Philosophy of Sport

[Tovarishch]

What with the recent Thanksgiving holidays and the abundance of football during said time, I cannot help but think about sports in general. The main question I pose to myself is the following:
Why do sports exist?
(My thoughts on this are complicated. I will try my best to form them into complete, logical sentences.)
First of all, I believe that man has an underlying need to compete with one another. This is probably a leftover of the times of the caveman. We feel the need to exceed, to be the best, and it doesn't matter if we are the best at something that has no practical value to society, apart from that of entertainment- we are the best, therefore we will have a better chance at mating. And, you know, there are so called "friendly rivalries," and yet is this not an oxymoron? There is alleged "sportsmanship," and yet would not the best kind of sportsmanship be where you do not compete, but work together? Might this, too, be an oxymoron?
What are your thoughts on this? I would be interested in hearing them.
-Tovarishch

[quietchat]

Well, we could start this off with the older civilizations that no longer live, like the Maiyans and Aztecs. Slaves would be forced to compete as a form of entertainment, and as a way of worship. Before that, we could think that early man created it on accident, again mainly to pass the time.

We could also think that modern sport evolved as a way to demonstrate superiority. Animals will fight or put on a display in order to attract a mate or to gain dominance in a group, so why not humans? They may have started by fighting each other till one fell and didn't stand anymore, but through fear of death a different way was created, one non lethal yet still showing who was better. In this we see an actual purpose or reason for it come about.

[AyumiBee]

I agree in the ancient Rome for example gladiator fights were held just to entertain.

But from my own view point it's exist to satisfy myself. I love doing sports and the more I love if I'm in a team. Sure we are competing with the other team but the main point is that I play along with others and have fun (Of course if it's a cup the main point is the winning, but other times it means less for me). And if we win I'm happy yeah we made it together or after a very hard summer camp I couls say :"Oh my god, I survived. I never imagined I would be ever able to do these things, now I know I can make it, I 'm not that weak." Or in a dancing team, I'm proud and extremely happy if we finally could learn and make an acrobatic movement. I go two places for practice, these two places are very different. Where there are the younger teams the atmosphere is awful. They are doing it longer than me but they have no respect to our age... And yes they are competing, I think they even talk out us behind our backs. But at the other place everyone is friendly and we help each other out during the coreography now that's what I like. I hate that competing atmosphere. In my opinion my case is the minority, people love to compete and feel the victory.

[analogZero]

Well I think I might have to try and keep myself short winded here too, but we'll see how far two cents goes.

If you date back most contemporary sports, you end up in a time period very different from today's. Most notable is that there's little to do aside from work, eat, and sleep. Now recreation is going to be something interesting when added to that equation. I'm sure it can be an easy mixture of alleviating boredom and enforcing competition. That alpha dog instinct is apparent in the human species, so it's easily said that our desire to rise above others is cause enough to compete.

The trouble with any one sport is that it's very focused. Specific rules make for specific games, which make for specific competition. One who's good with their feet may excel at soccer, while someone more coordinated with their hands may excel at baseball, or say, volleyball. Perhaps that combined with the desire for variety is the reason we see so many versions of athletic display these days.

Now as for the modern day, there's something more to be said about that. Upon any new discovery comes excitement. You play for the thrill and enjoyment rather than purpose. It's not without time that we begin to see the benefit that comes from something thought great for it's sheer existence, like the health benefits of a glass of wine. Sports have basic life lessons applied to them, which are often overlooked in the excitement of it all, but they're there. Teamwork, discipline, strategy, quick thinking, fitness and grace in victory and defeat are all things that should be held in practice, and sport proves to be a bountiful source of all and others. It's no surprise then that children make up the majority of people playing sports these days. It's unfortunate that not all will take with them all their is to be had.

[leerock89]

Sports is an abomination of an activity!! We humans are lazy and if given the chance, every single one of us would rather live a very easy, spoiled lazy existence then work work work work and then work. Sports is just a way for us to share in our misery of existence with others and should be permanently banned from this planet. Also, we should live on floating wheel chairs that take us everywhere and have our meals, entertainment and pleasure all given to us from robots so we can get all fat and lazy. I mean think about it, when it gets to that point people will be to lazy to be bad and evil!! It would solve world crime completely cause we would be to lazy to care and all our needs are taken care of. Sports?? Pppiisshhaaa!!!! I'd rather sodomize myself then do any useful activity.

[Viduus]

Riiiiight Lee...

Anyways, I think that professional sports exists for the same reason that movies exists; it gives people a form of entertainment to watch. It's really an amazing thing the way people identify themselves with a given team and loathe those who don't identify with the same team. Soccer riots? Oh man, amazing study of human psychology. But I digress.

Sports does provide an outlet for tension for people. I personally love baseball, and interestingly enough whenever I was pissed off or stressed, for some reason going out and playing some baseball calmed me down and get my thoughts straight. Sports are obviously also a way to stay fit which gears towards reducing health problems.

I had some overlaying point in this post, but I have seem to have lost it now. Ah well. Sports have existed for a long time, and I don't see there being an end to it any time soon.