Is bowling a sport?

[bowlindog]

The sport of bowling is that I can compete against myself or against another player or team. While bowling against you I can intimidate you mentally by putting pressure on you to do better than me or my team. Yes, it may be your hobby but even hobbies have developed into sporting events.

[coasterboarder]

Bowling is always a hobby, no matter how seriously you play it. You're competiting against yourself, against your own personal best in order to beat others. You cannnot effect their play and they cannot effect yours, you decide your own destiny. Most other sports require a head to head contact, most of them require personal battles against someone as well as team battles. Bowling is a one on one, you against yourself. Thats why I don't think bowling is ever a sport.

You bring up three main interesting points, and I will address each individually:

 

1. If competing against yourself without your opponents having any direct effect on the outcome determines sport, youre going to have a lot of angry golfers willing to argue with you also.

 

2. As far as team and personal battles go, bowling definately pits one team against another, so I dont know how you can say theres no team competition, and Ive bowled the highest game on my team, but still lost my head to head match, so head to head matchups definately exist.

 

3. And once again, If competing against yourself without your opponents having any direct effect on the outcome determines sport, then my point continues, FUSEBALL is a sport.

 

Finally, there is no specific definition to give to "sport" because if there was, there would be enough exceptions and loopholes to call tiddlywinks a sport. So, eventually, it just comes down to personal opinion, and while youre entitled to your own opinion, I think bowling in a team setting is a sport.

[redbaron515]

If anything makes it to ESPN, than its a sport, lol. Bowling is on there all the time, weightlifiting, even Scrabble and poker. CoasterBoarder brings up a good point, their are alot of different ways you can describe a sport. One of the defenitions of a sport is as follows...."fun". With that being said, any kind of activitiy that we find "fun" can be defined as a sport.

[bergil24]

I said, the BASIS of skeeball is the same...anotherwords is has the same point...to get a ball to hit a certain place. Going out and running by yourself is still a sport, its just that you're practicing for the sport, even if you don't compete in the sport. There is plenty to debate, personally I was just throwing in my 2 cents in the beginning because I didn't really wasnt to debate it I just wanted to throw in an opinion. However; no one here seems to look at it like I was trying to get them to. Bowling is always a hobby, no matter how seriously you play it. You're competiting against yourself, against your own personal best in order to beat others. You cannnot effect their play and they cannot effect yours, you decide your own destiny. Most other sports require a head to head contact, most of them require personal battles against someone as well as team battles. Bowling is a one on one, you against yourself. Thats why I don't think bowling is ever a sport. You should take it seriously whether you're bowling with your friends or you're competiting with a team, because in the end everyone wants to win, and the level of how serious you are when you play it shouldn't decide whether or not its a sport.

How can you justify running being a sport and not bowling? I know youve said (i think it was you) that you can get into the opponents head by telling him your time or something like that, well couldnt you just tell your opponent your bowling average or high game to get into his head?

[MaryvilleRebels]

Okay...bowling, when I say a personal battle I mean you against someone else. In basketball this is a huge thing because if you beat your man once then its not hard to do it again, because you're in his head. When I say beat I mean score on him, something fancy. In running if you are running something like hurdles or high jumpinging you can get people with form. With sprinting and running if you say a time, its more scary because its embarrassing to get whipped, its a visual thing. Its embarrassing to run a 400 and get beat by 100 meters. In bowling you don't have that. You can scores and thats it. It pits your mind power against someone elses. Why? Because you have to have the muscle memory and the mind power to make the strike to get the pin where you want it to hit. These you control yourself...and you have no control over the other players. Unlike other sports where you do have control. You have some sort of advantage somewhere.

[bergil24]

I get what your saying about basketball and getting into their head, but running? When you go out and start a race your not thinking about what the guy next to you and what his time is, and if you are you are doing it to push yourself to run that much faster. so i still dont get what your saying about running. but in bowling if you tell someone your bowling average then the whole match your opponent knows that they have to bowl so many strikes and if they get behind they are trying to gain it back the rest of time.

[coasterboarder]

I get what your saying about basketball and getting into their head, but running? When you go out and start a race your not thinking about what the guy next to you and what his time is, and if you are you are doing it to push yourself to run that much faster. so i still dont get what your saying about running. but in bowling if you tell someone your bowling average then the whole match your opponent knows that they have to bowl so many strikes and if they get behind they are trying to gain it back the rest of time.

Youre half right, bowling is mental, as is every sport (including fuseball). But running is definately mental, so I dont agree with what you said there. Long distance races are the most intense physical and mental events in sport. Not only do you have to be in ridiculously good shape to win, but for good runners, every move, every surge, every positioning yourself strategically is part of a mental chess match which can ultimately cause an opponent to lose focus, hope, and speed. Running is not about going out and running as fast as possible- if it was, then the best atheletes would always win. As it is, long distance running especially is often won by the one who can run a strategic race which takes advantage of his strong points while mentally draining his opponent.

