is what we do a sport?

[seanh]

are there any RC Heli leagues like baseball, football, soccer? Is RC Helis supported by any school districts as a competitive sport? I could be wrong but I'm guessing no.

[caniac]

I don't think this is a sport...but ultimately I don't care what it's considered. I love it no matter how it's classified.

[osyhaz]

I have been involved in helis since 2008, Im not a pro but I can do many quite good 3D maneuvers on my 450, hurricanes, piroflips, pirofunels, etc.... And people capable to do this things, knows how much practice hours it takes to do it. Im 6 foot tall and 275pounds and I was maybe 260 when I started on the hobby. So maybe my fingers are a little skinier now but other than that I dont recomend this "sport" ... well, maybe as a first step heading sumo...

Well I dont know, maybe Im doing something wrong... Im flying most of the time 450s, maybe if I try with 700...

I also tried electric and nitro1/8-1/10 rc cars , rc planes and fpv and didnt work either

Who knows...

[laminarjack]

It's all subjective, in the end. A previous poster opined that hunting wasn't a sport. I've done some hunting that topped anything physical I did in basis training, but most people don't "imagine" that when they think hunting.

I'd say Rc heli competitions are as sporting as anything out there, just not physically tiring.

[banditpowdercoat]

They call golf a sport. Helis for sure are a sport. They take lots of personal skill, control, and dexterity. Not all sports require massive physical exertion.


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["SUPER-STROKER"]

I use it as an exercise to keep my brain sharp! I seen a many a ol fella with a still in great shape body, but his mind is at a crawl, and his body moves at the same speed. Brain is a muscle I use RC helis as my exercise to physically improve my brain so there it is MY SPORT!


Danny H.

[MpVpRb]

To me, sport means athletics.

So, basketball is a sport.

RC Heli flying, billiards, darts etc are not.

They depend on physical skill, and can be competitive, but to me, none of them are a sport.

But, in the end, who cares..

Labels are irrelevant. Flying helis is a challenging activity that I enjoy.

Some may call it a hobby, a sport, a stupid expensive waste of time..whatever..

[what-d-heli]

If they ask me...Do you play any kind of sports? What is your favorite sport?

Shall I say...Remote Controlled Helicopter Flying?

NO, it is not a sport for me.

If they ask me, what is your hobby?

Model / R/C helicopter building and flying

[Glass Monkey]

personally, im with all the people who say, "who cares as long as you have fun" but i think its a fun little debate. It seems to me that though the "nays" seem to be in the majority most of the arguments are either self serving and rely on themselves to be evidence of themselves, eg. "Its not a sport cause i dont think it is", or invalid comparisons like suggesting that anything that doesn't have a little league isnt a sport. the only rational argument i see is if you also discount car/boat/plane/etc racing/hunting/fishing/pool/darts and every other skill/dexterity based competitive activity also.

[helidude71]

They say darts is a sport , so hell yes R/C is a sport.

[Glass Monkey]

Originally Posted by osyhaz

I have been involved in helis since 2008, Im not a pro but I can do many quite good 3D maneuvers on my 450, hurricanes, piroflips, pirofunels, etc.... And people capable to do this things, knows how much practice hours it takes to do it. Im 6 foot tall and 275pounds and I was maybe 260 when I started on the hobby. So maybe my fingers are a little skinier now but other than that I dont recomend this "sport" ... well, maybe as a first step heading sumo...

Well I dont know, maybe Im doing something wrong... Im flying most of the time 450s, maybe if I try with 700...

I also tried electric and nitro1/8-1/10 rc cars , rc planes and fpv and didnt work either

Who knows...

lol yeah i dont see helis getting me buff and toned anytime soon, but oh man if they did....id be like he man.of course i can think of more than one professional pitcher that didnt get any healthier or skinnier by playing baseball. I would be curious what some of the pro heli pilots around here thought about their occupation, is what you do a professional sport? hobby profession? neither?

