A (hopefully) more analytical approach re: Is pool a sport?

Bob Jewett said:
Here's an interesting article on the question by a guy who does sports and words for a living....

www.forbes.com

What Defines A "Sport"?

What is the definition of a sport to you? Does golf count? Poker? Curling? This article examines the parameters of what truly defines a a sport and how our traditional definition of the word maybe on the cusp of change.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
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Taken from the end of that article that sums up everything perfectly:
--"The degree that a televised entertainment qualifies as a sport may affect the drawing power and viewership of that activity. What qualifies as a true sport may be the grist for endless arguments, and the only certainty may be in the eye of the beholder."

What I got a chuckle out of in that article is that he argues based on the Oxford definition that fishing is sport but doesn't consider hunting a sport. I'm baffled at how it's different and I personally consider both a sport. Not between huntsmen or fisherman, but rather a contest between the hunter and prey. Of course the prey would most likely win if they knew that they'd entered a life or death competition...lol
 
The_JV said:
Nah.... spinning of definitions to suit an narrative.

A buddy and I could stand still in a squat position for days/months on end. This would build muscle, train the mind, and develop an ability/skill. Is this somehow a sport...? If we do this activity for 8hrs hours a day, does mean those durations are games, but the efforts over the course of the month are a sport.

ridiculous...
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If you were actually training and gaining expertise and skill in squatting and you were competing with others who can squat the longest, then yes you made a sport. When you set a certain time that you start and finish this squatting competition, that would be your Game Of Squats. And I actually like that name, The Game Of Squats. I can make a nice box with a logo and everything with some smiling 20 somethings squatting. We may also have set a record for using the word squat in a single discussion.
 
Clusterbuster said:
At least by tradition, “sport” involves a contest which emphasizes physical performance and gross motor skills. ThIs is why most people won‘t look on tiddlywinks or speed chess as a sport. The notion of a game can apply to either a sport or non-sport activity. Those playing “a game of baseball” are engaged in the sport of baseball but it doesn’t follow that those involved in a game of Monopoly are involved in the “sport” of Monopoly. If sport is as broad as you suggest the term would lose any practical meaning.
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I don't think it loses meaning, there are active sports and non-active sports. It's just a good way to divide just causal play vs training and competing at something. You can still say that skiing is a sport even if you suck at it, or it's a game because it's just something you do as a way to sit and drink hot chocolate and look at the pretty mountains. I don't like saying "this can't be a sport because of this or that" despite the fact that the activity takes skill and practice to do. Is a group of 50 yr olds at the park huffing and puffing around a softball field running slower than 10 yr olds and hitting the ball 50 feet playing a sport or a game? Is the fact that it involves more movement make even a casual poorly done activity a sport or is it the fact you are competing with someone make it a sport?

I think the main issue is not what we call something but what we think of it when we call it that. Calling something a sport vs a game somehow gives it more stature and credibility, but why? It's because that is what we learned and grew up with. If a game of pool is as prestigious as the sport of baseball then what it's called does not matter. That is the ONLY reason anyone cares what is caled what, and that is why I think the pool and anything else that someone dedicates time and effort to do and competes at can be called a sport, due to the prestige and gravitas that comes with that word. The dads at your barbeque in the yard playing touch football are playing a game, the NFL plays a sport. It depends on how one approaches the activity that makes the difference, not just what the activity is.

What is wrong with this definition "Sport: an activity that involves skill, practice and competition with others" as opposed to whatever it is now with physical strength added to it? You can't even put pure physical strength into is since not all sports require great strength or agility, and not all activities labeled as sports need both.
 
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I'm envisioning a competitive sport thinking league. Nothing but people staring at each other trying to blow up each other's head.
 
hang-the-9 said:
I don't think it loses meaning, there are active sports and non-active sports. It's just a good way to divide just causal play vs training and competing at something. You can still say that skiing is a sport even if you suck at it, or it's a game because it's just something you do as a way to sit and drink hot chocolate and look at the pretty mountains. I don't like saying "this can't be a sport because of this or that" despite the fact that the activity takes skill and practice to do. Is a group of 50 yr olds at the park huffing and puffing around a softball field running slower than 10 yr olds and hitting the ball 50 feet playing a sport or a game? Is the fact that it involves more movement make even a casual poorly done activity a sport or is it the fact you are competing with someone make it a sport?

I think the main issue is not what we call something but what we think of it when we call it that. Calling something a sport vs a game somehow gives it more stature and credibility, but why? It's because that is what we learned and grew up with. If a game of pool is as prestigious as the sport of baseball then what it's called does not matter. That is the ONLY reason anyone cares what is caled what, and that is why I think the pool and anything else that someone dedicates time and effort to do and competes at can be called a sport, due to the prestige and gravitas that comes with that word. The dads at your barbeque in the yard playing touch football are playing a game, the NFL plays a sport. It depends on how one approaches the activity that makes the difference, not just what the activity is.

