An 'old school' look at the differences between sports and games
If I had to classify myself I guess it would have to be “old school” in my way of looking at sports. From Little League to age 70 I figure I participated, and in some competed, in about 29 different sports. Now I watch sports on television, or go to games, more than I participate. And being retired from the competition side of sports, I sometimes find myself arguing over simple things that I watch on television. When I taught classes in physical education (now called Health and Human Performance) one of the questions I asked my students was to define what an athlete is. What is the difference between an athlete and someone that plays games that do not require training for a physical effort? Another question that I asked was, “Is there a difference between playing a game, and participating in a sport?"
A person may tell you that they play a “game” of baseball and you consider it a sport. If they tell you they play a game of monopoly, you leave it as a game, but not a sport. You might say that sports can play games, but games can’t play sports. Watching some of the “sports” now being televised, I am finding it harder to draw a solid line for the difference between a game and sports.
There are some sports that are very similar in the objective of the competition, but one is a sport and the other is a recreational game. Take shuffle board and curling for example. Both push an object toward a marked area at the end of a lane. One is on boards, or concrete, and the other is on ice. Curling is an Olympic sport played by mostly Northern countries that have ice and snow. Shuffle board is more popular in the south with sunshine and warm days. One is considered a game and the other is considered a sport.
On ESPN, the poker championships are shown every week. Being “old school” I find my definition of an athlete does not fit a person in the game of poker. The physical effort and training that is required for poker indicates that it is game and not a sport. Playing poker requires some serious concentration and memory of the cards on the table. But, it does not require any physical training or effort to play poker. Chess is already on the television with competition between players from other countries. You play a game of chess, but so far I haven’t heard it classified as a sport. I would expect that the next television broadcast may be competitive checkers.
The latest game being televised is the backyard game of Corn Hole. I have always considered corn hole to be a fun game played at bars, in back yards, and at picnics. Now there are money paying championships for this recreational game. I admit it takes some training and dedication to get good at the game. Corn hole is like an off shoot of Bocci Ball, which is played internationally, for back yards. Both require you to toss underhand a ball, or cloth bag, toward a target some distance away. It is a good game that can be played by men, women, young, very young, old, and highly skilled players. And the bag weighs less than a horse shoe which takes some strength to toss. Now corn hole is a sport since it is being televised. Next up will be the game of “washers” that is played in back yards, bars, and picnics. It can be played anywhere you can dig a hole in the ground, put a small tin cup in the hole, buy some washers at the local hardware store, and you are ready to go. It reminds me of a grown up game for adults that played marbles when they were young.
There are reports that in the next Olympics competition in video games will be contested. There are already some Universities that give scholarships and have teams that play video games against other colleges. I understand that competition to make a video game team is very challenging at the colleges that offer scholarships. I can imagine that the good teams have strength coaches and athletic trainers for the thumb and hand to keep a player in the game.
I have to admit that this is a sarcastic “old school” way of looking at the recent trend in the classification of a sport. The good thing for me is that I can now claim to have participated in 36 sports and it adds to my total. One other good thing is that I can still play the sports of poker, chess, checkers, washers, corn hole, marbles, bocci ball, shuffle board, and video games and consider myself an active athlete. If you consider that bowling has 10 pin, 9 pin, duck pin, and candle pin competitions I can add four more sports. I must admit with all these new additions I have had one active sporting life and can continue leading it for years to come.
