It’s not for no reason, it’s to see who the best puncher is.
this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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ShowerThoughts
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All sports are just “Who is the best at these arbitrary objectives which generally would have no other use in a functioning society?”
Had to think about it, but you're right. It only becomes a sport when it's not needed any more. Before that, it's a skill.
Horsemanship, archery, hand-to-hand combat, fishing, shooting... all practical skills at one time. Then they became sports.
LOTS of competitive sports as we have them now came from the military. Shooting, fencing, riding, etc were all basically dominated by military and winning contests was seen as a great historical way of showing your country's military prowess.
There are also used to be WAY more olympic shooting sports, including moving targets, animal-shaped moving targets, etc etc. Hell, one of the biggest horse-riding championships here in the Netherlands is called "Military" (the english word, because dutch people love stealing words from other languages).
Shooting didn’t cross my mind until you mentioned it. Yusuf Dikeç, the Turkish shooter known for his casual appearance at the Olympics, probably got his competitive edge by way of his military background. But shooting is like UFC and other melee sports: would a functioning society have a need for these violent skills beyond entertainment, or instead does a functioning society require people who are physically skilled enough to defend said society by way of sheer human force?
I just thought of a possible exception: cycling. Being able to ride a bicycle can be a pretty practical skill in some cities.
Edit: Swimming and diving too have practical applications.
Sure, but aren’t competitive cycling and swimming judged based on speed? People generally don’t have to bike or swim at those high speeds except in rare cases of emergency. Diving is usually based on flourish and performance? I can see people wanting to minimize pain when diving for leisure, but the backflips and twirls aren’t essential and most people would hurt themselves trying those.
I can see lifeguarding as an exception. Lifeguards don't have to show off when diving in to rescue somebody from drowning, but their quick swimming is essential for these emergencies. For lifeguards, becoming a fast swimmer is training for their job, not training for competition. There are other abilities found in sports that may help other emergency services, but I don’t see much of a career pipeline of pro athlete -> emergency services for related skills.
I might be coming at this from an overly utilitarian standpoint. There can be leisure and fun in swimming, cycling, punching a bag, catching a ball, etc., but the criteria for competition are beyond what would serve a purpose beyond that bubble of leisure except for the rare emergency cases in which superhuman ability would save somebody’s life or something. And even for these emergency cases, there isn’t much of an apparent push to divert the pros’ skills to serve society beyond entertainment.
Well, it comes down to the fact that professional athletes strive to be the best of the best.
Obviously we don't need everyone to practice those skills at that level; if we did, then we'd be out of luck because only a small minority is even physically capable of doing so.
But to say that practicing those sports doesn't have practical benefits is another matter, especially at the amateur level.
Like, you could apply it to any field. If the best chef in the world disappeared, we'd probably be fine. But that doesn't mean that cooking is a useless skill in general.
Ohhhhh, I get it now. I was totally missing the whole point.
Yeah women famously don't engage in combat sports lmao
I mean, yeah, I didn't say that but if you want. You want to meet so we can punch each other in the face in a ring? I bet I can punch harder than you.
It's not as if the UFC invented the idea of combat sports.
guys punching each other in the face until one is unconscious
That's unfair, sometimes they roll around on the ground until one of them taps the other, gasping, sweaty, out of breath and vibrating with the electric thrill of almost losing consciousness....