Is show choir a sport? (467)

            In my high school career there has been one topic that, it seems, no one can agree upon; is show choir a sport or not? Even within my varsity show choir, Happiness Inc., there is some debate. I would have to agree with people who say that it isn’t a sport.  Now before I get shunned from my group I would also like to say that although I wouldn’t consider it a sport I think it should get just as much recognition as any other sport such as basketball or football.

            Okay, first I think sports like basketball are obvious sports because they are played against another team, head to head. The officials of the game also have to keep score. I don’t think that we should classify every athletic activity a sport though. Like doge ball, no one is going around clamming that as a sport except maybe extreme dodge ball players. It is most obviously a game, even though it can be very athletic and high energy. For this same reason I don’t think we should classify show choir as a sport. If you compared the energy levels and amount of hard work put into an activity show choir would probably be up there with football though. That’s not saying football players don’t try, the opposite actually, it is saying that show choir is just as athletic as football.  In practices we sweat, need water breaks, and do the same eight count dozens of times.

            Although I don’t classify show choir as a sport, more as an athletic activity, I still believe that is should still get a sport waver. At my school, sport wavers make it so you don’t have to take a gym. I believe that it should get a sport waver because we do more exercise in our show choir class than people do in gym classes. In gym they walk around the track a few times and then play a game or sit out of it. To me that sounds a lot more leisurely than performing a high energy, cardio working show for 25 minutes, or practicing that same performance for three hours. Another reason show choir should get sports wavers is because of golf. I’m not saying golf isn’t a sport but it’s not a work out. “But you have to walk from hole to hole, that’s a work out,” some golfers might say. Yes that’s an activity but the actual sport of golf isn’t very demanding. If golfers get sports wavers then the show choirs deserve them too.

            So all in all my stance is that show choir is not a sport, but a physical activity. It is more athletic than some of the activity’s that are now considered sports, and therefore should get the same respect as one.