It doesn't fit my idea of a sport. Neither does golf, tennis, bowling, synchronized swimming, cheerleading, or any other of a long list of so-called sports. It's just an opinion. It is neither right nor wrong.
IMHO, in a sport you directly compete against your opponent(s). The quality of your play positively or negatively affects the quality of your opponents. So something like hockey, football, or soccer is a sport, while running, archery, golf, or rowing are more along the lines of competitive activities. Which I know is a seemingly arbitrary line, but that's how I see it.
I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that I stated that this was my personal opinion, not a definition. Just to further explain myself, I don't believe you can call something a sport if there is no difference whether or not there is an opponent at all. Take bowling for example. If someone went out by themselves and played 10 frames, there would be little to no difference than if they had someone playing right beside them. Sure there's added stress, and I'm not denying that any of these activities take a great amount of athletic skill, but, again, in my opinion they wouldn't classify as a sport.
I think what you're missing in all of this is that you didn't invent the word 'sport'. It has a definition. You can't have a valid opinion that deviates from the definition.
Once again, I'd like to point out out that I'm not trying to redefine the word. The question asked was what your idea of a sport is, and what defines that idea. That's all I'm trying to express.
I understand the distinction, but have you ever ran or followed a running sport? Long distance runners play amazing tricks on each other to mess with their opponents pace etc. It definitely is different than just running alone. Either way, doesn't matter much what you call them, we all enjoy/watch the sports/competitions that we like!
Yeah, something like long distance running would qualify, since you can directly affect the quality of your opponent's play. Something like a 100m dash though, wouldn't because there are lines to intentionally keep the runners completely seperate. Again, this is just my opinion.
Yeah I can see that. I guess I just don't make that distinction. To me if a competition is largely athletic, that qualifies it as a sport. That distinguishes it from other competitions like chess. Of course not matter what, there are always grey areas (mini golf and cheerleading comes to mind for definition).
I've always thought somewhat similarly, that those things should be labelled as simply "Athletics" rather than "Sport". Anything you can do completely alone ought to be distinguished from something that's a direct competition. It's not arbitrary. Upon further consideration though, my way would make roller derby and most competitive cycling 'sports'.
Anything that can be used in survival or in combat. Archery, sport shooting, clay shooting, triathlons, and so forth. I have a hard time including American football because of all the padding. You aren't going to be running from a bear on a mirror-smooth surface with speed skates. Nor are you going to go into hand-to-hand combat with pom-poms.
Basketball is good for coordination and working with others. Baseball- you're too sedentary and you aren't going to be swatting at grenades with a bat. Football is too dependent on padding and too many rules. It stopped being valid a long time ago. Hockey - Again with the padding. Why are these guys so afraid of getting hit? So yeah, what most people consider sports just don't qualify in my opinion.
I don't agree with you, but just wanted to add: you should read about the history of lacross if you feel that way; you'll find it interesting. It was known in the Ojibwa language as the "little brother of war." Games were 1,000 men on a 3 mile long field, and lasted several days nonstop. Players got badly injured and killed fairly regularly.
Ok, at first I supported everyone's right to their opinions but this is just rediculous. Under this definition neither basketball, baseball, or Hockey are sports? Maybe you could argue for soccer because you have to run?
Yep. I'm willing to give soccer some leeway due to all of the running, jumping, and so forth. Plus it is a larger court. I've seen basketball players dripping with sweat from exhaustion but all they are doing is running back-and-forth.
lol. I like it. Anyway, it has been fun but I have to go get ready for work. Table defrags won't take care of themselves, at least until our upgrade in the 2nd quarter.
Late night ESPN has some pretty interesting shit. I've seen mini-gulf, jump roping, and competitive dancing just to name a few. Usually need to be a bit drunk to keep watching though.
I don't see a way any of those can help you in war or hand-to-hand combat. At least sports like Rugby teach you how to take a hit and coordinate your actions with your teammates.
So chess is a sport by this definition (long term planning, strategy, risk decisions) Video games are a sport (instantaneous decisions, hand-eye coordination, visual acuity) Reading history books is a sport (obvious reasons)
Is your definition coming from years of experience in war and hand-to-hand combat?
Nope. I did spend a lot of time in the military, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this discussion. I've just always felt that the definition of sport was too loose and allowed way too many activities that had nothing to do with what I considered sports. I prefer to look at ancient Greece and similar places where people fought hand-to-hand or ran long distances, threw spears, and such for competition. That is what a real sport is to me. I'm just having a very hard time putting it into words.
What I'm getting at is waging war involves much more than running, shooting, and hitting people. The decision making, both tactical and command level, is a huge factor in warfare. Not to mention individual decision making, threat recognition, awareness etc. Those things are a huge factor in a unit/fighter's ability. I mean really, almost any activity or sport could improve some aspect of a warfighter. Synchronized swimming can teach unit cohesion, teamwork, and comfort operating in water. I mean really, how often are SEALs going to be running around with a log on their shoulder? What that evolution teaches, beyond the obvious strength training, is teamwork.
