Sport -v- Game

Rocker

Following on from the Olympic sports discussion, how do you define sport or game? As I see it, golf is a game as is snooker, darts, cards, chess etc. Whereas athletics, football, swimming, boxing etc are sports. Agree??

JohnnyPlectrum

Apparently there are only 3 sports, motor racing, bullfighting and mountain climbing. Anything else is a game...

lloyd

I think anything that requires physical effort to do that you would be at a disadvantage if your arms or legs stopped working can be considered a sport-so golf, darts and snooker are sports to me.

Games on the flip side are pursuits that someone with zero physical capabilities can compete at a level paying field with any able bodied person-cards, chess, backgammon etc.

Sporky

The one I heard is that if you train for it it's sport, if you just practice it's a game.

sev112

Games come in boxes ?

EricTheWeary

I have a definition that works for me, although nobody else so far. A sport has to be interactive, a game turn taking. So football, snooker, chess, boxing - sports. Darts, shot put, javelin - games. So, I'd be okay with Monopoly replacing the high jump at the Olympics. 

holnrew

EricTheWeary said:

I have a definition that works for me, although nobody else so far. A sport has to be interactive, a game turn taking. So football, snooker, chess, boxing - sports. Darts, shot put, javelin - games. So, I'd be okay with Monopoly replacing the high jump at the Olympics. 

By that definition how is chess a sport?

lloyd

holnrew said:

EricTheWeary said:

I have a definition that works for me, although nobody else so far. A sport has to be interactive, a game turn taking. So football, snooker, chess, boxing - sports. Darts, shot put, javelin - games. So, I'd be okay with Monopoly replacing the high jump at the Olympics. 

By that definition how is chess a sport?

And snooker.

scrumhalf

I read one definition that said it's a sport of your practice requires you to do things other than the sport itself.

EricTheWeary

Chess and snooker might be borderline as they are turn taking but your turn depends on what the other person did. In darts or shot put or dressage how the other person did ( apart from possibly psychologically) makes no difference to your turn ( well, in darts they could have reached 501 first). 

I'm not saying I've given this a lot of thought, more that I think darts, long jump, ten pin bowling are lousy spectator sports. 

Iamnobody

I class both snooker and darts as a sport. They require a physical technique...to that end golf as well.

Cards and chess don't rely on a stable stance and hand to eye coordination; so for me they lack any physical technique that fits my definition of sport.

paul_c2

For me, its simply due to definitions. Clearly, "sport" is a word used to define the whole aspect of a particular sport, for example "the sport of football" encompasses far more than "a game of football". Football (the sport) encompasses much structure including grounds, teams, training sessions, players, officials, a governing body etc where a game of football is a competitive meeting of two teams with rules (the rules of the game) - different things, really.

And you can have sports which are non-competitive, ie recreational. Many kids do gymnastics and trampolining and they're doing the same stuff if they never go to competitions, as their mates who might go to a low-level competition do.

I think to be classed as a sport, it needs to be a physical activity and have some element of physical skill and betterment. For example, snooker could be classed as a sport because although it doesn't require much strength or stamina, there is still a physical skill. Similarly, darts and shooting are sports. But chess, bridge, poker aren't sports.

Parachuting? Its obviously a physical skill (of some kind), but I'm not sure it meets the "betterment" criteria so its marginal. Tandem parachuting is even more marginal - while in theory one could do lots of tandem jumps then do a solo jump, and be better than a newbie (ie never done it, does a solo jump for the first time), also that betterment might go the other way and frighten the life out of you etc.

fretmeister

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34537024

Bridge is not a sport. 

ennspek

If you can play it in flip flops it's a game.

digitalscream

ennspek said:

If you can play it in flip flops it's a game.

Boxing? Could easily be done in flip flops, but I'm not entirely sure you'd ever tell a boxer he was just playing a game.

dano

Is Chess Boxing a sport or game then ?

ennspek

digitalscream said:

ennspek said:

If you can play it in flip flops it's a game.

Boxing? Could easily be done in flip flops, but I'm not entirely sure you'd ever tell a boxer he was just playing a game.

To be fair the boxerin the flip flops would be at a severe disadvantage I would have thought.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm ace at tiddlywinks.

100 percent sport. My fingers have biceps.

hungrymark

digitalscream said:

ennspek said:

If you can play it in flip flops it's a game.

Boxing? Could easily be done in flip flops, but I'm not entirely sure you'd ever tell a boxer he was just playing a game.

Seriously? I mean, you could do it in flip flops, but you'd get pummeled. 

Sporky

digitalscream said:

ennspek said:

If you can play it in flip flops it's a game.

Boxing? Could easily be done in flip flops, but I'm not entirely sure you'd ever tell a boxer he was just playing a game.

I think that has more to do with boxers than flip-flops.

I wouldn't tell a tiger it had lost at bagatelle, fer instance.

Grunfeld

Chess seem borderline.  It has elements which seem characteristic of sport:
-- like sport, at élite level you have to train for it; practice alone is not sufficient.
-- there is no element of chance in it; it's all skill.  Whereas games often include chance and randomness to add interest.

But....
It looks like a game because of the lack of physical activity.

If physical activity and mental activity were seen as equal then chess seems to be a sport.  If sweat and a jock strap and a Welsh PE master are necessary then chess probably doesn't cut it.