I have been told that golf, racing and (recently) MMA are not sports.  Have you ever had a similar argument with a friend over what actually makes an activity a sport?  It gets frustrating because for the most part it comes down to perspective.  I have done some looking into this and have come up with an answer.

The answer is that both people are correct.  By modern definition, a sport is an “athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess” (www.dictionary.com).  Most people can argue that golfers are not required to be world-class athletes.  However, there is great skill and physical prowess required to hit a golf ball properly.

From many naysayers’ point of view, a sport is an activity requiring you to work up a sweat or one engaging in physical contact.  If this is the case, tennis, racing and (arguably) baseball are not sports because there is little to no physical contact.  Although, all of these activities require the practitioner to be in shape to play well and all require skill.

This argument requires me to bring out my inner geek and go back to the word in which ’sport’ originated from, disport.  This word means “to divert or amuse oneself” (www.dictionary.com).  By this definition just about anything can be considered a sport and could even make a case for hunting, fishing, darts, billiards, etc.

The simple breakdown of definitions adds confusion and leaves much to opinion.  This is why there is much to debate about in the eyes of sports fans and fanatics alike.  A simple fix would be to sub-catagorize each.  You have full contact sports like football, hockey, MMA, etc.  However, this will lead into debates over what a true full-contact sport is.  Truthfully, we have to agree to disagree or engage in all of the routine trash talk that true fans enjoy.

I want to close by addressing the person who said MMA isn’t a sport.  MMA meets every criteria for a sport.  In fact, I would love to have many other athletes take an elbow to the head and continue on as if it didn’t happen.

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