There is a lot of confusion and even bigotry around the definition of "sport," which is one of those words that tend to evoke a lot of passion. I encounter it regularly in writing about cue sports.
The word "sport" derives from "disport," which as a noun means "diversion, amusement, play."
The Oxford Dictionary is the culprit in promulgating much misunderstanding, in my view, defining "sport" as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment." (Emphasis mine.) Exertion? Don't care for it.
I would define a "sport" as "a contest involving physical skill for the entertainment of the participants or spectators." That last bit is left out of a lot of definitions.
Simon said yesterday in the Comments that "it's surely not a sport if you don't get out of breath." That's one factor that speaks to "exertion" and weighs heavily in some peoples' conception. But I guess that disqualifies Formula 1 racing, target shooting, and archery, and golf if you use a cart or are in shape, right?
What are some of the other common beliefs around what constitutes a "sport"?
- Has to get you out of breath
- Has to involve physical skill or coordination
- Has to require or display physical strength
- Has to be a contest
- Has to entertain an audience
- Has to take place outdoors
- Has to be something you can bet on
- Has to require physical conditioning
Are all of these requirements met by every sport? I don't think so. Professional basketball takes place exclusively indoors, for example. There goes that criterion.
The unofficial official definition
Wikipedia tells us in its article on "Sport" that "The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, athletics, cycling, tennis, equestrian sports, and more), and is therefore the de facto representative of international sport.
"SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:
- have an element of competition
- be in no way harmful to any living creature
- not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
- not rely on any "luck" element specifically designed into the sport.
"They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics), primarily mind (such as chess or Go), predominantly motorised (such as Formula 1 or powerboating), primarily co-ordination (such as billiard sports), or primarily animal-supported (such as equestrian sport)."
SportAccord admits a limited number of "mind sports," including chess (which at the highest level is physically exhausting and in many cases rewards physical conditioning) but is not open to admitting any more. So everything from the ancient Chinese game of mah-Jongg to video games need not apply. Other authorities recognize "eSports" (video games). But no exertion there!
SportAccord's "in no way harmful" clause disqualifies hunting and fishing. It would seem to also disqualify boxing and MMA, because those are harmful to living creatures. Max Baer (a boxer and the father of "Jethro" on The Beverly Hillbillies), Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, and Sugar Ray Robinson all killed people in the ring, never mind Evander Holyfield's ear. One study determined that an average of 13 people per year have died in boxing matches since 1890. I distinctly remember reading a quote that I have never been able to find again, reportedly written by a British sportswriter: "The only natural sports are running and fighting. All the rest are contrived." (The Internet is terrible at quotes. It's one of the things it's worst at. There is no custom of attribution or citation, and a great deal of noise.) But the SportAccord definition disagrees. We should add that there are borderline cases even here; Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was killed by a pitch in a baseball game in 1920. Pretty sure that doesn't mean baseball isn't a sport.
Is pool a sport?
The border between sports and games is porous, shifting, and vague. Personally I'd consider cue sports to be in the DMZ between a sport and a game. It's a game because it requires a lot of strategy and knowledge to play well; and it's a sport because it requires a great deal of physical coordination. Of course, to the average observer, most of the strategy is invisible, and a lot of the physical skill is invisible too. One aspect of the physical skill that's crucial is that you have to strike the cue ball exactly in the right spot to get it to behave how you want it to; but that is impossible to see directly. The only way you can tell how well the ball was struck is by seeing what the cue ball does and, to a lesser extent, what the object ball does. And most casual observers have no idea how to judge this. It's as if they can't even quite see the game at all when they watch it. But we can't say that non-exertion activities have to have a strong element of strategy or gamesmanship, because what about darts?
It's a thorny thicket, and we have to be a little respectful of the complexities of the various definitions. If curling is a sport, why isn't shuffleboard? If bowling is a sport, why isn't boules?
Basketball
The greatest, most quintessential sport of all might be basketball. Think of it. It requires great skill and coordination and athleticism, yet also a high degree of strategy, gamesmanship, and instantaneous adjustment. It requires team sport cooperation and also rewards individual flair and skill. It can require delicacy, touch, and finesse, yet also demands strength, physical prowess, and a tremendous level of conditioning.
The only thing wrong with basketball is the structure of the game. The endings, if the game is very close, don't seem to go well. It would be better just to eject anyone who committed a foul in the last 75 seconds, which would put a high premium on not committing one of the fouls that routinely interrupt play at the ending of games. And there is only one ending. The way to "fix" basketball in my opinion would be to make it "best three out of five" 15-minute periods, with each period being one point. So a blowout would feature three endings and last only 45 minutes, whereas a close game would last for an hour and 15 minutes and feature five endings.
But I'm just thinking out loud here.
Anyway, I definitely consider cue sports to be sports. If you don't, that's fine—be that way!
Mike
Book o' the Week
Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. A very brief, illustrated overview of the life of America's 16th President suitable for young people.
This book link is a portal to Amazon.
