Anyone know why sports seem so popular than nerdy pursuits?

[blackforest]

I need to wear an Apple watch to Tosca and see if this works . . .

I sobbed at Miss Saigon as much as I did when Bartman caught that ill-fated baseball during that '03 Cubs-Marlins game. So who knows?

Playing sport against intellectual activities is problematic. But I think America , in general, is too caught up in the world of sport. I don’t want to get you intellectual sports fans riled up, though. I know there are plenty of you here on CAF.

I think the broader concern here isn’t so much the sports in and of themselves. It’s the breads-and-circuses, celebrity-worshipping culture. We see it in the NFL, NBA, etc. as much as in Hollywood. It’s always been around in our civilization, but technology has exacerbated it.

Our secular lives need balance - “guilty pleasures” like sports games and Netflix binges combined with great books and a nurtured intellect.

 

[on_the_hill]

on_the_hill:

You wanna talk about nerds? Go to an MTG release party.

But the smell!

Mostly pizza.

 

[Joe_5859]

But the smell!

That’s also kind of true. There is a … unique sort of smell at the pre-release events I have been to. I’m not sure if it’s just the smell of the game store, or if it’s all the people crammed in there.

 

[ZMystiCat]

Mostly pizza.

The pre-release events I’ve been to were at a store right next to a CiCis Pizza. Despite that, there was no pizza in sight.

That’s also kind of true. There is a … unique sort of smell at the pre-release events I have been to. I’m not sure if it’s just the smell of the game store, or if it’s all the people crammed in there.

When you have that many people at an event, you’re bound to get some…varying hygiene standards. In such a small space, that’s bound to make sure the mix of cologne and body odor gets permeated through the whole store. Not to mention, it’s often a weekend night, so some people are probably there from the bar and not fully sober, adding cheap alcohol to the mix. Finally, in an area that small, every bathroom break’s stench can easily seep into the rest of the store.

Also, all the ones I went to were in Miami, so you can add sweat from the hot, humid climate to the smell.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

If your definition of jock is one who is entitled to slack off academically and misbehave because the school sports team can’t do without them and is given unfair favors and privileges because of their athletic ability, well then you can imagine that most of the young men brought up that way end up being entitled little jerks. But how common is that, really?

I attended a school that was proud of its rugby team, and also proud of the school orchestra and choir. They regularly travelled and even went as far afield as Hong Kong to give concerts.

And guess what? There was one bunch of music teachers who taught the people in the orchestra and the choir. Those were the good teachers, many of them professional musicians who played for the orchestras with big names. And then there was another bunch of teachers who taught the rest of us. and they were more babysitters. We never did anything remotely interesting with them. Just copied stuff off the blackboard mostly or answered multiple choice questions. That is if we weren’t commandeered to put letters into envelopes to be sent off to sponsors of the orchestra, or sent out to pick litter off the sports field.

Strange that the athletes or musicians were never similarly commandeered to clean the chemistry labs.

Same in sports. The athletic guys were coached by a guy who used to be a professional sportsman, who had played rugby for Wales and who also trained professional teams. Our sports teacher was a history teacher who taught sports on the side and mostly gave us some activities to keep us busy and then sat down in a corner and marked history essays, only intervening in our activities when he felt we were getting too noisy.

I wasn’t good at music and wasn’t good at rugby but was quite good at more nerdy subjects such as chemistry and physics. I was in top set and compared to what the guys in third set were learning (which is where most of the top musicians and athletes were) we were learning about twice as much as them and working three times as hard.

This was not some mediocre rubbish school but the top Grammar School of the county that regularly scored in the top 20 according to OFSTED statistics.

Okay, this was in the 1980s and I hope things have improved since then. But nobody can tell me that schools don’t breed first and second class citizens or entitlement attitudes. Or that that doesn’t carry over into life.

 

[Gabika50]

Because morbid obesity is becoming a right.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

Because morbid obesity is becoming a right.

