29-04-2015, 10:07 AM
I still don't agree that Chess or Bridge are sports (at least not in the conventional sense). That's not to diminish their worth (obviously), but if these are sports by the argument of requiring the use of the "brain muscle" to a degree beyond its usual exertion, then almost everything that's challenging could be considered a sport (doing maths homework; driving to work in busy traffic; watching Inception etc), which puts us back to square one in defining categories for any of them.
But Sport England should really get their definition sorted out as well. If sport is an "activity aimed at improving physical fitness and well being, forming social relations and gaining results in competition", then I don't see how activities like Snooker, F1, darts, shooting etc are sports. None of them aim to "improve" physical fitness by playing, and some of them (snooker and darts, for instance) don't even require anyone to be particularly fit.
Personally, I'd be in favour of having "mind sport" as a definition for the likes of Chess and Bridge, and for these to be given the same levels of funding and respect as sports more generally. I'd also put the likes of darts and snooker in this category (if a better one couldn't be found), because the co-ordination required to be successful at either certainly requires more use of the brain than anything else.
But Sport England should really get their definition sorted out as well. If sport is an "activity aimed at improving physical fitness and well being, forming social relations and gaining results in competition", then I don't see how activities like Snooker, F1, darts, shooting etc are sports. None of them aim to "improve" physical fitness by playing, and some of them (snooker and darts, for instance) don't even require anyone to be particularly fit.
Personally, I'd be in favour of having "mind sport" as a definition for the likes of Chess and Bridge, and for these to be given the same levels of funding and respect as sports more generally. I'd also put the likes of darts and snooker in this category (if a better one couldn't be found), because the co-ordination required to be successful at either certainly requires more use of the brain than anything else.