[CeeveeSiN]

Originally Posted by aForcefulThrust

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/

Times are changing.. videogames as a sport will become more and more popular as time goes on

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I'm a die hard gamer and that is still a freaking joke.. it's not a sport.. its a hobby just as this is..

golf, tennis, running, football, gymnastics..Hockey, skateboarding surfing diving etc etc etc.. those are sports..

to sit around and wiggle my fingers is not a sport..
its a leisure.

Sorry gaming and RC is not sports.

[seanh]

Originally Posted by helidude71

They say darts is a sport , so hell yes R/C is a sport.

that's because there is organization, leagues/teams, local and state competitions, national competitions. Yes, there is competitions in RC heli, just not state or locally organized. That's to say, there isn't a state level competition that all local leagues try to attend by winning local matches...anyone can apply. With a sport, you have to win to go to state or nationals.

[JoeW]

Originally Posted by CeeveeSiN

I'm a die hard gamer and that is still a freaking joke.. it's not a sport.. its a hobby just as this is..

golf, tennis, running, football, gymnastics..Hockey, skateboarding surfing diving etc etc etc.. those are sports..

to sit around and wiggle my fingers is not a sport..
its a leisure.

Sorry gaming and RC is not sports.

Agreed,

Curling, bowling and darts are more of a sport than RC Flying or Gaming.

It doesn't matter that there are 'Professional RC Pilots', those guys are spokes people, demonstrators, PR, marketing or sales, not athletes.

Full scale aerobatics, pylon racing etc can be considered as much of a sport as professional auto racing. I have a hard time with that a bit. What makes a race car driver an athlete, but not a bus driver?

Lines are blurred but, I think you could form a basis on two components.
1) DIRECT control over the 'object' involved.
2) demonstrated physical conditioning, motor control or 'skills'

Throwing a ball around doesn't make me a quarterback. Driving on the freeway doesn't make me a race car driver. And flying a toy plane (or heli) doesn't even make me a pilot let alone an atlete.

[Glass Monkey]

Originally Posted by seanh

that's because there is organization, leagues/teams, local and state competitions, national competitions. Yes, there is competitions in RC heli, just not state or locally organized. That's to say, there isn't a state level competition that all local leagues try to attend by winning local matches...anyone can apply. With a sport, you have to win to go to state or nationals.

so if it were better organized it could become a sport? i actually see some validity there as its a completely subjective term and definition is really just about what it means to the majority. its interesting how many (including myself) have such unambiguous answers to a such an ambiguous question. thanks for all the interesting answers!

[deca]

Originally Posted by CeeveeSiN

I'm a die hard gamer and that is still a freaking joke.. it's not a sport.. its a hobby just as this is..

golf, tennis, running, football, gymnastics..Hockey, skateboarding surfing diving etc etc etc.. those are sports..

to sit around and wiggle my fingers is not a sport..
its a leisure.

Sorry gaming and RC is not sports.

I play scrolling shooters, music games, and fighting games semi-competitively and I can sincerely tell you that I put far more effort into those pursuits than many of my friends do into the conventional sports they consider themselves involved in. Equating "hardcore gaming" to sitting around and wiggling your fingers shows that you lack the perspective necessary to make this claim.

I'm fairly certain the guys that got spots on actual racing teams from participating in the Gran Turismo 5 or Live For Speed competitions didn't view their time invested as leisure.

The issue I take with some of the viewpoints displayed here is the dismissal of RC and competitive gaming as mindless leisure. Granted, people who really invest themselves and compete on a meaningful level are in the minority, but they are no less dedicated to their pursuit than a professional basketball player. Too many people think that the "hardcore gaming" cutoff is based on how much time you spend playing rather than how you make use of whatever time you do spend. One hour for me on Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou is more stressful than an entire weekend of my roommate playing Call of Duty.

So don't get me wrong, I can understand why many don't believe RC should be considered a sport and many of the points raised are difficult to refute. All I'm looking for is respect where it's due.