I think the political correct expression is “body positive”

 

[Allie1]

Because to me athletic stuff shouldn’t be as important and many jock types remind me of those who used to bully me for being a nerd in school and took my lunch money. I feel that academic pursuits should be more focused on, plus it may not be every athlete or sports fan,but most seem kinda dumb. Like they don’t know about stuff like history or such or know about any books.

I think what you need to understand. Is that everyone is an individual with different individual social needs. My son is an extrovert. He needs the social stimulation that sports provide. He is very good at soccer and he is good at basketball. But he is most passionate about soccer.

He is also on the chess club at his school, participates with the geography bee, and wants to join band.
He is good at academics as well as being athelically minded

He thrives on being socially stimulated. Which some people definitely need.

I dont know where he gets it from because I am and always have been an introvert. I am a book worm. I don’t need the stimulation that these activities provide, but he does. Which just mean that he has different needs than I do.

 

[Peeps]

You ask if great athletics required intelligence? Watch this video and then decide the answer to that question.

This particular program was the 2nd place program at this National competition, but the program itself won Best Program (for the design of the program) that year. This all happened 5 years ago, and the sport has advanced and become even more complex since that time.

Enjoy, everyone!

 

[blackforest]

Beautiful! Yea, you definitely need brains to pull that off!

 

[Peeps]

And to watch it and evaluate it.

A lot of people judge figure skating by the jumps. Those aren’t the sport–they’re just athletic tricks (that yes, require a great deal of training). But there’s so much more to the sport, and it takes years of study to truly understand and appreciate what’s happening on the ice. It’s definitely a sport that requires intelligence.

The reason that program is soooo good is because of the good skating–but how do I know it’s good skating when there weren’t any jumps?

There were constant changes of edges, lots of footwork, lots of turns and changes of direction, and many different body positions, not to mention the speed (which doesn’t come across well on video), the position of the backs and the heads, the deep bend in the very “soft” knees, and the cleanness of the program–the spacing between the skaters, the straight lines, the round circles (no 'eggs")–THAT’s Skating, and it takes some study and knowledge to KNOW that it’s great skating. There are reasons that these skaters were good skaters–it has to do with use of their blades and the edges on those blades and how the skaters made use of those edges.

And with synchronized skating, unison is important, and that team exemplified unison. When you watch their program, you would think they were all the same height and body build, but when you see them in the Kiss and Cry, .you realize that there are some very short skaters and some very tall skaters, and some that are very thin and others with more curves–and ALL of that has to be taken into consideration by the coach who choreographs the program! I think that rather than calling it “choreography,” we should call it what it really is–“program design.”

When you watch a whole flight of synchronized skating teams in competition, you realize that some programs just aren’t as well-designed as others, and some programs are beautifully-designed, but they don’t match the abilities of the skaters on that team. Sometimes you can spot a design flaw; e.g., when there is a crash, or when skaters can’t get their formations to line up–these incidents are often due to a design flaw (or they could happen because of skater error).

My point is that ALL sports have their intellectual side. Football players have to think on their feet, and there are thousands of situations that occur in each game, and the players have to figure out instantly what to do with those situations.

Quite a few years ago, there was a movie out about a girl who was a brilliant student, but not very athletic. She decided to study figure skating and “reason” her way to athletic greatness–and she did. The movie was fantasy, but I think it’s possible to use our brains in sports, and I think those athletes who DON’T use their brains will probably not achieve as much.

And I think fans who use their brains and learn about their favorite sport are going to appreciate the sport a lot. But the beauty of sports is that even someone who isn’t intellectual or hates studying or just doesn’t care about all the details can still have a great time just watching the game–or the synchronized skating program!

 

[PetraG]

I think the broader concern here isn’t so much the sports in and of themselves. It’s the breads-and-circuses, celebrity-worshipping culture. We see it in the NFL, NBA, etc. as much as in Hollywood. It’s always been around in our civilization, but technology has exacerbated it.

Our secular lives need balance - “guilty pleasures” like sports games and Netflix binges combined with great books and a nurtured intellect.

I don’t think so. If I compare going to high school football games and high school theater productions, they are just different things. They’re both great, I think someone who never tries either is shorting themselves, but they are fundamentally different both for participants and spectators.

