotta have defense. Everything else was an athletic activity.

[Blarg]

Sport is what you encourage your kid to join so he learns early the importance of cheating.

[dylan's alias]

I have my own arbitrary division. If the crowd is forced to be quiet during play, it is not a sport. Golf and tennis fail to make the cut. Athletic activity is also a must. Games (like poker and chess) are not sports. Darts and billiards are. I can't exactly figure out what to do with motorized racing. I tend to lump them in to the broad category of "things I don't give a crap about."

[Tweety]

I think the third criteria eliminates a lot of things that have to be considered sports. For example, to say track and field isn't a sport is simply ludicrous.

I don't think of things like billiards, darts, and poker as sports, even though they're on ESPN. They're games, pure and simple.

A sport to me is a mostly physical, competitive event that requires some degree of athletic ability or hand-eye coordination.

[IlPug]

the definition as i was taught it;

'..is an activity that is competitive and requires some (as least 1) physical skill.'

seems like a solid definition to me FWIW.


EDIT: basically, what bison said.

[NT!]

sports are activities that are discussed in the sporting events forum. there's a definition for you.

now you: please PM me with an essay on the relative merits of the OOT sticky