What Is A Sport? What Is Not A Sport?

Noodling is definitely a competitive sport in the south (as well as a drunken past time).

 

Pro bass tournaments arent 3.5 hours though. There are a few successful overweight competitors but not very many. The MLF / BassPro tour tournaments are 6 consecutive days of 7.5 hours per day per tournament and are as few as 9 days between tournaments. The pros will also pre-fish the tournament lakes an additional 2 or 3 days before it counts, within the rules of whatever tournament (many ban pre-fishing and or scouting the last couple days before start to minimize the pressure on the fish). I'd argue overall it takes a heck of a lot more physical exertion than golf. Kind of like if you're saying "yah but do they lift 25 pound dumbbells 75 times per day like golf?" Well no, but they lift 10 pound ones 500+ times per day. Just an analogy with made up numbers. Also the ground under em is moving that entire 7.5 hours.

To answer your question though, it's mass appeal. Big circuits like MLF cover texas to Michigan to Florida to upstate NY. Pike are considered trash fish in the south, and easy to catch. None of us would watch that (to be fair, I wont watch bass fishing or NASCAR either, but lotta folks do). It's probably just the most popular in the most places as well as having one of the largest habitat spreads geographically speaking within just a few species. And the fact that they fall in a sweet spot of powerful and aggressive but also finicky. Pike family for example are apex predators that ambush feed. If they are lying in wait and something comes by, they'll attack it because they can. Presentation skill is a much bigger factor with bass, who will follow something around and stalk it, then maybe strike at it a little and back up and see what it does. They just arent nearly as easy to convince that something is food. But primarily I think it's just the mass appeal.

According to George Carlin, neither is a sport, because sports require balls, and balls with dots don't count!

 

Sounds like bass anglers are better athletes than golfers.

Doing something for 7.5 hours rather than 3.5 hours doesn't make it more of a sport.. golf could be turned into seven days of 54 holes/day. It doesn't become more of a sport, just a tougher sport.

If lifting 10 pounds repeatedly and balancing in a boat for hours a day is more physically demanding than a round of golf at Augusta, then bass fishing is most definitely a sport.

 

While it certainly combines athleticism, endurance, and physical prowess, Pole Dancing is not a sport. Regardless of what the Global Association of International Sports Federation has to say about it.

 

I’m a huge fan of bar shuffleboard, is this a sport? Kind of like curling without the ice and brooms. One time I beat one of the top players, a 72 year old petite woman with an incredible aim.



Now, competitive farting, that is a sport.

 

I don't know...there are certainly a lot of judges in the audience.

 

ESPN. The Entertainment and Sports Network.

 

Surprised nobody mentioned the so-called professional wrestling!

Let's see here ...

Small Crowd
Inside Out
Freezer Burn
1980s Fashion
Science Fiction
Civil War

Professional Wrestling!

 

If make-up is worn, not a sport.
If subjective judging is involved, not a sport.

 

That makes gymnastics and figure skating non-sports.

 

I think the question that needs to be asked in this thread.

What sports events won’t you watch on television/venue?

 

How about cheer?

 

Good point. Maybe in a new thread.

 

You mean that Nathan's thingy, where people try to cram wieners down their gullet going for max quantity in x-amount of time?

Sooooo...Larry Finkelstein was an athlete in training at Camp North Star?

 

What about the wwe or pro wrestling?

 

You mean Man Ballet?

 

If a boxing match doesn't end in a KO or a concession, it is an exhibition and not a sport.

 

super not a sport.

 

I never went out for cheer, but from talking to those who did, it was very physically intense and borderline dangerous. They do have cheer competitions, but normally it's not scored. I would call it a sport, even though it's not normally played with a ball.

Now how about bowling and volleyball, the two "sports" I used to do when I was younger and more active?

 

I agree re badminton players. I've played 4 racquet sports, each at a very high level. Top level badminton was, by far, the hardest of them all.

GG