is what we do a sport?

[bostonkiter]

I relieved to see the 'no' column ahead! If u call anything a sport, that means that the people doing it are to be called athletes. With respect, I hardly consider some of my fellow partakers in this HOBBY athletes!


I do, however, consider my fellow kitesurfers, runners and climbers to be some level of athlete.

[Moktor]

Originally Posted by Mixmaster Pilot

Your comments are ignored after this comment given it's highly ignorant nature.

Learning a skill does not make something a sport. I fly heli's as my job, and it's taken a long time to get to my skill level, but it's not a sport. If I didn't get paid, and did it for fun, it would be called recreational flying.

Kind of harsh, don't ya think? I used to play and baseball is by no means football or rugby!

[755 robert]

When I was learning to fly rc planks,I would had considered it a sport.I was always hiking up a hill,down a valley,hopping over fences,climbing on roofs,climbing up trees,ect...That was as rugged a workout as any mountain bike outing..Helis just fell over,no workout there..To me a sport denotes some level of physical activity....Not twitching your thumbs and cussing..

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Originally Posted by Moktor

Kind of harsh, don't ya think? I used to play and baseball is by no means football or rugby!

Sorry that I was harsh, I played baseball (short stop) for a few seasons as an adult after I stopped playing cricket because of time constraints. But if you played, why make such claims then? You should know all the injuries pitchers have, and the demands on the catcher. Every player is advantaged if they have athletic ability in the field.

Originally Posted by bostonkiter

relieved to see the 'no' column ahead! If u call anything a sport, that means that the people doing it are to be called athletes. With respect, I hardly consider some of my fellow partakers in this HOBBY athletes!

Good point, I wonder how the poll would look if the question was, "can competing in R/C make you an athlete?". I'd answer no to that.

Originally Posted by laminarjack

I don't hate golf. I played it years ago and enjoyed it a little. But I looked to my right and left and noticed something that other golfers had in common, and I just never went back.

No disrespect to most here, but it's funny you say you looked around and noticed the other golfers. Have you looked at guys at R/C fields? I don't want to insult people, but we are pretty much misfits in general. And unlike golf, R/C has almost no females (and the ones who do show up get scared off by our excitement a GIRL likes this hobby too!). Just saying

[mkovalcson]

Originally Posted by Mixmaster Pilot

No disrespect to most here, but it's funny you say you looked around and noticed the other golfers. Have you looked at guys at R/C fields? I don't want to insult people, but we are pretty much misfits in general. And unlike golf, R/C has almost no females (and the ones who do show up get scared off by our excitement a GIRL likes this hobby too!). Just saying

That assumes they are young enough to care about the girl. I would say the median age at my club is AARP age. A few are allowed to drive past the parking lot to the flight line because it is a physical hardship for them to walk up that small incline.

The RC Heli crowd is younger than the plankers, on average I'd say by 20-30 years.

I also belong to the local Rose Society which is the only other group of people I'm involved with who are on average older. We have almost as many emails notifying us of a funeral service as we do monthly meetings. I'm am definitely the young pup at these meetings.

[Sambuka]

It can't be a sport. Sports are never this much fun ;-)

[lrhorer]

Originally Posted by Mike2112

I can build, setup, and fly a heli well enough, but still can't golf to save my life. How people watch golf is a mystery to me. Golf is on sports channels though, isn't it? Helis are mostly on youtube! I vote NO SPORT!

Golf is not a sport. Golf is old men in bad pants, walking.

[havard]

It´s most definitely a sport. Here, all clubs are organized under Norwegian Aerial Sports Federation (if I translated that correctly), so it MUST be a sport.

In my language there are two words for sport, where one implies physical activity, and athletes, and the other is a much broader word that also includes precision sports like dart, pool and the likes.

Personally I would not call my play time with rc helis and planks a sport, but that´s just me I guess.

[lrhorer]

Wel, it's probably more a hobby than a sport, at least for most of us. Most of us spend a great deal more time building or repairing models than flying them, and for most of us it is not a competiton. Of course, not all sports are competitive, and certainly there are flying competitions.

All that said, I think it can be described loosely as a sport. Certainly it is as much of a sport as fishing or hiking. Perhaps "hobby" is a better description, though.

[cortesoft]

A sport is a competitive athletic activity. The athletic part is up for debate (it does take manual dexterity to fly at the top level), and whether it is competitive or not depends on what sort of flying you are doing. If you are participating in heli competitions, then I would say you are participating in a sport. Otherwise, you are participating in a hobby.

[Airworks]

ahhhhhhhh , is thumb wrestling a sport? is race car driving a sport?chess is a sport.,hows that?

[lrhorer]

Originally Posted by cortesoft

A sport is a competitive athletic activity.

That's one definition, although perhaps not the best one. Hiking, mountain climbing, scuba diving, and fishing are all considered sports. None of them are usually competitive, although there are fishing competitions, and diving and fishing are not athletic.

Originally Posted by cortesoft

The athletic part is up for debate (it does take manual dexterity to fly at the top level)

It takes a rather great deal of skill. Certainly more than running or weightlifting. It's also up for debate whether a sport must be athletic.

Originally Posted by cortesoft

and whether it is competitive or not depends on what sort of flying you are doing.

The same is true of running, swimming, shooting, logging, you name it. For the most part the only sports that are inherently competitive are games. Any activity that keeps score is automatically competitive.

Originally Posted by cortesoft

If you are participating in heli competitions, then I would say you are participating in a sport. Otherwise, you are participating in a hobby.

The two are not mutually exclusive. More to the point really, this is all based upon a pair of definitions, and all definitions are arbitrary. Thus, whether a particular article fits a definition is also arbitrary.

[snjbird]

I don't know man, it really seems like it's a hobby... You can't find Trex parts a a sports store, they keep them at the hobby shop...

I shoot for a hobby, I camp for a hobby, I fly helis for a hobby, scuba... hobby.

I even golf as a hobby, even if it has been a few years, well ok a decade...

Tennis, I play on a recreational level, but I feel like I'm playing a Sport when I do it...

My kids play softball and baseball, and they are doing it on a sport level... The boy shoots paintball, and I see that as a sport, he is pretty worn out after a day of that kinda running around...

Going out to a rouge filed, loading the truck, setting it all up, and tearing it all down can be a nice little workout. It's kinda like doing the same thing with camping gear... but sill I don't feel like I''m participating in a sport as I do it?

[seanh]

just call it an activity and be done with it.