Sports in Disguise

The things we do that we know as “sports” are probably the same things we see on Gatorade commercials or SportsCenter: guys and girls breaking a major sweat by sprinting across fields, diving onto grass for the spectacular play or leaping for awesome slam dunk.

But what about sports that most people don’t think of as “sports”? What about athletic efforts that a lot of folks don’t see as breaking that major sweat or making a sudden heroic play? Are they still sports and their players still athletes?

I personally had a brush with one of those gentler sports today in sailing. Think about it: does coasting along on rippling waters under sunny skies sound like sport to you. I didn’t think so either, until our boat flipped on its side and I splashed into the water.

I didn’t get hurt, but I understood why boating’s a sport when my instructor pulled me back into the boat. He told me to watch him carefully as he turned and pitched the boat. I noticed that his actions actually took a lot of fine muscle coordination and focus.

When we came back ashore, I came back with really a new sense of what sport is. Yes, it is those games that make you sweat and your heart pump. But it’s also those that challenge your mind and make you focus on using your body to its best. That’s the kind of sport sailing is.

Have you ever watched or been part of a sport that you didn’t think was the same workout as the “normal” sports. Tell us what you did and how you think of sports now that you did it.