B&H
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Dave Levingston: "Funny this should come up today. I enter photos in the French PHOTO magazine contest every year. I almost always 'win' in that they publish one of my entries in the magazine. This year I had one entry that did not seem to fit any category. So just left the category blank. That's the photo that won. And they picked a category to put it in: 'Sport'
"Here's the photo...go figure...."
Richard Parkin: "All definitions are doomed! However, my view is that the activity should be 'sporting' which rules out most of the activities you’ve mentioned. In snooker, how is it 'sporting' to pot all the balls while you opponent sits glumly at the ringside? ;-) . Among the spectator 'sports' cricket possibly qualifies but not much else. Of the activities you mention I think fishing, by which I assume you mean angling, is sporting and it often causes little harm to the fish if they are returned to the water as is often the case."
Mike replies: You can "break and run out" in pool, in which case your opponent does not get a turn and can "sit glumly" etc. But never in the history of snooker has there been a single break-and-runout. The reason is that each frame necessarily starts out with a safety battle. So while the winner of each frame breaks off in the next frame, the opponent gets a chance at least once per frame to get in amongst the balls. It really is a beautiful game, in its game-like, strategic aspects—much better than any of the many pool games, none of which are as well designed.
By the way, the best game for beginners is not "stripes and solids." It's Simpson's Any-8, invented by Tom Simpson. Flip for break, and if the breaker makes one he keeps shooting at any ball on the table until he misses. The first one to eight wins. If the cue ball is pocketed, it is spotted on the center spot and the opposing player takes over, but all pocketed balls stay down.
It's a much easier game except in one respect: the players have to keep track of the score! That's why 8-ball is preferred, because score is automatic—just look at the balls remaining on the table. Any-8 is also very easy to handicap: if one player is consistently better, then just allow the weaker player to win on fewer balls. For example, I have to pocket eight balls, you only have to pocket six.
schralp: "An acquaintance who liked to send catchy postcards once sent me one with a cartoon drawing of two beer-bellied fellows in a John boat with unattended fishing lines in the water as they reclined and consumed malt beverages. The caption was one asking the other: 'If fishing is a sport, does that make us athletes?' Actually, I believe it was spelled athaletes…. ;-) "
Mike replies: In Wisconsin there were semi-regular reports of hunters sitting in blinds up in trees until they got so drunk that they fell to the ground and hurt themselves.
T S Moore: "Basketball, baseball, etc. are games because they have officials who enforce agreed upon rules and there are multiple individuals on the team that contribute and cooperate. Fishing and hunting are examples of sports. The efforts of the individual are the only determining factor in the outcome. There are no officials enforcing the rules. Also the individual may choose more restrictive rules than other participants."
Yonatan Katznelson: "ESPN regularly televises the National Spelling Bee...if you can watch it on ESPN, then it's a sport."
Barry Reid: "Surely the 'in no way harms…' part also pretty much rules out equestrian sports? In particular, but not limited to, jump racing, as so many horses have been put down as a result of falls."
Gert-Jan: "The word sportsmanship also comes to mind: fairness, respect, graciousness in winning or losing. I kind of like the SportAccord definition, but what I still miss is the notion of awareness and fairness. That all involved know they are part of it, and have an equal chance of winning. Hunting and fishing would also not qualify as sport because the animal is not there by choice and has no chance of winning. Winning by killing does not show a lot of respect for the victim.
With regard to getting hurt by a baseball, I would read 'in no way harmful' as 'the goal is not to harm.' Accidents can always happen, and some sports are more dangerous or rougher than others. I see that Merriam-Webster defines a game as 'a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other,' and sport as 'a source of diversion.' Playing a game can be a sport, and a sport may also be a game...."
Luke: "My wife sent me to kart racing school as a birthday gift. After three days of racing, for only a few hours per day, I was plenty tired and sore. It's a real workout. These karts probably never went over 70mph, but that's fast when your butt is an inch off the ground. It's by far the most fun I've had on four wheels, at least in the front seat. Sport, indeed."
Mike replies: Several people replied that Formula 1 is arduous and physically demanding, but I never said it wasn't. I merely said it doesn't get you out of breath, which I don't believe it does; it's not anaerobic exercise.
By the way, didn't Aryton Senna believe that kart racing was the purest form of motor racing?
jeremy thomason: "This is quite a rabbit hole you have enticed me down. Some thoughts that popped into my head: Game fishing is a sport. Traditional field sports, covered by Field Sports magazine, are hunting, shooting, and fishing, none of which appear as field sports in the Olympics. Cricket is a sport but each match is a game. Sportsmanship is seen as something to aspire to while gamesmanship is seen in a more negative light. You personally can be a 'good sport' but not a 'good game.' Though games can be good. The sport known as football is often called the beautiful game. The Olympic Games are all sports. The Sporting Life newspaper in the UK covered mostly horse racing, while the similarly named magazine in the US covered trap shooting and baseball. And my favourite tongue in cheek quote from the Guardian 2011: 'sport is what the servants watch on the TV, game is what we shoot.' Sport and game are clearly synonyms; they are often differentiated but that depends on the linguistic/cultural context."
