Why Are You Drawn To Some Sports & Not Others?

There are hundreds of sports all competing for supporters, funding and platforms. Why are we drawn to say rugby but not swimming, or hurdling but not baseball? I've been thinking recently that sports essentially fit into two broad categories, in that it may be the category that makes a sport easier to adopt or reject.

I don't know every sport, but every sport I can think of fits into one category or the other. I find that although football is my sport I do enjoy the odd game of something else from time to time. It just made me wonder why I accept watching a game of rugby or tennis, but not athletics as a valid use of my time.

All sports require the athletes involved to be very disciplined in their lifestyle to become the best. They all examine the minutiae of their sport to learn everything from diet, muscle strain, shifting weight, endurance and a whole lot more. They examine the tactics they need to employ in details that supporters often just don't see. There are extra levels that determine their categories.

Expressive

A team sport like football is an expressive sport. By this I mean when a player has the ball at his feet there are decisions to make in what to do with it. Do they step over it knowing one of their players is behind them in a better position? Do they spot a player making a run and play them in for a run on goal? Do they see they are in no space so play it backwards? Do they knock it forward and make a run passed an opponent? Do they take a shot at goal? All of these options and more are dependent on a lot of things.

A team takes time to get used to each other, to work out little triangles to get the best of each other. The players get used to reading each other when on the pitch. The best players know all of this and know what they plan to do with the ball before they receive it. The best players are also skilled in many areas so they are very unpredictable to watch.

When they make the decision they deem fits the situation, they then have to execute that move. With players constantly moving they can one touch a forty yard pass right onto the toe of a teammate as they run into the penalty box.

All of this is a layer of expression that sits on top of the athletic aspect. Yes the players practice for long hours, train for long hours, have fitness regimes to keep in shape, or repair their body after an injury.

This is what energizes fans; they want to see their players express themselves as individuals for the benefit of their team. This is why fans obsess over individual players adding to their team, or missing from it. Players all have the basic skills, but their individual natures and abilities make them suited to specific roles within the team. Those who know when to express themselves and have the ability to do it are the most lauded players. Those are the players who excite the crowd, who can exploit a gap and create a goal for the team out of nothing.

This is what causes endless speculating among fans "what if X player came to Y club?" "would X play if Y arrived?" "would X still play in Y position if Z arrived?" "would X be strong enough to reach Y stage of Z competition if D was fit and on form?". That's just the forward looking part of the equation, the backward looking part is about what's happened up until now "we should have had a penalty last week" "last time we played X, Y got a bad injury" "player X badmouthed team Y, will team Y make player X's team pay by beating them on Saturday?"

These are all just ever changing individual parts of an ever changing over all whole. This is part of the sports media covering their sport; they're fans who are paid to give their opinions and analysis.

There's also the managerial element where they have to work with the resources they have to cope with the opponents they play. Can they play the usual game they prefer? Do they have the players they'd like available? Do they modify their tactics a little bit to cope with some part of their opponents game? Do they use this game to give younger players some experience? Do they have excellent players who haven't managed to gel together as a unit yet? Do they play one or the other, or both? Does that affect the shape of the team or the tactics they can employ?

Machinist

The Olympics has a lot of machinist sports, in that the athletes concentrate on becoming the perfect machine to put their bodies to the limit when the start gun goes off. The tactics are focused on being a smooth running engine in terms of regular pace, micro second jump at the start, getting into the rhythm, maintaining the rhythm just a little bit faster than they've ever done before. It's about managing your energy levels to keep you in the running while giving everything in that one race. There is no unexpected action, there is nothing for the athletes to decide on during their race other than managing the body machine. It's about pushing the body to it's limits.