Your "How's that a sport?" moments

[Gabanuka]

snip

Ridiculous it may look but dressage is hard as shit, the level of control you need is ridiculous.

Training horses is very hard and making them do what you want is part of the sport's challenge

 

[Fasckira]

it's scored on a completely objective basis, what you do has NO impact on what someone else does

To me sports are more about the direct competition. What I do changes how you play the game, and what you do changes how I play. You can keep me from winning, and I can make you lose.

That's actually a pretty good way of looking at it. Throw in the "must be a physical activity" and you've got a winner!

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Dunno...
Define sports?

It's like showing off your superiority over someone or something else for entertainment, right?
Like chess, fox hunting or racing?

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

Dressage is a ridiculous looking 'sport', it's basically a horse dance off, the horse with the most crazy horse moves wins. I remember turning it on during the olympics and was gobsmacked.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Boxing is not a sport? How the hell do you make the ridiculous logical leaps to arrive at a conclusion that silly? It's physically exhausting, competitive and requires a ridiculous amount of skill and smarts at the highest levels. My wife used to think it was just two people wailng away at each other until she started paying attention to slow motion replays and started to grasp the ridiculous precision and timing of top level boxers. It's one of the purest forms of sport in existence and is also a highly effective martial art to boot.

OT - My definition of a sport is pretty broad, usually I can accept that things are sports even if I don't completely understand it or it looks like it doesn't take much skill. I guess WWE doesn't count as a sport since out comes are predetermined. It's very athletically challenging but certainly isn't a sport any more than a choreographed movie fight scene.

 

[mitchell271]

Uh, baseball always seemed a bit ridiculous to me. You hit a ball from a spot and if it connect you run around in circles before the other team catches it... I dunno, it never clicked with me. It's really boring.

I was talking to one of my American friends when he came to visit once (I'm Canadian) and I decided to watch a hockey game. He said it was incredibly stupid because he couldn't see the puck. This is a guy that loves baseball. He can't see a black puck on white ice but he can follow a white ball in a blue and white sky.

OT: I don't understand dressage. To me, it's just the horse doing everything. I have friends that ride and apparently it's hard, but it seems pointless to me.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Pretty much when I read a news on here that a guy was banned in a Major league gaming tournament (video games before you ask).

I sorry but while I can understand any sports as it is as they require physical or mental trainings to be as fit he or she can be but to be in a paying sport league just by being very skillful in a video game?

Ok sure they must have done some training but pin them to any of the current sports players or athlete, I'm sure they will fail terribly at the physical side of an sport in general.

 

[robot slipper]

To me, a sport is something that athletes take part in, i.e. people who have physical skills such as strength, endurance, speed etc. Anything that just involves skill or precision without the need for physical exertion such as darts or chess is a game, and the people taking part are players, not athletes.

Dressage is a ridiculous looking 'sport', it's basically a horse dance off, the horse with the most crazy horse moves wins. I remember turning it on during the olympics and was gobsmacked.

I still can't understand dressage being defined as a sport, either. I mean, who is the athlete, the horse? But it's not even like the horse is doing anything that physical, just a bit of prancing. The rider is skilled at making the horse do stuff, but that doesn't mean he/she is an athlete, again just a player of a game. A silly horse-prancing game.

 

[the doom cannon]

Uh, baseball always seemed a bit ridiculous to me. You hit a ball from a spot and if it connect you run around in circles before the other team catches it... I dunno, it never clicked with me. It's really boring.

baseball is one of those sports that you really have to play to appreciate. I love it, and i played up until my second year in college.
Anyway, I was talking with some people in a game, and the topic of sports came up, and we went through listing what we enjoyed playing/watching. I particularly enjoy what are known as action sports, or extreme sports. I was met with: define please. So I said "you know, skiing, mountain biking, etc." And they responded with "how are those sports?"
As for me personally, I haven't figured out curling. It just seems so silly to me, all that sweeping and stuff. Well, maybe just the sweeping

 

[Vegosiux]

Boxing is not a sport? How the hell do you make the ridiculous logical leaps to arrive at a conclusion that silly? It's physically exhausting, competitive and requires a ridiculous amount of skill and smarts at the highest levels. My wife used to think it was just two people wailng away at each other until she started paying attention to slow motion replays and started to grasp the ridiculous precision and timing of top level boxers. It's one of the purest forms of sport in existence and is also a highly effective martial art to boot.

Yeah, sorry, no epiphany, I still disagree. Even after watching slow-motion (and I do a lot of that, because my job involves a lot of various sports and so-called-sports stuff), I still see nothing more than two people hitting each other until one is knocked out cold, and a crowd all but calling "FINISH HIM!". It's a display of violence in my eyes. (those things have their own painter tho)

I don't have a problem if you see it as "one of the purest forms of sport in existence". I don't. Hope you have no problem with that.

 

[Raikas]

Dressage is a ridiculous looking 'sport', it's basically a horse dance off, the horse with the most crazy horse moves wins. I remember turning it on during the olympics and was gobsmacked.

I still can't understand dressage being defined as a sport, either. I mean, who is the athlete, the horse? But it's not even like the horse is doing anything that physical, just a bit of prancing. The rider is skilled at making the horse do stuff, but that doesn't mean he/she is an athlete, again just a player of a game. A silly horse-prancing game.

