Breaking down what is or is not considered a Sport in the modern definition.
Breaking down what is or is not considered a Sport in the modern definition.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi and welcome back to story time with Uncle Kevin. This past week, I was reading an article about ‘Britain’s newest sports prodigy’. A 16 year old darts champion called Luke Littler. Words such as athlete and sportsperson were sprinkled liberally throughout the article. It reminded me of a video where former World Snooker Champion, Stephen Hendry called the 147 break by fellow World Champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan in 5 minutes and 8 seconds, the ‘greatest thing I’ve ever seen in any sport’. Now, I have to be honest and say that I personally don’t consider darts and snooker to be sports. This isn’t anything to do with appearances, it would probably fall under body shaming for me to say anything like that and I would advise everyone against those kinds of thoughts. They have no place in a modern, progressive society. But it has to do with the physical skills involved. So why are some things sports and other things not? Today I’ll have a look at some contentious sports and give my opinion on what a sport is.
So first of all: what IS a sport. So, according to various sources, a sport is:
So, when we look at the first of the criteria, which is that it must be a HUMAN activity, then we can look at things like pigeon racing and greyhound racing and say that these are, by definition, not sports. This is because humans do not perform the activity. There are some dog sports, where humans are involved in the exertion, such as ‘disc dog’ where humans throw frisbees for their dogs. In this situation, because human skill and exertion are involved, these would be sports. Sheep dog trials, though, may not because humans really are just handlers and the dog does all the work. Fishing and falconry would also be sports that involve animals, but the skill and exertion is on the part of the human. Ethical issues of hooking fish aside, which I do not agree with because I’m against suffering for enjoyment, it’s a sport by definition. Other animal sports, such as horse racing are, unlike the aforementioned greyhound racing, sports because of the huge physical exertions and the training required by the jockeys.
But what about these sports such as darts or snooker? Why is darts considered a sport but hiking isn’t? Why is firing balls into net pockets a sport, but canyoning isn’t? Well, first of all, let’s examine what physical skills are. There are 10 physical skills, some physiological adaptations, some neurological adaptations. They are
Strength, Speed, Power, Endurance, Stamina, Balance, Accuracy, Agility, Flexibility and Co-ordination. So where does a sport like darts fit into this? Well, endurance is definitely required. In a match, typically lasting up to 40 minutes, the arm is held up and extended multiple times. This will require localised muscular endurance of the muscles involved in performing the action. As for a sport where you are aiming at a target, it goes without saying that accuracy is involved. Also there is co-ordination. So, we can see very clearly that it requires physical skill. What of hiking, then, which is NOT a sport. Well, it involves endurance for sure, balance as one navigates across terrain and that in itself also involves co-ordination. So, since both have physical skills, we have to look to other criteria.
Darts has a set of rules and hiking doesn’t. So we can exclude hiking and include darts as we work down the list.
So, what about activities we perform in a competitive sense with machines? If the criteria we have is human exertion, if a machine is doing the work, then surely it’s not a sport, right? I mean in formula one, the humans aren’t running round the track at 200 miles an hour. For example, in the 1908 Olympics, motor boating made a singular appearance. But the consensus was it’s not a sport . Since then, no motor sports have been included in the Olympics. But inclusion or exclusion from the Olympics does not make a sport. Just ask wrestlers, since the 2013 decision to remove it from the Olympics, it hasn’t ceased to be a sport. Regarding motorsports, just ask any motocross rider if it involves physical effort. Just like horse racing, it does and IS a sport. However, any purely motorised sport such as drone racing is NOT a sport.
Which of course, brings me to the biggest question (for me at least), which is: Are Esports really sports? I have to be honest that I raised an eyebrow when I saw Esports were included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. For anyone listening who isn’t familiar with the Commonwealth Games, they are a quadrennial sporting event among athletes from the Commonwealth, which is mainly territories of the Former British Empire. So, at the moment it is 72 nations and 280 events. When asked why she was including esports in the Commonwealth Games in 2022, the president of the Federation representing the Games said she ‘hoped including esports in the official program would boost interest from young people less interested in traditional sports’. Sorry, but to me this is backwards. You don’t make something into a sport because you are crap at marketing your event. Next time what? It won’t be on TV, just live streamed on tik tok because that is where the future audiences are?
If sheepdog trials aren’t a sport because the human isn’t doing enough work, then esports aren’t. Waggling a joystick about while sitting in a comfy chair is NOT a physical exertion. Apart from maybe endurance being involved in your thumbs, there are no physical skills involved. No speed, no strength, no power, no agility, no balance. NADA. We don’t have to work down the list to see if it meets other criteria because it falls at the first hurdle. Operating a virtual character in a virtual world is not physically demanding. The only time this would change would be in a far future where we could upload a human mind INTO a virtual environment and therefore we fall under the idea that digital events are real events in digital worlds. But digital events are not real events in non digital worlds, as is the way things stand just now.
Esports: GET IN THE BIN.
As always, if you are struggling for ideas to get fitter and more healthy, I would generally advise against taking up a sport. This is because very few sports cover all the 10 physical skills I listed out earlier. For optimal health, we should look to training as many of those skills as possible. The narrower we cast our net, the less we can capture in terms of physical improvements. Over here in Scotland, many because the infrastructure is already there due to the National obsession with, in spite of lack of talent for soccer, the government runs lots of soccer programs for health. This includes walking soccer for older populations.
Whilst it’s admirable to have something older people can access, walking soccer doesn’t really push the envelope with physical skill. In a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario, no one is using very much. No speed, no power, no strength. I mean what DOES walking soccer do physically? Endurance- yes. Accuracy-yes. Co-ordination- yes. But the main hallmarks of aging are loss of muscle mass and bone mineral density. These won’t be addressed by walking about booting a ball. All sports, perhaps with the exception of those that involve a multidisciplinary approach are going to be super limited in terms of a broad base. To something sport based that approaches optimum skill development you’d need to be doing heptathlon, decathlon or dare I say it: CrossFit.
So, as always, a well rounded training program is always going to be better for broad based health approaches to fitness and longevity than starting a sport.
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Get-Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to the team at Quick and Dirty Tips Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, Kamryn Lacey, and our new Director of Podcasts, Brennan Goetschius. I’m your host, Kevin Don. If you have a question for me, leave me a voicemail at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at
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