Is climbing a Sport?

[trish fox]

Yes

[Stephen McMullan]

this should be moved to gymnastics.ie... 

[Kevin_Griffin]

No it's just training for chin-ups.....
You're missing the point Trish.

[trish fox]

Jeez!!!, haven't been to the co op for a while, but is that what it's come to?!!!!!! 

[Stephen McMullan]

Has anyone done the hoovering since I left?

[ciaran]

Climbing is not a sport, its more like hiking than football or golf, nobody calls hiking a sport. Competitive indoor climbing, which is in reality an off-shoot of training methods for real climbing, is a sport. Sports have rules and regulations real climbing doesn't.

[Tim Chapman]

Of course real climbing has rules and regulations. Dont let go,dont start half way up etc. just as there not as obviously policed dosnt mean they are not there. I just did wonderland by the way, begining was a faff so left it out. still count??

[ciaran]

Thats climbing culture and people conforming to accepted norms not rules and regulations

[Barry]

Climbing culture would be to be honest in your ascent etc  However, to actually make the ascent, for example in bouldering, you must start and finish at a certain point.  These are rules/regulations of a true ascent, not climbing culture, i.e. climbing is a sport. 

[ciaran]

The start and finishing points were waiting on the rock for many years for the climber to come along, they weren't marked out by officials in a uniform. Climbing culture encompasses everything like tagging rocks and their routes with names and grades. Current climbing culture gives importance to the pure line(non eliminate) of a route, mabye future climbers will be more interested in who can do the hardest / nicest eliminate, who knows ?. We are all exploring nature and boulders, and then telling each other how hard we found them, how nice they were to climb and how sweet a place to be the bouldering area was, we are not trying to win a championship trophy

[Barry]

Sport (or, in the United States, sports) is all forms of competitive physical activity which,[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants.

Admittedly From Wikipedia. Think climbing is a sport according to this.

[ciaran]

Climbing certainly falls into that category, it gets you fit as a fiddle and provides endless hours of entertainment. I suppose it depends on the individuals understanding of what a sport is, or what ''sport'' means to them, I got into climbing originally because it was a great way to get fit, enjoy nature and because it had no rules and wasn't a sport. The word competitive is the important word in your above quote, climbing is only a competitive physical activity when you do it in indoor competitions and compete against other people

[Barry]

In addition to enjoyment, I'm competitive against myself, the climbs, and a grading system. So for me, and in general, it's the sport of rock climbing for which I train. Will have to agree to differ on this one,

[ciaran]

There is the line in the sand I have been looking for, I'm really competitive with meself and the rock too, I train my heart out for it, my olympic gold medal is to climb an 8A, but to me something only becomes a sport when it involves competeting against other people

[trish fox]

So a runner, who doesn't run races isn't doing a sport?

A basketball player who just likes to shoot hoops alone isn't doing a sport?

As climbers, if we all hung out in adidas trackies and sweatbands would that make is more sporty?

Climbing is a sport - one has to be highly motivated and train hard for their projects. Good climbers are in ridiculously good shape and physically, are some of the most impressive athletes I've seen.