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Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Released Tuesday, 30th January 2024
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Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Contentious sports: What is or is not considered "Sport"

Tuesday, 30th January 2024
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

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apply. Hi

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and welcome back to Story Time with

0:22

Uncle Kevin. This

0:24

past week I was reading an

0:26

article about Britain's newest

0:29

sports prodigy, a 16 year

0:31

old darts champion called Luke

0:34

Littler. Words such

0:36

as athlete and sports

0:38

person were sprinkled liberally throughout the

0:40

article. And it reminded me of

0:42

another video I saw recently where world

0:45

snooker champion Stephen Henry called

0:48

the 147 break by fellow

0:50

world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in

0:52

five minutes and eight seconds, the

0:55

greatest thing he'd ever seen in any

0:57

sport. Now I

1:00

have to be honest and say I don't

1:02

really consider darts and snooker to

1:04

be sports. This isn't

1:06

anything to do with the appearance of the athletes

1:08

because that would be body shaming

1:10

for me to say anything like that. And

1:12

I would advise everyone against those kind of

1:14

thoughts. They

1:16

don't have any place in modern progressive

1:19

society, but it has to do more with

1:21

the skills that are involved. So

1:23

let me think about why are

1:25

some things sports and other things not.

1:29

So today I'll have a look at maybe some contentious

1:31

sports and give my opinion on what a sport is.

1:33

So first of all, what is a

1:36

sport? So according

1:39

to various sources, a sport is

1:42

number one, a human activity,

1:44

which requires physical skill and exertion.

1:48

Secondly, it has to be governed by a set

1:50

of competitive rules. And thirdly,

1:52

it's undertaken competitively for a win

1:54

or a result. So

1:59

let's look at the first criteria. criteria, which

2:01

is that it has to be a human

2:03

activity. So we can then look at

2:05

things like pigeon racing and greyhound

2:07

racing and say for sure that by

2:09

definition, these things are not sports.

2:12

And this is because the activity isn't

2:14

being performed by a human. There

2:17

are some dog sports where humans

2:19

are involved in the exertion such

2:21

as disc dog, where

2:23

humans throw frisbees for their dogs. In

2:26

this situation, human skill and exertion

2:28

are involved, so these are sports.

2:31

Sheepdog trials though may

2:33

not be because the humans are really just

2:36

handlers in the process and the dog is

2:38

doing all the work. Fishing

2:41

and falconry would also

2:43

be sports that involve animals, but

2:46

in these cases, a lot of skill and exertion is

2:48

on the part of the human. Ethical

2:50

issues of hooking fish aside, which

2:52

I don't agree with because I'm

2:54

against suffering for enjoyment, it

2:57

is a sport by definition. But

3:00

other animal sports such

3:02

as horse racing, unlike

3:04

the aforementioned greyhound racing, are

3:06

also sports because of

3:08

the huge physical exertions and the training required

3:10

by the junkies. But

3:13

what about these sports like darks and snooker?

3:15

Why is darks considered to be a sport

3:18

but something like hiking isn't? Why

3:20

is firing balls across the table into

3:22

net pockets a sport but canyoning isn't?

3:25

Well, first of all, let's examine what physical

3:27

skills are. There are

3:30

10 physical skills. Some are

3:32

physiological adaptations, some are neurological

3:34

adaptations. They are strength,

3:37

speed, power, endurance, stamina,

3:40

balance, accuracy, agility, flexibility

3:43

and coordination. So

3:46

where does a sport like darks fit into that?

3:49

Well, endurance is definitely required because matches

3:51

last up to 40 minutes and your

3:53

arm has got to be held up

3:56

and extended many, many times.

3:58

So this will require localized muscular

4:01

endurance of the muscles involved in

4:03

performing the action. It's

4:06

also a sport where you're aiming at a

4:08

target. So it goes without saying that accuracy

4:10

is involved. Also coordination.

4:13

So we can see very clearly that

4:15

it requires physical skill. So

4:18

what about hiking that isn't

4:20

a sport? Well, it does also involve

4:23

endurance. It'll involve balance as

4:25

you navigate across terrain and that in

4:27

itself involves you being coordinated.

4:30

Since these both have physical skills, we have

4:33

to then look at the other criteria. Darts

4:36

has a set of competitive rules and

4:39

hiking doesn't. So therefore as

4:41

we work our way down the list of

4:43

what makes a sport, we can exclude hiking

4:46

and include darts. What

4:49

about, let's say, activities that we

4:52

perform in a competitive sense with

4:54

machines? If the

4:56

criteria we have is human exertion, then

4:59

if a machine is doing all the work, then

5:01

it can't be a sport either, right? I

5:04

mean, in something like Formula One, the humans aren't

5:06

running around the track at 200 miles an hour.

