Sports that shouldn't be called sports

gutenberg

There is a piece in the Guardian today (link) about which sports should and shouldn't be called sports - with arguments against judo, triple jump, lifesaving, Formula 1 & football (). What do people think?

Personally I would say darts & snooker are not sports; I would probably also agree with Formula 1 actually. Anything that requires a subjective score from judges also ventures more into artistic territory, though some kinds of gymnastics, diving etc. are clearly very physically demanding and should be sports.

Thoughts?

One More Toy

Twerking

Dial Hard

Yup, darts and snooker.

Any "sport" you can play while drinking and having a fag is not worthy of the title.

osarusan

First person to post the Hemingway quote is a loser!

WWE isn't a sport as the results are determined in advance.



That article isn't meant to be taken all that seriously anyway I'm sure.

Ant695

I tend to think things that can be put off by a bit of rain and I don't mean torrential 2 foot of water on the ground kind of rain but its starting to drizzle everyone inside get the covers out are very loosely sports. Half the fun when I was younger anyways was getting destroyed sliding about the place playing football, rugby etc... and the rain just made it even better.

kirving

Formula 1 drivers can lose up to 3kg in bodyweight through sweat during a race, so have to be in incredibly good shape. Definitely as physically demanding as soccer, plenty of other sports too.

Brian from Bray

Definitely Darts

SeanF

Horse Racing is not a sport. It's horses running around a big field, and you have to guess which one does it the quickest. In fact, without gambling, horse racing doesn't exist.

uch

Dial Hard wrote: »

Yup, darts and snooker.

Any "sport" you can play while drinking and having a fag is not worthy of the title.

Thats every sport except swimming

Pherekydes

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Formula 1 drivers can lose up to 3kg in bodyweight through sweat during a race, so have to be in incredibly good shape. Definitely as physically demanding as soccer, plenty of other sports too.

Serving tables is demanding.

Driving doesn't require any athleticism. It's not a sport. Golf doesn't, either.

Notes that the Triple Jump has become the 'hop, skip and jump'. /twitches

jamesbere

Curling, no way in hell can firing a few stones while brushing ice be called a sport

ancapailldorcha

Golf. In my experience it's just an excuse for posh twats to peacock themselves around each other.

Hammer89

Darts is a sport; the same way archery is a sport. It gets a bad rep but, actually, there's an enormous amount of skill involved. Imagine throwing a dart at a target similar to a cigarette filter, from eight feet away.

obriendj

I think the columnist argument against Judo is quite weak. granted she won and got to beat up the school bully but all sports played by kids should be classified as games.

I would think the counter arguement for Formula 1 is that they drivers have to be physically very fit and need alot of skill, and know how of tactics etc. Seems quite sporty to me.

Has golf been mentioned?

Mantis Toboggan

Dial Hard wrote: »

Yup, darts and snooker.

Any "sport" you can play while drinking and having a fag is not worthy of the title.

So golf isn't a sport?

Pat Mustard

This is what yer wan wrote about Judo:

Any sport that can be enacted by a spherical 11-year-old girl purely as an act of revenge is, clearly, not a sport. There is nothing sporting about whaling into a person’s body fat like a spade. There was absolutely no technical aspect to my grabbing, heaving and, ultimately, crunching into poor, delinquent Michael. I didn’t even break a sweat – surely the base measure of any codified form of exercise.

So... Judo is not a sport because the journalist was not very good at it as a child. Makes no sense whatsoever but then again, this sort of delusion is nothing new from the Guardian.

mahoganygas

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Formula 1 drivers can lose up to 3kg in bodyweight through sweat during a race, so have to be in incredibly good shape. Definitely as physically demanding as soccer, plenty of other sports too.

The G forces they undergo are incredible. A lot of a F1 drivers develop weird triangle shaped muscles which jut out from the side of their elbow.
Savage reflexes are required to be successful.

They said that at his peak, Michael Schumacher was one of the fittest athletes in the world. This gave him the edge over his rivals.
I've never seen a fat F1 driver. Plenty of fat darts players though.

I get that team orders took away from the 'sport' but it's still an incredibly competitive profession. I'd definitely consider it a sport.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

osarusan wrote: »

First person to post the Hemingway quote is a loser!

