Sports have been around since what seems to be the beginning of time, yet even now people are still often uncertain of the true definition of “sports”. While there may be some gray area on the edges of a definition, Allan Guttmann attempts to more straightforwardly define sports, and in particular, modern sports in today’s society in A Whole New Ball Game. For his definition of general sports, Guttmann focuses on four main distinctions. First, he notes that sport falls under the category of play, but it must be determined whether or not an activity is spontaneous play or organized play. If it is in fact organized, then it turns to a game. From there we look to determine whether a game is competitive or not. If the game is competitive, it then turns to a contest, and from there the last distinction is whether said contest is intellectual or physical. Contests such as football, soccer, and cricket are all physical, and therefore may be grouped into Guttmann’s baseline definition of a sport. …show more content…
But there are also issues with some of the levels of this definition. When it comes to the difference between competitive games or noncompetitive games, many well-known “sports” may be thrown out. Activities such as running and swimming can take place competitively, but also there are many people who go out and jog or swim just for pleasure. Just because there is no competition does this make the activity any less a sport? This demonstrates Guttmann’s gray area in his definition because it divides the actual act of doing the activity versus the competitive sense of