[BurritoSnake]

Originally Posted by CeeveeSiN

I'm a die hard gamer and that is still a freaking joke.. it's not a sport.. its a hobby just as this is..

golf, tennis, running, football, gymnastics..Hockey, skateboarding surfing diving etc etc etc.. those are sports..

to sit around and wiggle my fingers is not a sport..
its a leisure.

Sorry gaming and RC is not sports.

I'm still mixed on RC being classified as being a sport but Gaming has been very big for a long time. It isn't technically called a sport but more of "esports" so electronic sports so I can't compare it to RC ..."rcsports"? dunno.

Anyway gaming is bigger then some sports and just as an example if you look at South Korea they are die for starcraft players sense about 1996... no seriously they will sit in their chair so long that when they get up their body is screwed up that when they get up they have a heart attack, also they have several channels and other things dedicated to the game, and I have heard of this happening a couple of times sense I'm also a hardcore staftcraft 1&2 fan.

Going back to is RC helis a sport... well I probably couldn't straight up call it a sport unless it had something like "esport" like games have.

[mkovalcson]

Originally Posted by deca

The issue I take with some of the viewpoints displayed here is the dismissal of RC and competitive gaming as mindless leisure. Granted, people who really invest themselves and compete on a meaningful level are in the minority, but they are no less dedicated to their pursuit than a professional basketball player. Too many people think that the "hardcore gaming" cutoff is based on how much time you spend playing rather than how you make use of whatever time you do spend.

Mindless no, lacking any value absolutely!

I see people escaping into these games and wasting ridiculous amounts of time and coming away with nothing of any value what-so-ever.

However playing real sports without getting to any meaningful level has value. Once upon a time I used to race bicycles. Now I prefer to mountain bike, but I don't compete, I do it because I enjoy it and because it helps keep me in shape. Staying in shape physically has value. It improves your quality of life, mental abilities, and enables you to take part in other activities. I was an avid waterskier for a decade and had a TOL tournament ski boat and skied regularly, but never competed. That was a sport!

Getting to level 500 in Halo 5 means NOTHING and gives you NOTHING in return for all of your time invested. (I have an XBOX-360 with Kinect in my house connected to a LARGE LED TV and surround sound stereo complete with monster Velodyne subwoofer.) I play video games an average of about 30 minutes a year unless you count my flight simulator.

[Commodore8888]

Like a few folks have pointed out, definitions often have to change as technology does. Would I call RC helis a sport in the traditional sense? Probably not.

Using the idea that a sport is a test of mental/physical skill(s) to determine 1 or more winners then at that point I would call stuff like XFC a "sport" or flying for sport. Just flying your heli around I would call a hobby.

It's the same way shooting can be a hobby, but there are sport shooters and serious competitions.

When it comes to stuff like eSports, I'm more leery to apply the term sport there. However, there have been a few games I've played where the team with substantial use of real world tactics and strategy will normally win but similar to "real" sports, an individual's own mental and physical ability can come into play.

(As a fun aside, my old paintball team would pre-test new strategies in the most "real" FPS games we could find. Ended up winning many matches by being able to hit the field with "tested" tactics. I can't deny that physical ability played a huge part though.)

[CeeveeSiN]

again I know all about "esports" and still think it is a huge joke..
I am an ubergeek and have been gaming since 1978 on Pong.. all the way to World of Warcraft and Starcraft2 and BF3 etc.. played in leagues..and have literally spent more than 16 hours a day consecutively gaming during the RC off season.

This year it was power leveling in Star Wars The Old Republic for end game raiding and competitive PVP.

from Dec 20-Jan 30th spent more time playing than I did anything else
I routinely spend up to entire weekends PVPing in MMOs on a ranked basis..

So yeh.. I get it.. but sitting in a chair gaming even in competition is still not a sport..
is chess a sport?

nope..