WWE isn't a sport as the results are determined in advance.

in fairness, it doesn't claim to be.

for me, horse racing.

jimgoose

Weird-beard Guardian hack types who are still smarting over never being picked for anything in school running down various activities they know nothing about is definitely more of a game than a sport. :pac:

MightyMandarin

That's honestly one of the dumbest articles I've ever read.

If the triple jump is just 'a hop, skip and jump' then it should be easy to reach >18m. The same goes for football and F1; sure anyone could dribble past half a dozen players and score a goal like Messi, or drive a car at ~300km/h.

It's also easy to point at Darts or Snooker, or even Chess and say 'that's not a sport' but I guarantee you the person saying that has never hit a 180 in their life and would get demolished by any reasonable Snooker or Chess player.

All of these activities are sports and should be seen as such, and anyone who tries to talk them down like that is just jealous of the fact they could never do the things darts players or footballers could do.

danganabu

I think both the author, I use the term lightly, and a number of the posters here need to look at the definition of a sport before commenting.

gutenberg

Interesting though that collectively, sports like judo etc. are called 'martial arts', rather than sports

I don't disagree with people arguing that snooker, darts etc. requires a huge amount of skill, I've no doubt it does. I just wonder if it's a sport as opposed to a game.

mahoganygas

Where does a sport start and a hobby end?

GavRedKing

I think if you're not being active in what your doing it isnt a sport.

Things like snooker/pool, darts, chess, cards, yes you can be a professional at them but they're not, IMO sports, they're games.

To suggest F1 isnt a sport is absurd.

Th0mas Shelby

My psychic powers see a lot of arguments coming between the "rugby is the only real sport" type and the golf/badminton/formula 1/judo/darts/snooker/horse racing supporters who will back their sports to the hilt.

Is it reasonable to suggest that sports are competitive physical activities? And yes, I would include the likes of Golf, Snooker, Formula 1 as being physical. I really can't understand an argument that proposes otherwise.

osarusan

Pat Mustard wrote: »

This is what yer wan wrote about Judo:



So... Judo is not a sport because the journalist was not very good at it as a child. Makes no sense whatsoever but then again, this sort of delusion is nothing new from the Guardian.

I'm pretty sure it's just an attempt at humour.

mahoganygas

Th0mas Shelby wrote: »

Is it reasonable to suggest that sports are competitive physical activities? And yes, I would include the likes of Golf, Snooker, Formula 1 as being physical. I really can't understand an argument that proposes otherwise.

Does that include pillow fighting?

Cee-Jay-Cee

The article is a load of ****e written by someone who very clearly is inactive and was simply rubbish at whatever sports they tried as a kid.

In saying that soccer isn't a sport, it's just a bunch of pansies running around a bit field after a ball. How can anyone class that as a sport...ffs!!

Th0mas Shelby

mahoganygas wrote: »

Does that include pillow fighting?

If somebody brought rules, referees etc into this activity, then yes, I don't think I could argue with that! Pretty similar to boxing, save for the use of a pillow instead of a pair of gloves!!

jamesbere

We should all be thankful that beach volleyball is a sport and gives much entertainment during the Olympics

GLaDOS

If it involves some sort of physical skill to excel at I consider it a sport. The likes of darts, snooker and golf, while not very active, still require hand-eye co-ordination and judgement of power to play effectively.

Chess is considered a sport in some circles (I believe the Olympic committee recognise it?) but I can't consider it a sport myself.

somesoldiers

Thoughts on fly fishing lads? My dad is always giving out because it is not recognised as a sport by whoever decides in Ireland and so he had to pay his own air fare to represent Ireland in the World Championships in Colorado last month.

Personally I think fly fishing should qualify given the amount of skill involved but then again there is a fine line between fishing and just standing by the river with a stick in your hand

If golf is in, darts and snooker are in. Similarly if darts and snooker are out, golf should be out.

There is little in the line of athletic ability for any of them, they are based almost entirely on accuracy.

SEPT 23 1989

You could drink and smoke in most sports before the PC thugs took over

MightyMandarin

Deleted User wrote: »

If golf is in, darts and snooker are in. Similarly if darts and snooker are out, golf should be out.

