> : as an Mountainbiker, who in the past did marathon races and also competed in
> : the Downhill-World-Cup Race in Kaprun in 1993 / 1994, i know the world of
> : real world sports. And again, I train as much GPL now to be competive in our
> And you were competing in a sport then, whereas with GPL...
Here we go. One aspect in sports is competition, another is the physical effort one has to put into it.
And I (and some will certainly disagree) would also take the mental effort necessary into consideration.
IMHO its impossible to draw a border where a "set of skills" becomes a "sport".
Take e.g. long distance running, cross country skiing or cycling. While it is obvious that great conditioning is
the basis for performing well, the mental ability to "never give up" etc is just as important.
Another example is ski jumping (I know that for some people this is beyond what they would call a "sport"). It is
almost purely a head game, where focusing at the one ten second attempt is all important. I know, i have done it.
Next one is table tennis. Like in ski jumping, physical conditioning is part of it, but more so
hand-eye-coordination.
And the last example is chess. A pure game of mind. (Almost) no phyiscal skill required whatsover (I know that a
four hour match is also phyiscally exhausting, I've done that too). Yet I would call it (at the very highest
level, at least) a sport, due to the _heavy_ competition. Same with "Go".
And what about table tennis?
Another aspect of sport is that it is basically "useless" or "unproductive". (ok before you start flaming, the
german word i would use in this context is "zweckfrei", which i am not able to translate in its entire meaning. My
dictionary says "pure", but that doesn't get it).
So jobs are not sports (whereas sports can be jobs, just ask Michael $chumacher). Nor is "art". And this is the
point where we are entirely offtopic, aren't we?:)
Ditto.
Regards,
Andreas
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"Worueber man nicht reden kann, darueber muss man schweigen."(Wittgenstein)
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