What is wrong with this definition "Sport: an activity that involves skill, practice and competition with others" as opposed to whatever it is now with physical strength added to it? You can't even put pure physical strength into is since not all sports require great strength or agility, and not all activities labeled as sports need both.
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These are all good points but I do think that the definition of anything, including sport, can become so broad and elastic that meaning is lost. You and some others have raised the issue, for example, of active and non-active sports. It seems to me if you have “non-active sports” the label really does begin to include things like the “sport thinking league” mentioned above. Where does it stop? Reading could a non-active sport. I’m not suggesting you’d argue that but the door is opened. I think that surely sport has to include an emphasis on physical activity and particularly large muscle groups or gross motor skills to avoid the tiddlywinks and knitting examples that have been raised earlier.

You, and some others, have raised the issue of the intent of the participants (e.g., Dads playing touch in the backyard v. the NFL) and that’s a fair point. With the Dads in the yard there is no genuine or sincere element of serious competition, it’s mainly just a bunch of guys horsing around but I’ll concede when you start talking about intent, sincerity, etc. such terms themselves lead to ambiguity and argument.

At the end of the day, if you want to avoid the concept of sport becoming all encompassing, there have to be some kind of criteria, even if they’re broad and rely to a large degree on tradition. The problem with pool is that there is no strong tradition on the sport/game distinction.

Maybe the best it gets is to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when he wrestled with the concept of obscenity. He said, “I can’t define it but I know it when I see it.”
 
hang-the-9 said:
If you were actually training and gaining expertise and skill in squatting and you were competing with others who can squat the longest, then yes you made a sport. When you set a certain time that you start and finish this squatting competition, that would be your Game Of Squats. And I actually like that name, The Game Of Squats. I can make a nice box with a logo and everything with some smiling 20 somethings squatting. We may also have set a record for using the word squat in a single discussion.
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Everything you said means squat!!!😁
 
There is no clear concensus on the definition of a "sport". Without that, there isn't much sense in debating whether pool, or golf, or auto racing is or isn't one.

People have for decades been trying to get their favorite games accepted as sports because much of society values athletic talent over intellectual dexterity.

Again, my opinion is purely a function of how I define game vs sport...but no, pool is not a sport. I also don't want it to be.
 
Woodshaft said:
No, but I, as many people do, consider golf a sport. Same principal/objective, but pool is played indoors.
Thanks for asking though, it means a lot to me.
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I do not consider golf a sport. My point is (and always has been) that however YOU define a sport, be consistent. Hot dog eating meets the definition you laid out earlier. And you’re welcome!
 
What's the difference. Whether you call an activity a sport or a game it still is what it is.

Better to argue about something important. Like how many angels can fit on the point of a pin. Or whether God can make a rock so big that God couldn't lift it. Or, particularly germane in these challenging times, which came first, the chicken or the egg.
 
KissedOut said:
What's the difference. Whether you call an activity a sport or a game it still is what it is.

Better to argue about something important. Like how many angels can fit on the point of a pin. Or whether God can make a rock so big that God couldn't lift it. Or, particularly germane in these challenging times, which came first, the chicken or the egg.
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10,000, no, and egg.

Maybe they're called the Olympic GAMES for a reason. :devilish::poop::cool:
 
Pool as a sport? Why not if the following can be...
Play TiddlyWinks by yourself is a past time. Play it in competition, it's a sport.
Set up 6 cups evenly in a row play it as a 'Boz'os Grand prize Game'.
Place 2 cups at each end of a rectangle field. Raise the cup's on an upturned glass, Basket-Ball Winks.
___
___
___
(insert your Tiddly sport game)
 
Without reading all the valuable insights of the entire thread yet (due to time constraints) I'll just throw some .2 ¢ . Years ago I ran across a very nice classification provided by an English source. It was very well written. The only thing I remembered from there is that darts, pool, backgammon and so on - these belong to games category. Games as opposed to sport. And I'm very fine with that. Also I don't buy a theory that as long as there is a competition, this given activity deserves to be called a sport. There could be dozens of crazy competitions, like shopping cart races and longest spit contest, but that is far from sport :)
 
You have to run at some point for me to consider something a sport, if not it’s a skill.


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Do they sell cues at a sporting goods store? Bass pro doesn't but Academy Sports does.

They sell fishing equipment so obviously fishing is a sport.
 
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