Sports Tiers

What makes for a great sport? How do you even define a sport? Years ago, I decided to look at these questions and formed objective standards (at least I attempted to find objective standards) to developed a tiered listing of sports and their value. I don’t have the list in front of me, but here are some possible tiers along with examples.

0 - Not Sports

Okay, so this isn’t really one of the tiers. It’s simply an explanation of certain things that some people consider sports that I do not. In short, these lack either the physicality or the competitive components that I consider vital to sports.

To me, a sport has to be a competitive games requiring legitimate physical skill. These skills can be strength, speed, agility, and even muscle control (accuracy). As you could see from the 0 tier, holding cards, moving playing pieces, pressing buttons, and controlling machinery do not meet my demands.

Examples: Poker, Chess, eSports, Motor Sports, Bungee Jumping, Jogging

1 – Simple Sports

The first tier consists of sports that meet both the physical and competitive demands that I feel all sports must have, but I consider to be one-dimensional. In other words, they are focused on one specific skill.

Examples: Track and Field (most events), Swimming, Some forms of skiing, Bowling, Archery, Weightlifting

2 – Indirectly competitive sports

These are sports that exceed the one-dimensional component above, but lack any direct competition. Instead, they rely on such things as scores and times that will be compared. They still have a competitive component in the sense that there are winners. Competition can still play a role in performance. For example, some trailing competitors might take more risks while those who have big leads might play more conservatively. These can also involve teams, but these teams are generally combining scores.

Examples: Golf, Gymnastics, Figure Skating, Decathlon, Triathlon, Some forms of skiing

3 – Directly Competitive Sports

These are sports where the athletes/teams that are responding directly to the athletes/teams that they are trying to beat. There are a lot of forms for this type of competition including reactions, play decisions, and opportunistic attacks. They also lack the requirements for the highest tier

Examples: Curling, Pool/Billiards, Tennis, Badminton, Boxing, Martial Arts

4 – Team Sports

This is a simplistic title, but that’s due to the requirements for this tier. It’s a mouthful to say “team-based action sports where teams are competing simultaneously in a shared playing area.” Let me break that down. These sports must rely on teamwork. They have to be fast paced (rate of action rather than physical speeds). Multiple teams have to be competing at the same time. These teams also have to have a shared space so that they have to respond more directly to their competition.

Examples: Hockey, Baseball (barely), Football, Rugby, Basketball (technically, although I’m not a fan), Soccer (ditto)