Sports are activities that involve physical exercise and skill, often competed against other participants. They have a positive effect on a person’s mind and body, and can be used to improve one’s health.
Definition:
A sport is any form of competition in which two or more parties compete against each other, often using physical events such as a race or a soccer game. They are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, and can be contested either simultaneously or in sequence.
Theoretical Approaches:
There are different approaches to defining the nature of sport, including formalism and conventionalism. The former focuses on the ‘rules’ that govern sport, while the latter emphasises the ‘norms’ that underlie these rules.
Formalists view sport as a system of rules that serve to determine the point of the practice and provide a justification for it. They also argue that the rules of a particular sport must be applied in accordance with a range of normative principles that shape its history and social context.
These include a’respect for the integrity of the game’, which recognises that the interests of the game are separate from those of the players; and an ‘independence of sport from society’, which holds that the interests of sports are broader than those of individuals. In addition, they consider the relationship between sport and art, arguing that it is an art in its own right (Best, 1975; Wertz, 1985).