Yes, I think the nature of being a spectator has undergone a sea-change. Part of this is because of the way slow-motion videography changes the experience of the sports spectator.

 

[Sarcelle]

Gymnastics have helped me improve my math and physics grades.

I hear something about sports helping develop visual spatial ability which counts for a lot in math and science.

My music lessons have also developed my temporal spatial ability which also is useful for math and science.

 

[PetraG]

Gymnastics have helped me improve my math and physics grades.

I hear something about sports helping develop visual spatial ability which counts for a lot in math and science.

My music lessons have also developed my temporal spatial ability which also is useful for math and science.

Yes! It is also worth considering that doing something and watching something have different effects.

For instance, playing music and listening to music both have effects, but they aren’t the same.
Likewise, playing sports and watching sports have different effects.

I would like to raise the possibility, however, that watching sports has a different effect on a person who has never played sports or who competed in sports and disliked the competition than it does on a person who has enjoyed competing in sports or even pushing themselves in the physical realm. The experience is very different when there isn’t a positive vicarious connection to the players on the field.

I have a friend who was a self-proclaimed “nerd”–avoided PE but played in her college orchestra–who got into physical fitness because her boyfriend encouraged her to do so. She never did anything competitive, but the experience of pushing herself physically changed her attitude towards watching spectator sports. She had developed a vicarious connection to the players that she never had before. Likewise, people who don’t form an emotional connection to the characters in literature or the arts don’t experience literature or the arts in the same way as those of us who do.

I think there are some people who don’t like “nerdy” books or literature (as opposed to, say, some kinds of mysteries or action films) because for one reason or another they aren’t connecting with the characters. The literary situation is either too emotionally charged for them (such that they resist connecting) or else doesn’t seem to them to move them in a realistic way or whatever.

 

[Allegra]

Hasn’t it always been a right? I don’t remember people being jailed for being fat.

 

[Allegra]

Those figure skaters should talk to their friends in the WG high school marching band. We see them every year in the 4th of July parade and it seems like every year they get worse and worse at staying in formation. Last year was particularly bad. They were all over the place. Lots of them were actually talking instead of playing. A few of them were eating popsicles. My husband has dubbed them “The Spirit of Mediocrity Marching Band”.

 

[Peeps]

Oh, that’s too bad. I love watching good marching bands!

Do you suppose it has something to do with i-phones? I was at a synchronized skating competition last weekend, and there were entire sections of teens and children, and adults, too, who spend much of the competition staring at their phones. So sad. just a few years ago, those people would have been dancing to various intermission music (Macarena, YMCA), etc., and adults would have been walking around seeking out old friends. It’s really a shame.

Of course, it could be that the budget for the band director was cut, and he/she doesn’t get as much practice time with the musicians.

I still love a good band! I love the song from Hello Dolly, “Before the Parade Passes By.”

 

[Allegra]

I could not begin to guess the circumstances, motivations, or theories that have led to this yearly display of laziness. I hope they put more effort into their other performances! I just figure, if you’re going to put on your school’s costume and march down the street in your own community, you should at least stand at attention, not talk, hold your instrument correctly, stay in formation, and at least look like you care. Whether or not the inclination to perform this way is related to iphones, I couldn’t say, however, I can only point out that the vast majority of school bands seem to have found ways to overcome the iphone problems.

 

[Peeps]

I hope the band improves.

 

[edward_george1]

I watch football, American and not, precisely because of the intellectual stimulation it affords. I find them both tactically interesting. Same with auto racing, basketball, any sport really. There’s a mental aspect to all of them. I say this as someone who has degrees in theology and philosophy and who enjoys more academic pursuits too. It doesn’t have to be an either/or. We can find joy in anything, even to the point of athletic competition serving as a vehicle for intellectual virtue.

You should read the lovely little book of Fr James Schall, SJ, entitled “Reasonable Pleasures: The Strange Coherences of Catholicism.” There’s actually a very good chapter on sport and how it’s good for our spiritual development.

-Fr ACEGC