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Phillyfan10 t1_istenv8 wrote

Not much of a video game player. People have been getting pissy since the dawn of time about the “sports” designation. I actually had this debate with a coworker a few days ago.

Who cares. Call it “Slappy Jim’s magical electronic activity hour” if you so desire. More kids being able to find a role and place in school doing something they enjoy is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

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[deleted] t1_isvdauq wrote

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Basas t1_isx0ljl wrote

Same way as chess is. It is useful in its own way but should not replace 'traditional' sports.

> literally fits the definition. hands are used to control the game. you are physically exerting yourself to achieve a personal or team-oriented goal

By your definition creative writing or masturbating would also fit, but it can't replace running or basketball.

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ApprehensiveTry5660 t1_isxhizv wrote

To be honest, with the track record concussionball has had over the last decade I’d be perfectly fine if Chess and ESports outright replaced it at the K-12 level.

It’s literally the difference in funding activities that sharpen your brain rather than physically soften your brain. I say this not just as someone who grew up playing and watching these sports, seeing both the best and worst of them, but as a parent whose children appeared right around the same time several of my childhood heroes committed suicide with gunshots to the heart so people could study their spongey brain.

I’d rather them smoke than play football at this point, and I’m beginning to have reservations about Soccer and Lacrosse. Basketball and baseball haven’t quite made the cut for me yet, but I have suspicions my own brain might become mush if I’m forced to watch too much of the latter.

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djb1983CanBoy t1_isxwxx3 wrote

Football is inherently dangerous and violent. So is hockey. But the other sports are not violent.

But there are ways to make it safe for kids and minimize injuries like concussions. Kids dont do headers in soccer anymore. Touch football should be a thing. There is no hitting in hockey below a certain age, and skill level.

Dont write off all team sports because certain ones glorify violence at the professional level.

But i would still like sports to involve physical exertion. Ive never gotten out of breath playing chess or shooting bad guys in call of duty. Why cant we just call them games, not sports?

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ApprehensiveTry5660 t1_isy1yqw wrote

In tournament scenarios, you’ll easily burn 5,000+ calories playing chess. Completely ignoring the 10,000+ step days traversing hotels where 100 other players are all on a similar schedule for using the elevators, focused thought for 4 and 5 hour games twice a day will make your brain absolutely burn up the calories. Call of Duty produces a similar effect. Watch someone take it seriously, even if they’ve never held a controller before, and within 1 tense lobby they’re sweating.

I’ve played through hits as early as middle school that I should have checked out on. Culturally, it’s all, “Rub some dirt on it and walk it off.” Slide tackles and headers are still a thing at the local high schools for soccer. The LaCrosse culture is almost as bad as Rugby and Soccer. I’m biased to love basketball as much as I did football as a kid, but it’s got its own smaller specter of, “Play through the pain,” that only slowed down after we all watched Derrick Rose and Brandon Roy’s knees fall apart. I give their professional league a lot more credit for leadership from the top down, but so many more of these situations happen for small town kids listening to small town doctors who go to the same church as the coach.

I’m all for physical exertion, and to this day I’m a long distance hiker and kayaker for my personal exercise, but I wouldn’t want my kids following me down river, or god forbid taking up rock climbing or any of the other dumb shit I did when I was young and invincible. Some sports should be much more elective/extracurricular and restricted until brains are fully formed, or as you’ve stated had the contact lowered. It shouldn’t be pricy stadiums devoted to watching midwestern teenagers the size of refrigerators slam into each other at full speed. We shouldn’t be glorifying kids who cut their finger off to play in the playoffs because the recovery for a broken bone was too long, or putting them in situations where those kind of choices are even an option.

The concussions in football was the turning point for me on a lot of these views, but I’m a little bit ready for some of these cultures to change, even if they’re not in a hurry to change themselves. I’m sure football/hockey/etc will be way more boring with less contact, but to a large extent it is needed. All of it just starts to feel disgusting when you take two steps back from nostalgia and passion for these respective sports, especially if your kid is good enough to make AAU leagues and start summoning the beast that is repetitive stress for-profit.

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djb1983CanBoy t1_isy5oj3 wrote

I…theres a lot here.

You could easily burn 5000 calories, walk 10000 steps etc working as a cook in a restaurant on a saturday shift. I wouldnt call it a sport strictly because it burns calories.

Yes the culture that you should play through the pain is bad. Yes rugby is also inherently violent but soccer is not. Soccer is easy to change to minimize injuries.

Ya, idiots find sports without unnecessary violence boring. But hockey wont be boring if we just take out the fighting at the least. It didnt get boring when they started wearing helmets that made it harder to see players faces. It didnt get boring when icing was implemented. We live in a society where we can make the rules and people can be taught that watching people hurt each other as a side effect shouldnt be a thing.

(There is nuance here, as i dont call for getting rid of, say fighting sports like boxing, but if the objective is to chase a ball around and get it into a net, violence doesnt have to be a component for it to be entertaining.)

You do whitewater kayaking too, but dont want your kids to do it? Why not? you can teach them to reduce the risks by getting their roll strong and to always lean towards the rock etc. Why wouldnt you want your kids to do the fun stuff you did? Do you let them ride bikes? Cars always want to murder me on the road, but it doesnt mean i should give up bicycling.

There is always going to be risks associated with lots of stuff, the key is to minimize those risks where reasonable. (Like i wouldnt want my kid to do free climbing unless he was one of the best climbers in the world or something, but its his choice to do so when he gets older)

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