I totally agree that dressage looks silly, but all the equestrian sports actually do take a lot of physical work in the part of the humans - part of them doing a good job of it is that it looks like they're just sitting there. You just have to watch a non-rider try to sit on anything other than a placid trail pony to know that there's more to it then sitting there and giving the horse directions.

I mean, there are a lot of sports that look ridiculous (for me that would be everything from cricket and baseball to rhythmic gymnastics and diving), but that doesn't make them any less of a sport.

 

[Oly J]

Curling (especially this one, and it somehow squirmed into the Olympics to boot)

staged wrestling

dressage

Careful there. Most of the WWE personnel are in much better shape than many pro athletes in other sports. Just because the match is scripted does not make the physicality of the match any less real. Getting dropped on your head from 12 feet up onto a mostly unyielding surface is not fakeable. Honestly, WWE performers have a more physically grueling schedule than any athlete alive (Doing a match 300 days out of the year, what other sport does that)?

I was waiting for someone to bring up pro wrestling so I could say pretty much that, I follow it but I still wouldn't strictly speaking call it a sport as I always took the word "Sport" to mean "physical competition" and technically speaking pro wrestling is not competition as the athletes are performing rather than competing, but I still have a huge amount of respect for anyone in that line of work

my "how is that a sport?" thing would probably be like many people pro gaming and esports

 

[Genocidicles]

Don't compare sitting on your ass moving little pieces to actual sports.

See how that works?

Ah yes, I should've mentioned I don't consider Chess a sport too.

Not every sport has to be physical.

They kind of do. It's in the definition of sports, which a couple of people have posted in this thread.

Still though, it's weird that with that definition Chess is still considered a sport.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Boxing is not a sport? How the hell do you make the ridiculous logical leaps to arrive at a conclusion that silly? It's physically exhausting, competitive and requires a ridiculous amount of skill and smarts at the highest levels. My wife used to think it was just two people wailng away at each other until she started paying attention to slow motion replays and started to grasp the ridiculous precision and timing of top level boxers. It's one of the purest forms of sport in existence and is also a highly effective martial art to boot.

Yeah, sorry, no epiphany, I still disagree. Even after watching slow-motion (and I do a lot of that, because my job involves a lot of various sports and so-called-sports stuff), I still see nothing more than two people hitting each other until one is knocked out cold, and a crowd all but calling "FINISH HIM!". It's a display of violence in my eyes. (those things have their own painter tho)

I don't have a problem if you see it as "one of the purest forms of sport in existence". I don't. Hope you have no problem with that.

No, I am not really bothered. I guess as long as you also believe that any other combat sport is not a sport you aren't being hypocritical either. IMHO any one on one combative sport is as pure as sport can be, fighting defines people and exposes their true natures. I also enjoy team sports but anything where a person can lose because of another person's mistake is always going to be lesser. If a boxer or MMA fighter loses the only place to lay the blame is with themselves, each fight is a culmination of their individual preparation and nothing else.

I guess it's similar to how I see doubles tennis, it's just not going to be as pure as one on one because winning or losing can be determined by something completely out of a person's control.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I get that with darts mostly. I mean, it's a fun, diverting little pub game but really? Really?

Racing. Not like track and field, I get that. I mean auto racing. I just don't get how that is actually a sport. A competition, sure. But a sport?

Dealing with the G-forces, mastering the use of your vehicle, being able to make split-second decisions at deadly speeds. Really, Formula-1 racers for instance have a better physical condition than most football players.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

That one shooting sport where first you have to run a track on skis. Um, the shooting is the important part right? How is shooting a sport and how does adding skis justify the shooting part?

 

[Alcamonic]

I think I will top all of your suggestions by saying Speed eating.
This is apparently a "serious" thing, words cannot describe how stupid I think it is.

Sure, one might argue that it is competitive and training and therefor automatically makes it a sport. But the hell!

 

[teebeeohh]

i don't have those moments.
chess is sports, starcraft is sports, bingo can be sports if you organize a proper league for it and explain how skill factors into winning.
i don't think sports the way most people use it is related to physical exertion any more, it's more about the meta aspect of it all.
and if you say starcraft is sitting on your ass eating cheetos just no. Most starcraft players who are successful for more than a year or two actually are quite physically fit because you need to do something to balance sitting in front of a a screen 10+ hours a day and you may need to play 5 40+min games in a row, that is both physically and mentally taxing and you are much better at dealing with this if you have a certain level of fitness.

my issue is with Olympic sports, why is all the horse shit Olympic? being German it's kinda nice to see our people grab medals there every time but it's boring as fuck and favours rich countries even more than most sports.

That one shooting sport where first you have to run a track on skis. Um, the shooting is the important part right? How is shooting a sport and how does adding skis justify the shooting part?

the thing has its roots in military exercise for snowy weather. it combines different skills, which is always nice because it shakes up people skiing around a track for 30min. it's also something Germany is really good at(this is a trend, take a random sports we are ok at, let's say skiing, and add a military element and BAM we own that shit).

and how is shooting not a sport? it involves skill, physical fitness and is good to watch because it's easy to see who is winning.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Poker on some sports channels. I mean, I love the game but... Man... How is that a sport?

 

[Nickolai77]

Snip

No wonder you don't consider THAT a sport.
Never seen a pattern done so bad, except by new beginner.


Now this however, is done properly. and trust me, you are completely exhausted after half a minute.
Takes precision, concentration, definite skill and a whole lot more

Please do watch the whole video.


OT:
E-sports.

Very impressive video- i'd say it's about as much as a sport as much as dancing is. Take that as you will.