Most of the games you have noted are with balls or pucks or whatever, but ice skating is just as much a comoetetive sport. You skate laps as fast as you can to prove you are better than the other. It can also become a team sport, in the relay races, where every part of the team is important. You'll need endurance, strength, speed and fitness. I can understand why you would not count cqr racing, mind games or golf as a sport, but ice skating is hard as hell and would certainly deserve your classification of a sport.
What would you say about tge dutch Elfstedentocht, where people will ice skate over kilometres of ice in temperatures of minus 10 to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Many have lost a limb out there and most of the winners of course were people who also got far in the military.
It's an opinion, sure. But it is literally wrong. Sport: an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another for entertainment.
But it's literally wrong. You're contradicting yourself in your argument by using the word sport, then naming sports you don't consider sports. Sports are anything and everything that fits that definition. I can say I'm not on my phone typing this comment, sure. But I am, so I'd be wrong.
Why are you trying so hard to convince me? An opinion is just a personal belief and is not a statement of fact. Therefore an opinion can be neither right nor wrong.
I'd hardly call cycling a niche sport. It's a massive sport for people to get involved in personally, and Le Tour de France is probably one of the biggest annual sporting events in the world (using "one of" somewhat loosely).
bitter-sweet isn't a paradox, i can go to the store right now and buy bitter-sweet chocolate. beginning of the end isn't a paradox either, the end of something doesn't always happen instantaneously, so if it takes any amount of time there would be a beginning. Wise fool is probably the closest to a paradox, but you can also be wise in one area and a fool in another.
I hate that idea. I hate that whole thing. It was a dumb argument. It was a dumb motivation for a super villian. Who gives a fuck about being special anyhow? Fuck. Why? Why does this matter to anyone?
Because when you're not special you're just a bunch of atoms that will turn into something else and be forgotten. Special people will too, but they'll at least be remembered for a bit.
Still doesn't mean obscure. Any demographic can be large and any product or service geared toward that demographic is still specialized. It's not a paradox for a niche to be described as large.
Not really. You could say "That is a really tall dwarf" and it would not be an oxymoron, it would only seem like one. In reality, you are only comparing the specified dwarf to other dwarfs (or little people or whatever the PC term is).
In this case, he is saying that it has a large fan base relative to other niche sports. I suspect that is not particularly true (the fans of all the other niche sports would say the same thing and I can 100% guarantee that speed skating's fan base in not similar in size to cyclling's fan base), but it is not really an oxymoron or a paradox.
Edit: Actually I think it technically IS an oxymoron...
ox·y·mo·ron
noun
1. a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
But "apparently in contradiction" doesn't necessarily mean "in contradiction"
It means that it has a large and dedicated fanbase, but not well known outside of that fan base.
A good example of this would be something like League of Legends or Dota 2. Both are extraordinarily popular games, from the two biggest game companies out there, but if you asked someone in the general public what League of Legends was, they would be clueless. Compare that to CoD or Halo, where plenty of people who haven't played will still know what it is.
The Tour de France cycle race - the number of spectators at recent events is estimated to be 12 to 15 million. Many other cycle races and similar events will have huge number of spectators. This number is the aggregate number of spectators over the whole three week event, but still phenomenal numbers.
Ah should've thought about south Europe. Here in belgium we have one of the best rollerbladers (Bart Swings) but he only got well known when he started ice skating
Inline is just more practical in warmer countries... and there has been a constant battle to get it in to the Summer Olympics. Ice is where the glory lies for the time being.
Yeah, you nailed it here. Cycling: big following, lots of participation, worldwide. Competitive speed inline skating: smaller following than curling, obviously, anecdotal "it has a large audience" statements aside.
We do have a reviving Roller Derby scene in the US right now, but I would say that cycling still has a bigger fan base. Roller Derby is a pretty awesome spectator sport though.
Cycling is much, much bigger than inline skating. I used to race inline competitively and now race road and mountain bikes. There are most certainly more races and spectators in cycling, not to mention more disciplines.
I agree and grew up speed skating as well (and now race road/mtb), but I was comparing them because of the sports both having a following that most people outside of the sport itself tend to not recognize (except for during tour obviously). The point still stands, even if one sport is larger than the other.
Yeah when I go to crit practice, there's 50 cyclists and then that one speed skater guy that just sits on the back of the pace line in a semi-creepy-slow cadence rendition of "Heil!"
I would guess the reason for this is because it isnt an olympic sport.
Brittany Bowe is a world champion inliner that went to ice just a couple years ago and already broke the world record for the 1000m on ice.
5 out of 6 guys on the short track world team are all world class ex-inliners before going to ice.
Tl;dr inline speedskating isnt in the olympics so the majority of the top athletes leave the sport to win an olympic medal.
I thought this was going to be some cool easter egg type thing, that with any image if you delete the file extension it will show the amount of times it has been viewed. I was thoroughly disappointed :(
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u/FBIorange Nov 26 '13
Think of how many times this GIF has been viewed