What does sports provide that is useful? Does it provide anything useful and if it does can it be reproduced more efficiently by other activities?
Very Much so in High School and College. Professional Sports has turned into a drug fueled weekend circus hosted by tail gate parties, riots, fights and overpaid participants who end up being bad role models for the youth of our country or any other for that matter.
Yes. It promotes and encourages physical fitness, team work and problem solving.
Of course sports are useful.
Let me offer a political tangent. Paragons such as Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson and Satchel Page were the vanguard that eroded at Jim Crow leading to greater awareness of the imbalance they faced. Could their plight come to light as construction workers or farmers?
Just riffing here. But the glamour of sports can bring attention to other issues. Kaepernick anyone?
Great riff. Dig it.
Like any human institution, there are pros and cons, virtues and flaws.
Useful:
Harmful:
You're going to encounter these things differently in different contexts. Giving professional athletes millions of dollars in endorsement deals is a whole different animal than high school girls gaining confidence and a sense of community by competing on the swim team.
Not as much as grammar.
@kenriley I'm only teasing. Plus, I have no idea how I got the font to go ITALIC!
Absolutely! Sports form the key element in the bread and circuses needed to keep the mob pacified. It gives people a sense of belonging and meaning and keeps their minds focused away from important things = such as how they are being governed.
They even make us pay for the stadiums and they all all over every Dish or Direct TV package.
Yes, I agree. It is a safe way for many to vicariously experience the pleasure of winning, the pain of defeat, and the many eloquent expressions the human body is capable of achieving, The Romans had their Colosseum, we have our Super Bowl.
Definitely very useful.
Ignore the machismo, improper aggressiveness, fanaticism, cheating, racism, sexism, bullying and other non-sports behaviour. I do emphasise non-sports behaviours. These behaviours occur outside of sports. Is it correct to hate sports because you don't approve of these behaviours?
Instead, focus on:
1: teamwork (e.g. playing so that an injured or weaker teammate's participation is not wasted, instinctively knowing what another will do without communication, etc.)
2: respect for other team's efforts,
3: inter-personal bonds outside of personal relationships,
4: on-the-spot problem-solving (find a weakness in an opponent's play, working out a way to exploit it, etc.)
5: setting and trying to achieve personal bests
Basically, sports is one more thing that encourages good health in regards to: inter-personal relationships, keeping your mind active, and of course, general fitness.
Join a local sports group. Emphasise your interest and they'll help, as best they can, to retain your interesst. If you find that you can't "get" the sports due to lack of strength or dexterity, find another sports.
^^This.
My roommate is a Little League umpire and lifelong athlete and sports fan. He could wax far more poetically than I on the benefits of team sports, particularly for the young. He's especially keen on the empowering quality of sports for girls and young women.
My ex was an athlete and coached his kids' soccer teams. He frequently did wax poetic about the benefits--particularly the psycho-social ones.
Really? I mean, really? Yours is a very different experience to mine of sport.
@Palindromeman I'm not saying those unwanted behaviours DO NOT occur in sports. I'm saying is that it's best to ignore them from the questioner's perspective. And it's best to stamp them out from a sports participant's perspective.
E.g.: AUS cricket team's ball tampering scandal. I'm glad that they were caught. (But I wasn't happy that most leading news sites ran that story for two weeks straight. )
I'm also a huge NRL fan. And the NRL is not known for their saints, (as you would know). Even the goody-two-shoes Tigers are not immune. A "head stomper" and an ex-con are in their current forward line-up.
HOWEVER, saying that, I do find the good in sports. The community it creates through the Leagues clubs, for example. (Just ignore the poker/slot machines. They need to be banned.) Another good example is the development programs for kids run by the separate NRL clubs through their smaller feeder clubs.
ALSO, there are the two Oztag teams that I organise and play in. I accept non-experienced players and train them into the team. Sure, some have lost interest and not found that the sport is not to their liking. But several have stayed on and even moved up to higher divisions.
By the way, I'm no jock. I'm a weedy programmer. And I'm quite uncoordinated ("unco" ) with bat, racket, club sports. I'm better with the ball in my hand - except basketball, AFL or any sport that requires more than my towering 5'6" height.
