POOL - Game or sport?

[jjinfla]

This question has been asked many times. Many compare pool with golf; others compare it with Chess.

I now personally consider pool nothing more than a game. One that takes thinking and skill, but a game nonetheless.

When playing pool it is customary for the athletes/contestants to drink and smoke while at the table. Show me a sport where the athletes smoke and drink while competing.

Jake

 

[THE SILENCER]

pool is a game. but baseball is a game. think of this example. a person walks into someones house. the baseball GAME notice the word game, no one says baseball sport, they say baseball game, or i'm gonna eatch the game. well, anyhow, back to my story, the person walks into a house the person sitting in the chair is watching baseball, and ther person that walked into the house ask's "how's the GAME. there that's proof that baseball is a game as well, although, people sweat and that could be a sport. i hope pool is considered a game and not a sport. i say this because all games are for brilliant people and all sports are for stupid people. think about it. sports has yelling sweating, and loud very loud announcers who sound as if they completed kindrgaten and thats all. football baseball basketball, etc. etc. now think of games, these are all brain things, and the announcers are quiet and brilliant. golf british snooker, scrable, etc. etc. listen to steve davis, you could tell he's well educated and groomed in the world, and not some loud mouth schmuck. pool? a game a brilliant game!

 

[JPB]

I say sport. Because pool is physical no matter how you define it. As Fancher correctly pointed out, the mental game is physical. Yes there is knowledge required, but you have to execute physically. OTOH, I have played poker with a full quadriplegic. He has a rack for his cards so he can see them and you can't. He has people handle the cards and make bets. He can play the GAME. He could not play pool. That particular guy used to compete in shooting events. Trap and skeet involve physical precision. They are sports and he can't do them anymore. He could play chess though.

Whether you can smoke or drink while playing isn't the criterion. Baseball would be in trouble by that definition. ;-)

I guess you can call it a game if you want. The sport/game distinction is never-ending. I just don't think extreme physical exertion is the test. It is a game of physical skill and precision. I think it is much more a sport than figure skating, which is an artistic display requiring great physical exertion and training, but is not a sport IMO.

So I guess I define a sport as an objective competition (rules out figure skating or other events where style is subjectively judged) involving physical skills of various sorts. (Rules out poker and chess)

 

[amateur]

It's a sport alright. The Eurotour pool tournaments forbid drinking and cigarettes. Plus there's a doping control.

 

[Rickw]

I think it's a fine line, but to me, pool is a sport because physical skill is required. Physical skill is not required for chess or cards. You have to have good hand-eye coordination to play pool at a high level.

 

[Jimmy M.]

Pool has all of the defining characteristics of a sport except for the fan following. All of the fans that you see at a tournament are pool players themselves. However, that doesn't negate pool as a sport. Pool cannot be considered a game like chess or poker, because, with the right knowledge, anyone could play the game at the highest level. For example, I know nothing about Chess, but if Kasparov was sitting behind me, telling me what to do, I could play the game as well as him. It takes no physical skill to move the pieces. However, assuming he does not already play pool at my level, I could stand next to him and tell him what to do, but he could not play at my level. Smoking and drinking are not "customary" activities while playing pool. They are customary activities while at a bar, and if that bar has a pool table, then the people playing there will most likely be smoking and/or drinking. However, at the professional level it is not customary to smoke and drink while playing. There are those who do smoke and drink, but that is an individual decision, not a custom. Professional golfers don't smoke during tournaments because the PGA doesn't allow it. Years ago, however, they would smoke. Arnold Palmer would smoke during rounds. He'd set his cigarette on the grass, hit his ball, pick it back up and start walking. I have a picture of Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan standing on the tee box, both with cigarette in hand, waiting to tee off.

The argument for pool being a sport is much stronger than the argument for it being a game, however, even some book stores (such as Borders) will stick pool books over in the games section (next to chess and poker books), but they'll stick fly fishing, archery, and skeet shooting books over in the sport section.

 

[Williebetmore]

I have no clue whether pool is a sport or a game (it certainly has elements of both) - but at least it doesn't have judges. Nothing could be worse than watching the Filipino judges always give Efren a 9.9 for every hanger he makes. Marcus Chamat could be dominant once he figures out how to bribe the French judges. Maybe it should be a gambling game - the guy that walks away with the money wins.

 

[sniper]

It's a tough one, it depends how one would define a sport or a game. Pretty much everyone would have a different definition of a sport/game, hence the different opinions in this thread.

 

[Jimmy M.]

It's a tough one, it depends how one would define a sport or a game. Pretty much everyone would have a different definition of a sport/game, hence the different opinions in this thread.

Many sports ARE games. Nobody disputes whether or not the "game of basketball" is a sport. Nobody disputes whether or not the "game of baseball" is a sport, and so on and so forth. What is funny is that nobody disputes whether or not shooting a ferocious forest animal, such as a deer, from a mile away with a high-powered rifle is a "sport", but many people find it hard to swallow that pool is a sport.

 

[fast larry]

Pool has been a major sport since the 1880's, Billiards a century before that. The only game to require more mental concentration than pool is chess, I play both well. Golf wilts in comparison to both pool and chess on the mental requirements of the game.