Sport or game

sport vs. game

  • Total voters
    204
cmsmith9 said:
I can't believe pool players think it's a game. How could anyone categorize this with monopoly and poker is beyond me. I've been arguing this with a meathead football player I work with, for years. It may not be as athletically intensive as football or baseball, but with the hand eye coordination, endurance and mental game, it's still a sport. I'll call it a finesse sport if anything.


Christian
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Then masterbation is a sport? ;)
 
When I do it, it is. I am so out of shape, I am out of breath when I am done.

Christian
 
I believe pool is a sport and a game - like baseball. Most things that are games and not sports require little movement but with pool, one has to walk move constantly. Also, it requires great endurance, perception, coordination, and other physical abilities that make it a sport. There doesn't have to be an immediate opponent, like football, to make something a sport. Fishing is considered a sport. Running is considered a sport. Biking is considered a sport. Golf is considered a sport. Even racing is considered a sport. Why not pool.
 
bobroberts said:
Pleas don't take offence to this but it can be played well in a wheelchair against non-handicapped people.Its a game, a hard one and not a board game like monoply or scrabble but nevertheless a game.
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Define well..., Yes they can play some good pool, however I haven't heard of any wheelchair players finishing high up in major pro tournaments. With that in mind, you can play some good basketball from a wheelchair as well.

There is no definition that indicates a necessary level of exertion required to define an activity as a sport. Furthermore many definitions are a little fuzzy as far as whether or not any physical prowese is required.

That said, I believe the word sport traditionally refers to the competitive nature of the activity rather than the activity itself.

I am not very concerned whether or not billiards is defined as a sport, it's not as though it give the game any extra meaning, money or excitment.
 
Game

A sport is some thing you can make a living at. That makes pool a game. I think I'm going to swich to poker full time, now thats a sport.:thumbup:
 
bobroberts said:
I have stated I believe that pool is a game not a sport.I know the mental challenges and the hours of practice.You have the same thing with poker and chess.In pool as othe games there are no real physical challenges like in baseball,basketball even swimming. What are your opinions?
Remember no opinion is wrong!!
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Try to draw the rock three rails up and down the table and tell me there is no physical challenge.

Try to draw the ball precisely six inches with $20,000 in the balance and tell me there is no physical challenge?

Try to stay up all day playing tough match after tough match and having to be mentally sharp and physically capable and say that it's just a game.

Pool played for purely recreational purposes is a game. Played competitively it's a sport.

However to make a further distinction between a non-physical game and a physical one.

A person with high intelligence and a very good vocabulary who has never once in their life played Scrabble can beat the Scrabble world champion who knows all the words and where to play them.

But neither the the smartest person in the world nor the world's best athlete will have any chance in hell of beating an APA 5 in a race to five in pool IF they have NEVER played before.
 
JustPlay said:
Pool is a game with very little physical movement. Throwing darts has hand eye coordination just like pool, but its not a sport. I consider a sport a full body, physical activity, which the entire body or its motions working to its fullest capacity to complete a task. Golf, when driving the ball off the tee must use a full body motion when swinging the club. Although I consider Golf the lesser of physical activities.

Wheelchair players play basketball, race in marathons and play pocket billiards. Which of the three would you consider the most physically challenging?

The only reason this is most likely being debated is that alot of people would like to see pocket billiards apart of the olympics. I don't. However, I would like to see snooker apart of the olympics for various reasons. For pool, there are just too many questions and debates and no real standards.....For Snooker, there is just Snooker!!
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Huh????

Ever see competitive Shooting in the Olympics? There is even less movement there than in pool.

If you don't think that the whole body and mind is working on every shot then you obviously don't have ANY experience with high level under-pressure competition. What kind of self control do you think it takes to keep your body from moving when you are playing a critical shot?

And you don't want to see pool but you do want to see Snooker and yet your argument that pool is not a sport is due to lack of movement? Um, have you compared how much pool players move when they shoot compared to snooker players?

Pool players have to use a tapered stick to propel a small ball into another small ball into a small target and they have to do this dozens and hundreds of times to win a match. Billiard players have to propel a ball around a table and make it make contact with two other balls and three rails without the slightest degree of miscalculation or the shot will fail. Snooker players have to do the same a pool players but with smaller balls on tougher pockets.