[bergil24]

Youre half right, bowling is mental, as is every sport (including fuseball). But running is definately mental, so I dont agree with what you said there. Long distance races are the most intense physical and mental events in sport. Not only do you have to be in ridiculously good shape to win, but for good runners, every move, every surge, every positioning yourself strategically is part of a mental chess match which can ultimately cause an opponent to lose focus, hope, and speed. Running is not about going out and running as fast as possible- if it was, then the best atheletes would always win. As it is, long distance running especially is often won by the one who can run a strategic race which takes advantage of his strong points while mentally draining his opponent.

are you saying that the opponent would "lose focus, hope, and speed" durring the race or before the race. bc if you meant durring the race then i would agree with you.

[MaryvilleRebels]

As a runner I can tel you that nothing is harder than a 400. Its a sprint, but its long enough to make your body scream. I think its the most mentally distressing run in sports. After about 300 meters or so you're body tells you to stop, to give up...and you can't! If you're running with someone, or competiting against someone for a certain place you have to actually push yourself harder. Thats where the race is won and lost. In running its easy to make up your mind before he race that you lost. Seeing a runner ahead of you doesn't make you fight harder but it makes you give up. Now in bowling its not quite as embarrassing to lose big as it is in running. Especially when you're running and you have 100 meters left and the person infront of you is across the finish line, it makes some people want to give up. In bowling, you've always got a chance up until almost the very end. Unless you're horrible and the other guy is exceptional, in that case...u shouldn't be bowling. If you just can't get the pins to fall its a let down, but its you're fault. If you can't beat someone and they whip you, its not really you're fault, its because they're better. Having to admit someone is better is much tougher than having to admit that you just had a bad day.

[coasterboarder]

As a runner I can tel you that nothing is harder than a 400. Its a sprint, but its long enough to make your body scream. I think its the most mentally distressing run in sports. After about 300 meters or so you're body tells you to stop, to give up...and you can't! If you're running with someone, or competiting against someone for a certain place you have to actually push yourself harder. Thats where the race is won and lost. In running its easy to make up your mind before he race that you lost. Seeing a runner ahead of you doesn't make you fight harder but it makes you give up. Now in bowling its not quite as embarrassing to lose big as it is in running. Especially when you're running and you have 100 meters left and the person infront of you is across the finish line, it makes some people want to give up. In bowling, you've always got a chance up until almost the very end. Unless you're horrible and the other guy is exceptional, in that case...u shouldn't be bowling. If you just can't get the pins to fall its a let down, but its you're fault. If you can't beat someone and they whip you, its not really you're fault, its because they're better. Having to admit someone is better is much tougher than having to admit that you just had a bad day.

so... being slow isnt your fault? Lets look at it this way:

 

In Track, if you get killed in a race, the explanation should be that you didnt train as much or as well as the person who beat you. How is that any different than someone bowling 6 games of practice a day over the summer and coming in and putting up an average that is untouchable. No one is perfect, so if you get down a lot to your opponent by the 5th frame, its very unlikely that you will all of a sudden become better and knock more pins down. The same is true in track, if at the 300 meter mark of a 400 meter race, you are losing bad, its unlikely that you will catch up. Both are direct results of training and ability, neither is a self-determined level of competence. Sure, in bowling, you can get all strikes and no one could beat you, but thats the equivilant of someone running a 43 second 400 every time- its unrealistic. While track is much more physically demanding than bowling, saying that bowlers can determine their own destiny in a match more than a sprinter can is a hard point to sustain.

 

 

And yes, I mean during the race, Bergil

[MaryvilleRebels]

A sprinter really doesn't have to train for what he does (except 400 and relays). 400 runners have to train because of the distance, but if you get beat by 100 meters then its not really training, its the other person kicked ur butt and is better. Its not likely you're going to be able to come out anytime later and beat him, unless he's hurt or something. Bowling, I don't see how it takes that much actual talent, god given talent I mean. If you work hard enough you should be pretty good. Sure some people have a little something going for them, but nothing compared to a sprinter having god given speed. I don't have a lot of speed, personally, I have to work for everything I get, I run average in just about everything but the 400, I run a 53. Running a 53 is good enough to qualify you for regionals. However; a 53 is not good enough to beat the best in the state, and if your best is a 53, odds are you're not going to beat someone with a 49, no matter how hard u train. Bowling is different, u can train hard and eventually u might catch them.

[coasterboarder]

Alright, your logic makes some sense (although acheiving a 53 is pretty solid), but I still don't see how this makes bowling any less of a sport? If you have to be naturally skilled to be great for something to be a sport, then that sort of takes the fun out of training- there would be no point in practicing.

Edited January 5, 2004 by coasterboarder