Search
Related Links




 

 

Informative Articles

Got Golf Information Overload?
You’ve come home from work dead tired. You grab the mail on your way in and notice your new copy of your favorite golfing magazine is in the pile. It puts a slight smile on your face as a picture of you on a couch with an adult beverage suddenly...

Ness Notes Jan 4th
The first line of the AP story recapping last night's Orange Bowl called it a "game for the ages." What game was that reporter watching? Did he notice the 7-0 score with just over four minutes left in the first half, before an 87-yard punt...

Pacing and Avoiding Performance Predictions
No athlete likes to be passed during a race. A natural reaction is speed up and attempt to keep pace with the person whose dust you are now eating, but in doing so you just got pulled out of your game and put into theirs. Most likely you have no...

Stretching 101
The two main purposes of stretching are prevention of injury caused by exercise or day-to-day activities and a faster rate of recovery from exercise. Stretching can also be used to improve posture and restore proper anatomical functionality. A...

The Feeling Of Tandem Skydiving
Tandem skydiving is an excellent way to experience this popular extreme sport. People, though, have a number of fears about skydiving. One myth is that you can't breathe while you're free falling. That is certainly not true, otherwise jumpers...

 
ALL SPORTS ARE GAMES! ALL GAMES ARE NOT SPORTS!

From backgammon to the 3,000 year old Royal Game of Ur., from Oriental kite contests to the universal tit-tat-toe and baseball, games have been, and are played throughout every culture and society known to man.


Where is the line drawn between a game and a sport? What are the vital missing elements which preclude most games from being a sport?


By comparison, all games and sports are taken up for fun or pleasure. Winning a game or sport always makes an individual or team happy. Winners are always rewarded. All
rewards fall within three categories: Material (IE . . . trophy or ribbon), Monetary (IE . . . cashes or check), and Emotional(IE . . . jubilation or triumph).


Swimming, baseball, and hockey are well-known games which are recognized as sports.


Chess, cards, and marbles are well-known games which are not recognized as sports.


On close examination, we find a trend amid sports which is not an element of common games. That key element is the number one thing that draws the line between sports and games.


Exercise!


All games and sports are mentally demanding. Individuals or an individual have to plan and think to be competitive against an opponent.


However, only in sports are significant physical demands placed on the body that result in extensive exercise.


A secondary, key element found in sports, which generally is not found amid common games is Profession.


Football, boxing,


golf, and bowling, are examples of sports which many people take up as a paid (very handsomely paid)profession.


One final element of a sport, which is generally not found amid common games is Risk. In every sport, there is always the risk of bodily injury. There is no element of risk involved playing a game of backgammon or Old Maid.


Games, once learned, can be played by the average, and not so average person without giving a second thought to risk or injury.


Sports, however, require continual learning, mental, and physical
conditioning with constant risk of bodily injury and liability on the part of someone or some entity.


Give a thought to these elements the next time you plop down in your favorite chair to watch an activity on the tube, or set out to participate in your favorite game activity.


Thus, two questions which have plagued many generations have now been answered. What makes a game a sport?; and why athletes are paid so much.


About the author:
Terry Davis is publisher of http://southernliving.blogsome.com/
and http://newsunheralded.blogspot.com/You will find his publishings to be informative, helpful, entertaining, sometimes shocking and provocative. Whenever you visit his unique sites,
prepare to have your emotions and senses stirred.



Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.