Blog: Ace

The Definition of Sport - Change your shoes!

A friend of mine reckoned that you describe a sport as "Sport" if you have to change your shoes.

So for example football, mountaineering, cricket, rugby and basketball are all sports because you couldn't really do them properly if you didn't have the right shoes. Although having said that climbers have told stories about seeing tourist climbers going up Scarfell Pike in Flip Flops.

That means to say then that Darts and Snooker are not really sports as to be honest you could play them in your slippers - I suppose so long as you wear a tuxedo for the snooker.

Rowing, yachting and white water rafting I suspect needs special footwear - as does diving and snorkling. Surfing, wind-surfing, body boarding are obviously sports as you defintely have to change your shoes.

I'm sure with Gliding and skydiving you are going to need special footwear (like very cushioed soles I suspect) but I am not sure about Ballooning for example.

Sumo Wrestling is a sport but not Chess. Bowls is a sport - but I'm not sure about Croquet unless they wear cricket shoes.

Rambling, Wrestling and Orienteering - they are definitely sports and Ten Pin Bowling needs those slipper numbers - so that counts. Taekwondo and Karate - well I'm not going to argue with them - but your average Pool player is going to take some arguement to convince my mate that's a sport - its a game isn't it alongside Darts and Bar billiards.

by Ace on 18:24 on 26th July 2007