What is a sport? A sport is any activity that involves three main ingredients: teamwork, competition, and skill. Take a minute and think about three typical sports: baseball, football, and basketball. All three are physically strenuous activities; in addition, they all face an opponent that is equal in the knowledge of the sport, as well, all three involve teamwork, which is the biggest concept of all three, and they all involve a tremendous amount of skill. While some people feel that hunting is a sport, hunting is not a sport because the use of advanced weapons does not involve skill, deer are incapable of defense, hunting does not involve teamwork, and sports do not affect the ecosystem.Three hundred years ago, hunting could have been considered a sport because of the great skill it involved. Back then, people hunted with homemade bows and arrows, spears, and slingshots. The people had to make their weapons, which alone took skill.
Learning to use these weapons also took a long time to master. The invention of guns, scopes, and laser sighting has made hunting a less skilled activity. Take a look at scopes in particular.
Scopes are used to get a clearer and larger view of the animal being hunted. Using a scope is a way that technology has taken away the acquired skill involved in hunting. In parallel, steroids are being used in sports. These drugs give athletes an advantage over the other athletes. Sports, in general, do not allow athletes to use anything that gives one person or team an advantage over another.
In this aspect, technology gives hunters such an advantage that it would not be considered following the rules of sports. One change could be to eliminate the use of scopes, or any other advanced technology so there would be more skill involved.In the sports of baseball, football, or basketball, you see an offense and a defense. The defense knows that the offense is going to “attack.” In hunting, there is only an offensive side of the field. Animals do not know they are being hunted; they do not have a chance to defend. They also do not get a chance to be on offense.
Sports, as a general rule, include both defense and offense. Many people might argue that Cross-Country is not a sport because it seems to involve no defense, but in fact, it does. A runner’s defense and offense is being presented at the same time. In order for a team to win, each person has to run faster than the opponent because the team’s score comes from the combination of each individual’s place. Hunting does not show this offense and defense. Hunting is one-sided: it is the animal being hunted. The hunter knows each time he goes out hunting that he is going to win because his opponent does not fight back.If you breakdown any sport and look at the main ingredients that makes it a sport, you will find that teamwork will be one of the main ingredients.
Teamwork is defined as a group of people trained or organized to work together to complete a certain task or mission. Look at the teamwork involved in football. For a team to win a game, teamwork has to be present from a variety of different people on and off the field. The offense works together to score. The defense works together to stop the opponent from scoring. The coaches and coordinators work with one another to get the plays to the players.
Even the waterboy plays a role in the teamwork aspect. In hunting, teamwork is not seen. Hunting is an individual activity. There is no team versus team in hunting. The animals being hunted do not have the opportunities or means to organize a defense against their opponent, the hunter.Have you ever been to or seen a sporting event that promoted extreme violence, such as death? Whenever a hunter kills an animal, they are promoting violence and death. A lot of hunters expose their children to this extreme violence at an early age.
These children actually see a life being taken. This is not good for children. Say the child sees his or her father taking an animal’s life and then hears him celebrating it. The child might learn to enjoy killing. In sports, you are taught sportsmanship. When a football player loses a game, you see them shaking the opponent’s hand and congratulating them on a job well done.
There are the aspects of discipline and self-control. Hunting does not exhibit any of these characteristics.In baseball or any other sport, the sport is not helping or hurting the ecosystem. The sport does not actually take anything away from the earth. In hunting, the hunter is actually taking something away for the earth, which is not always a bad thing.
Say an area is filled with deer. It is well overpopulated. Whenever a hunter kills the deer, they are helping the ecosystem by getting rid of the overpopulation problem. This is critical, as overpopulation of any animal can cause serious problems for the population as a whole and could possibly endanger many animals. It helps keep the animal population under control.
Although they are helping, they are still taking something from the earth, which affects the ecosystem. It is not like a football player affects the ecosystem when he runs in for a touchdown, or a baseball player affects the ecosystem when he hits a baseball.Hunting has been around for as long as we can remember, it was how humans feed themselves. Hunting has always been an American pastime, but hunting is not a sport.
Hunting is a hobby. Hunting does not have the main ingredients to be considered a sport, such as teamwork, offensive and defensive standpoints, or that great amount of skill. If hunters found some way of using teamwork to hunt or some way of giving the animals a fair chance, hunting could possibly be considered a sport, but until these changes occur, hunting is not a sport.