Sports bar discussions regularly include debates comparing one activity to another and which event is better. Somewhere in the conversation, someone tries to through in a curve ball and include an activity that changes the debate to whether or not the event is a “true” sport vs an entertainment event.
I’ve began what will be considered the
- Bill of Sports Rights
. Your comments can be used to submit amendments to the Bill of Sports Right pending review of the committee. If your amendment is approved, I’ll include reference to your blog site.
Keep in mind as you read the rules below, ones percieved athleticism is not valid criteria as we’re not talking about the person or team, we’re talking about the activity/event. While athleticism, training and fitness are admirable; those traits define the person not the event.
There are a couple traits that a sport must posses in order to qualify as a sport.
- The event must include a physical element that challenges the person to be at a certain level of fitness in order to realistically compete.
- A certain amount of technique/skill level must be apparent in order to separate a novice from an expert.
- There should be a component to the event which enables an opponent to challenge the other from completing a desired goal.
- The winner/scoring mechanism must be objective.
- The winner must be decided as a result of human powered activities.
- Things that detract/disqualify from the possibilites of being a sport:
- sub.1 Bicycling requires extreme endurance abilities to complete all the stages of The Tour de France
- sub.2 Football includes mixes of strength and speed in order to be competitive.
– sub.1 A valid pitch is required to pass through a predefined area of space
– sub.2 Ping pong includes spin on the ball to exaggerate the path of the ball
– sub.1 A field goal can be blocked
– sub.2 The path of a pitch can be altered to give misdirection
– sub.1 True the requirements of a double flip in gymnastics are defined, but the range of variation in voting results lend that scoring is not absolute. With a scoring range between 7 & 9 among 5 judges, who’s right, who’s wrong?
– sub.2 A place kicker scores a point when the ball moves between and above the polls of a goal post
- sub.1 Enibriation “adds” to the experience or even enables higher scoring
- sub.2 Any performance which scores points for appearance or style
- sub.3 If anyone has ever successfully competed at the highest level while wearing a custome
- sub.4 Adendum 1/23/2007 – Anytime the activity/event can also be described as “art”… automatically disqualified as a sport.
Races (some) are considered sports. Swimmers can draft or prevent some from drafting. Distance runners struggle with break away tactics. Skiing is all challenged by the clock as if the contestants are on the course at the same time.