@Palindromeman Watching or playing? Professional, college, or amateur? Adults, or youth? Organized or not? Which sport? Commericalized or not? What's the demographic of the players, the spectators?American professional football and suburban little girls' soccer are worlds apart. Of course experiences will differ.
@stinkeye_a As 10CC so eloquently put it, I don't like cricket; no no, I love it. Also motor sports. I just can't play sports for toffee. And the social aspect of team sports makes my flesh crawl.
Playing or watching? There's plenty of use for playing sports, but I find watching them pointless.
Yes it is.
Participating in sport can be good for health and fitness as well as just for the sheer enjoyment of it. It can also help reduce social isolation for those less able to mix and join in so easily, it shows a common interest. Being part of a team means being part of something, shared experience, shared history, understanding that a small cog in a big wheel is very important.
I have played a lot of sport over the years but I would think soccer, football and skiing mostly, I'm not particularly brilliant at any of them, but it was always hugely enjoyable, I won a national title along the way and represented my country in a tiny way, something that I wouldn't have done if it wasn't for sport. I've also had some great holidays thru sport and picked up some horrible injuries but it's all been fantastic.
Now I'm a bit older (a lot older actually) I'm not involved in sport but like watching it, some people have other past times, I like watching sport. I have my teams that I follow and I live and die with them when they're playing. But I could still be involved, the rise in walking football for the elderly or disabled is brilliant. I could do that if I so chose along with a host of other sports.
Not to me personally. I'm one of those who isn't aware it's time for the World Series unless someone else brings it up. However, I'm sure many people enjoy it on multiple levels. It's an outlet for their worst tribalist and competitive impulses that's harmless compared to a war; it's an opportunity to socialize; it's a way to keep fit; it's a way to pass the time if you find it interesting. I prefer walking / hiking for fitness, reading to watching football, etc. But everyone's different.
When my kids run, jump kick the ball or someone else - yes as it helps them grow stronger, faster more sure of themself (5 years of karate gave my daughter some usefull life skills ? and every time my son chases a ball he has fun and exercise feet and lungs)..
When they sit on their butts "chearing" for "our team" - totally useless. Organised sport when I suppose to enjoy a bunch millions skating in a chase of a puck, or running after the ball - doesn't kick me at all. See no difference who will take a cup this year that doesn't make world or my day better lol. And fans sometimes look like most idiotic way or new religion zellots lol.
Do mean playing, viewing, or both? As someone from a very dysfunctional family who played as a teen, yes, it was very useful as a surrogate family. As an adult who works in a very stressful, deadline-driven career, being able to lose myself and rant at the television in short doses has been a wonderful way to disconnect from work. So I'd have to say yes, useful.
Here's a recent story from the Commonwealth Games currently behing held at the Gold Coast, AUS. It shows the respect between sportspersons - even of opposing teams.
A Lesotho runner was running last in a 10 kilometer race - 2 laps behind the others. Runners usually leave the field (to rest, rehydrate, cool down, etc. in the change rooms) as soon as they finish. It is a 10k race after all. But the 3 Australian runners stayed on the field, cheering the last place Lesotho runner as she crossed the finish line.
Running is an individual sport. But it still promotes respect and admiration between each individual runner.
I'll reply with the existential perspective: is anything useful?
Yes, it is something to do, okay? We don't need to be anal about everything.
It's useful for being healthy, and I also think that some sports help to positively channel aggressive tendencies.
At its best it is a shinning example of endeavour. At its worst a crass scramble for money and fame at any cost
People often rail at the money that sportsmen are worth. I say that tribes will always try at beat other tribes. Consider this, a fighter pilot is worth about 3 times as much in fiscal terms as his plane. Would you rather spend the money on games or fighter pilots?
Someone told me that NY now only has one free boxing gym in the whole city. It is run by two ex cops who struggle to keep it open on a budget of $50,000 per annum. Trying to provide an outlet for young mens aggression outside of crime. When you consider how much the sport makes. This is a pitance
While not a fan of professional sports as it is more about money than an actual game, I think it is useful as a means to lull the masses into somnambulistic state -- yes, sports fans can get excited and violent -- it does help release the negative energy pent up in people. As to the quiescent masses, this is how man functions.