Episode Transcript
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slash bundle. USAA. Restrictions
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apply. Hi
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and welcome back to Story Time with
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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
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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,
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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?
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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
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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
sport. Mrs.
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Smith, you are going to love this house. Is
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Kelly. She's making 2024 her fabulous fancy era. Better
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her eyeglasses too. That's why she's
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upping her frame game at the
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same place she already shops. Walmart,
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insurance accepted, she's going to crush
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her fabulous fancy era and save.
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Eye Care. Welcome to your
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Walmart. Restrictions apply. See walmart.com or
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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
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only time this would change would be in
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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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devotee isn't a spin. And
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question for me or does one say I'm
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