There is little in the line of athletic ability for any of them, they are based almost entirely on accuracy.

Archery is based on accuracy and is an olympic sport, as is shooting and biathlon in winter olympics.

Darts and Snooker are absolutely sports.

somesoldiers

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

You could drink and smoke in most sports before the PC thugs took over

will Jiminez be allowed spark up a cigar at the Olympics?

DEFTLEFTHAND

Britain give special legal starts to sports. Darts was recognised in 2005, and it's status switched from 'pastime' to 'sport'.

The BDO and WDF who consider themselves the official governing bodies of the world game had been lobbying Westminster for recognition for years.

DEFTLEFTHAND

somesoldiers wrote: »

will Jiminez be allowed spark up a cigar at the Olympics?

It's like his trademark at this stage, there's a good few cigarette smokers on the European tour also as anyone who has been to an event as a spectator can attest to. They're cute about not getting caught on camera with one though.

Sever Tomorrow

Pherekydes wrote: »

Serving tables is demanding.

Driving doesn't require any athleticism. It's not a sport. Golf doesn't, either.

Notes that the Triple Jump has become the 'hop, skip and jump'. /twitches

The drivers so a lot of intense work in the gym. It's obviously a prerequisite for the races and the whole season in general. Have you ever seen an F1 driver in anything but good shape? If it didn't require athleticism you might see a few of them looking like Phil Taylor alright.

castletownman

I always defined sport as any physical activity that requires not only years of practice to perfect, but also requires one to learn the necessary skills needed for the given sport (as much as having a god-given talent).

Which what irks me about those "militant" runners that get so much slack for their seriousness. Running must be the one sport where you a born with the capability to run (everyone is) and probably requires much less actual time-consumption to perfect. Just have a look at any toddler that has learned to walk- they tend to run far more often than they walk once they get confident.

Now while I respect the merits of any sport, and have taken on board advice from serial joggers to improve my overall health, I genuinely believe running is probably the easiest to "master" (and costs far less in terms of equipment etc.), and that hitting a 180 in darts,or a mid-sized break in snooker, or achieving a sub ten handicap in golf takes far more harvesting of talent and "man hours" so to speak (to use just three sports that get flack for not being actual sports as examples)

The Randy Riverbeast

That list is complete bull****. There are some activities which I find their status questionable such as chess or the rise of esports but I still think they are capable of being played competitively. It comes across as if something has to be called a sport before doing it at a competitive level is taken seriously.

donegaLroad

clay pigeon shooting



As regards snooker & darts..

If you dont have to change your shoes to play it, it shouldn't be called a sport

Pat Mustard

osarusan wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's just an attempt at humour.

Whatever they're doing, it's not working.

MightyMandarin

donegaLroad wrote: »

clay pigeon shooting



As regards snooker & darts..

If you dont have to change your shoes to play it, it shouldn't be called a sport

I'm wearing my Asics runners right now.

Athletics mustn't be a sport, I guess.

donegal.

chess is the only sport thats not a sport.

Ruu

Don't think it happens anymore but any sport where you can a smoke or drink break!

cowboyBuilder

Golf ... a joke that this "sport" is called skillfull and compared to tennis, when a 60 year old fat pile of sh*t can win a Grand Slam let me know ....

Fluorescence

Can't believe nobody's mentioned esports! While I can respect the level of skill involved in most pro-gaming activities, I hesitate to calling em sports!

DEFTLEFTHAND

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

Golf ... a joke that this "sport" is called skillfull and compared to tennis, when a 60 year old fat pile of sh*t can win a Grand Slam let me know ....

What 60 year old fat pile of **** has won a golf Major?

Firefox11

Fluorescence wrote: »

Can't believe nobody's mentioned esports! While I can respect the level of skill involved in most pro-gaming activities, I hesitate to calling em sports!

I was just thinking the same. But I'm sure millions of South Koreans would probably disagree with me. They love there "esports" so they do.

Benicetomonty

In defence of golf, the world's top ten players contain some extremely athletic people. Look at Jason Day or Mcilroy and their fitness levels.

Id further argue that to be dominant in golf you have to be able to hit the ball a long way and a lot of up and coming players are hitting the gym pretty hard as a result.