I mean seriously!!! How can anyone not see that pool is a sport. Try being on your feet for 30 hours playing $1000 sets and bringing your best game WITHOUT chemical aid?

I was a competitive springboard diver. That is a whole body sport. It's also one that you are not interacting with the other players. It's you, the diving board, and your mental and physical ability. In pool you have all that along with teh fact that there is someone trying to alter what you can do on the table, someone trying to make you make a mistake, who is trying to dictate your shot choices by their shot choices. Anyone who thinks that pool is not interactive is delusional.

Furthermore, my body HURTS after several hours playing pool. If that's not a sport then I don't know what is.
 
Unlike chess or poker, pool demands a physical ability and endurance. It is a sport for me. :smile: Is car racing a sport?
 
JB Cases said:
Huh????



Furthermore, my body HURTS after several hours playing pool. If that's not a sport then I don't know what is.
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AAAAHHHHAHHHAHHAHAH....are you serious...... you should post your comments under the "FUNNY COMIC /PIC thread:p
 
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Pleas don't take offence to this but it can be played well in a wheelchair against non-handicapped people.Its a game, a hard one and not a board game like monoply or scrabble but nevertheless a game.
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There are also people in wheelchairs who compete in marathons and play a bad ass brand of basketball. They are athletes in every sense of the word.

We have a number of servicemen and women who after losing arms or legs return to active duty in combat units.

Don't take offense to this, but most of the guys I see in pool halls aren't even remotely in their league as sportsman or gamesman.
 
Guys, pool is a sport. A shame that it is not in Olympics, but it is represented in World Games which is about to begin in a few days. All three billiard sports are represented under 'precision sports' category...pool, snooker and carom are there...just great. Just 16 players in each of the discipline, single elimination as it seems.

More info on the main page:
http://www.worldgames2009.tw/wg2009/eng/info_press2.php
 
Bobby said:
It's most definitely a sport, just not an athletic sport. Chess and backammon are games because it's only about strategy and the moves you make, I mean a paraplegic could play those games, they could just have someone move the pieces for them. You can't do that in pool you have to have the ability to execute the shots.
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There's a huge advantage playing this game and being in shape/athletic. How about a round robin 14.1 event in groups of 5, or how about getting knocked in the losers bracket of the US Open in the FIRST round and making it to the finals, and in the old days double dip and win it. You better have great stomach muscles, a strong back, good legs/manage your time/rest and you must do your road work if you want your stamina in the later stages of an event. I've often called pool physical chess due to its extreme mental side which quickly drains the physical side.
 
It's a sport....

Like any sport, it no only has mental facets, but is inherently physical, taking excellent hand-eye cordination, form, strength, and touch....two people match up in a ahead set that takes 24 hours straight.....or someone competes in a big tourney, spending 10+ hours a day on a table....it takes tenacity, stamina, and talent....

Also, wheelchair folks have been known to play some damn fine tennis, golf, and other various extreme sports.....don't count them out....
 
I don't consider pool to be a "sport". If you do anything long enough no matter how easy it is, it is going to take its toll on your body eventually.
Hold a 1lb weight out at at arms length and tell me how it feels after 10 minutes.

If hand-eye coordination is all it takes to be an official sport then we might
as well consider every kid in the entire world playing a nintendo, xbox, playstation, game boy, ds etc etc etc to be playing sports. It's too hard
to truly define what a sport is. It doesn't take any real significant strength otherwise there wouldn't be a million 60lb asian woman doing it at a high level. Pool is a mental sport...but I don't consider that to be the same as
a "sport" in general where you're usually referring to something physical like football or basketball. If you met someone who was 450lbs and they told you they played "sports" and were referring to pool and darts...tell me in 100% honesty you wouldn't bust out laughing.
 
The main ingredient to many physically demanding sports is the hand eye coordination. To pitch, throw a football, free throw, or hit a tennis ball, all requires much of the same skillset required to pocket balls. It may not be the only thing involved, but it is a big factor. Pool just doesn't have the same level of physical contact and physical effort and endurance that those sports do. Whereas backgammon, poker, chess etc...don't fall into that category. Pool may be a grey area, but it leans closer to the sport side than game. And making a living off something doesn't constitute whether its a sport or not.

Christian
 
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