• EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m always interested in this take. By definition,.it’s clearly a sport.

      How do you define sport and how does it not meet the definition? It’s a game of physical skill, mental concentration, and competition.

      • Kalothar@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I have always viewed it as a sport involves and active defensive player and an overall greater level of physical movement

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What about non-team sports, like running, cycling, surfing, skiing, etc. maybe there’s a defensive strategy but there’s no active defensive player. Are those also not sports?

          • Kalothar@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Interesting point, i know they are definitely sports so it kinda throws my point away haha

            • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Not really. They meet your qualifier of greater amount of physical activity/movement.

              Sport has connotations of fast paced physical activity.

              Games like Solitaire and Golf can be done by yourself and for most people won’t be spiking your heart levels to a runners high.

        • HenryWong327@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Motorsports have no defensive player and do not involve much physical movement (unless you count the car’s movement).

          Giving a cat a bath involves a defensive player (the cat) and significant physical movement (depends on the cat’s mood).

          • zeppo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Part of the definition of a sport is that it accomplishes absolutely nothing useful at all, other than entertainment, thought about it and perhaps fitness. Bathing a cat is not a sport because it actually has a useful goal, I.e. cleaning a cat.

            • HenryWong327@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              I would say that getting healthier and fitter is absolutely useful, and so is entertainment.

              But anyways, some sports can be useful for training purposes (Ever heard of the Firefighter Olympics? It’s really cool).

              Also there’s also stuff like people jogging/biking to go places, and sailing maybe can also fall into this category though I don’t think it’s a thing anymore. (IIRC in the 1700s there was a sort of sport where ships would race each other across the Atlantic to deliver stuff as fast as possible. Not sure though, take with grain of salt.)

              • frezik@midwest.social
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                1 year ago

                There’s still people who sail to get to a destination. It’s a bit of a rich person thing, though. Even without a motor, boats are holes in the water that you sink money into. More so if it has to be ocean-going.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Fishing has entered the chat.

          Definitely a defensive participant and an offensive participant, but way less physical activity like 90% of the time.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You haven’t played golf with me. Better watch your balls as you have your legs open to swing.

    • Godnroc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Where do you draw the line between sports and games? Are sports competitive where games are fun? Is poker a sport? Are video games capable of being sports? What could be done to golf that would make it a sport? Are all sports games if not all games are sports?

      These are the questions that keep me up at night.

      • Obi
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        1 year ago

        Not saying I hold this opinion myself but I think people that say this usually draw the line to physical exertion being required.

      • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        When I think of sport I think of anything where one sweats due to physical exertion.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Oh that just made him angry, I always added that no sport has the winner of a major tournament in their mid 40s.

          • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I mean… Tom Brady was a super bowl MVP in his 40s.

            Chris Chelios won a Stanley Cup in his 40s.

            But your point is well taken nonetheless.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            1 year ago

            Sports that are more based on endurance than sprinting tend to have older people who do well. Mid-40s is pushing it for championship level, but you can still be competitive at that stage, and still participate well into old age if you don’t have any major health/injury issues.

    • I actually get exhausted playing golf - but that’s because I’m BAD at it. Apparently I put too much force into my swing. Every time I’ve tried to play I get told to relax and “let the club to the work”.

      So they literally have these weighted sticks to reduce the amount of frickin effort required to hit the ball.

      It’s not a sport. It’s an ANTI-sport. The less you try the better you’ll be.

      Can you imagine if we had an Olympic running sport to see who the slowest runner was? That’s what golf is. Get the weakest, limpest, vitamin-defficient humans and see how accurately they can hit a tiny ball into a hole.

      It was invented by the Scots as a joke against the English while they all go and compete in proper sports like caber tossing and hammer throwing.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Or to keep it short, know that John Daly is one of the greats of the sport. Look up a picture of John Daly dated any time in the last 30 years, and you’ll know how hilarious that is.

        And people complain that Starcraft isn’t a sport.