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Cold Nights and Hot Games: Great Alaska Shootout Basketball Tourney
Each year, colleges and universities from all over the nation
send their men's basketball teams to the "Last Frontier State"
to the Great Alaska Shootout Basketball Tourney. The competition
heats up the cold winter days and nights, as teams meet...
Great Quotes
Great Quotes
I love what prominent baseball people have to say about the great ballplayers. They seem to eloquently capture what we are thinking.
"It was his solemn duty to catch a ball that wasn't in the stands." - Monte Irvin (Newark Eagles...
Houston Astros: Next Year is Here
Every year the Astros say next year, will its next year, and the Astros and the fans are ready. This year the Astros look ready to fight for it all. What will really happen this year? Injuries can be a key factor for them this year....
Paul Hamm: Did He Deserve Gymnastics Gold in 2004?
What’s the controversy all about? In the 2004 Olympics, an all-star group of athletes from around the world gathered together to compete for titles in gymnastics. In the spirit of competition, there are always tensions between analysts and...
WHAT MAKES AN ICE CLIMBER?
WHAT MAKES AN ICE CLIMBER?
Ice climbing is not for the faint at heart. This exhilarating and dangerous sport takes participants into some of nature's fiercest and most beautiful elements and requires strength, stamina and the willingness to stay...
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ALL SPORTS ARE GAMES! ALL GAMES ARE NOT SPORTS!
From backgammon to the 3,000 year old Royal Game of Ur., from Oriental kite contests to the universal tit-tat-toe and baseball, games have been, and are played throughout every culture and society known to man.
Where is the line drawn between a game and a sport? What are the vital missing elements which preclude most games from being a sport?
By comparison, all games and sports are taken up for fun or pleasure. Winning a game or sport always makes an individual or team happy. Winners are always rewarded. All
rewards fall within three categories: Material (IE . . . trophy or ribbon), Monetary (IE . . . cashes or check), and Emotional(IE . . . jubilation or triumph).
Swimming, baseball, and hockey are well-known games which are recognized as sports.
Chess, cards, and marbles are well-known games which are not recognized as sports.
On close examination, we find a trend amid sports which is not an element of common games. That key element is the number one thing that draws the line between sports and games.
Exercise!
All games and sports are mentally demanding. Individuals or an individual have to plan and think to be competitive against an opponent.
However, only in sports are significant physical demands placed on the body that result in extensive exercise.
A secondary, key element found in sports, which generally is not found amid common games is Profession.
Football, boxing,
golf, and bowling, are examples of sports which many people take up as a paid (very handsomely paid)profession.
One final element of a sport, which is generally not found amid common games is Risk. In every sport, there is always the risk of bodily injury. There is no element of risk involved playing a game of backgammon or Old Maid.
Games, once learned, can be played by the average, and not so average person without giving a second thought to risk or injury.
Sports, however, require continual learning, mental, and physical
conditioning with constant risk of bodily injury and liability on the part of someone or some entity.
Give a thought to these elements the next time you plop down in your favorite chair to watch an activity on the tube, or set out to participate in your favorite game activity.
Thus, two questions which have plagued many generations have now been answered. What makes a game a sport?; and why athletes are paid so much.
About the author:
Terry Davis is publisher of http://southernliving.blogsome.com/
and http://newsunheralded.blogspot.com/You will find his publishings to be informative, helpful, entertaining, sometimes shocking and provocative. Whenever you visit his unique sites,
prepare to have your emotions and senses stirred.
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