5:09

So in the 1908 Olympics, motorboating

5:12

made a singular appearance, but the consensus

5:15

was it wasn't a sport and it's

5:17

never appeared again. Likewise,

5:20

no motorsports have been included in

5:22

the Olympics, but inclusion

5:25

or exclusion from the Olympics doesn't

5:27

make a sport. Just

5:30

ask wrestlers. Since 2013, the

5:32

decision to remove it from the Olympics

5:34

hasn't suddenly ceased to be a sport.

5:38

Regarding motorsports, just

5:40

ask any motocross rider if it

5:42

involves physical effort. Just

5:45

like horse racing, it does and

5:47

is a sport. However, any

5:50

purely motorized sport, such as

5:52

drone racing, is not a

5:54

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your Walmart vision for details. Which

6:48

of course brings me to the biggest

6:50

question for me at least, which is,

6:53

are e-sports really

6:55

sports? I have to

6:57

be honest, I raise them eyebrow when I saw that

6:59

e-sports were going to be included in the 2022 Commonwealth

7:01

Games. For

7:04

anyone listening who isn't familiar with the

7:06

Commonwealth Games, there are quadrennial sporting events

7:09

among athletes from the Commonwealth, which

7:11

is mainly territories of the former

7:13

British Empire. At the moment, it's 72

7:15

nations and 280 events. When

7:20

asked why she was including e-sports

7:22

in the Commonwealth Games in 2022, the

7:27

Commonwealth Federation president

7:30

said that she hoped including e-sports

7:32

in the official program would

7:35

boost interest from young people, less

7:38

interested in traditional sports. To

7:41

me, this is completely backwards. You

7:43

don't just make something into a sport because you're

7:45

crap at marketing your event. Like

7:48

next time, well, we're not televising it, we're only

7:50

going to live stream it on TikTok because that's

7:52

where the future audiences are.

7:56

Now, if sheepdog trials are

7:58

not a sport, because the

8:00

human isn't doing enough work, then

8:03

e-sports aren't. Waggling a

8:05

joystick about whilst sitting in a company

8:07

chair is not a physical exertion. Apart

8:11

from maybe endurance involved in your

8:13

thumb, there aren't any physical skills

8:15

involved in that. No speed, no strength, no

8:17

agility, no balance, nada. We

8:20

don't have to work further down the list to

8:22

see if it meets other

8:24

criteria because it falls at

8:26

the first hurdle. However, operating

8:28

a virtual character in a virtual

8:31

world is not physically demanding. The

8:33

only time this would change would be in

8:36

the far future where we could

8:38

upload a human mind into a virtual

8:40

environment and therefore we fall

8:42

under the idea that digital events are

8:45

real events when they happen

8:47

in digital worlds. But digital

8:49

events are not real events in

8:51

non-digital worlds, which is

8:54

the way things stand now. So

8:56

as far as I'm concerned, e-sports get in

8:58

the bin. As

9:01

always, if you're struggling for

9:03

ideas to get fitter and more healthy,

9:05

I would advise against taking up a sport.

9:08

This is because very few sports cover

9:11

all of the 10 physical skills I listed out

9:13

earlier. For optimal health, you should

9:16

be looking to train as many human physical

9:18

skills as possible. The narrower you cast

9:20

your net, the less you capture

9:22

in terms of physical improvement. We're

9:25

here in Scotland because the infrastructure is

9:27

already there due to the national obsession

9:29

with, in spite of the lack of

9:31

talent for soccer or football, the

9:33

government runs a lot of football programs for health.

9:36

This includes walking football

9:38

for older populations. And

9:41

whilst it's admirable to have something older people

9:44

can access, walking football isn't

9:46

really pushing the envelope with physical

9:48

skill. When we've got a kind

9:50

of use it or lose it scenario, no

9:53

one's using very much. You've

9:55

got no speed, no power, no strength. What

9:58

Does it really do physically? In

10:00

June? Yes. Maybe. Accuracy.

10:03

Dance. coordination yes, but the hallmarks

10:05

of a gym are lots of

10:08

muscle mass and loss of bone

10:10

mineral density. These won't be

10:12

addressed by walking about, kicking the ball

10:14

flowing. All sports,

10:16

perhaps with the exception of those involving

10:19

of a multidisciplinary approach, are going to

10:21

be super limited in terms of building

10:23

a broad base. Something.

10:26

That might be sporting. The may approach

10:28

optimal skill development would be something like

10:30

a half long and a cast long

10:32

are they are you cross the. So,

10:35

as always, a well rounded program

10:37

is going to be better if

10:39

you're which brought based approaches defense

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