Is Airsoft a Sport?

[BATMAN]

To me, a sport is an organized activity in which two or more people compete against each other in achieving a common goal using personally developed physical and mental skills to gain an advantage over their opponent, and the end goal does not involve the death of any player.  This excludes, however, anything that simulates a physical scenario by electronic means (like a video game).  That's a simulation of a sport.  Airsoft, I would say, is definitely a sport.

People play "sports" all over the world on a day to day basis without "set" rules, and that doesn't make them cease to be a sport.  For example: how many variations are there of football with different set rules?  NFL, CFL, Arena, College, High School, Flag, etc.  If I decide to play 2 hand touch football, is it not considered a sport anymore?  Even professional sports sometimes have variations in their rules from location to location.  Pool is governed by "house rules" depending upon where the tournament is, baseball's home run line varies according to the ballpark; sports like hockey and soccer have completely different rules in the Olympics than normal.  Also, a sport doesn't have to be a spectator activity.

Another thing: it drives me crazy when people try to argue airsoft as a "sport vs. hobby," as though it can only be one or the other. Goodness, a sport IS a hobby!! Some people are fortunate enough to also make a sport their career, but for the rest of us, it's a hobby.  Airsoft by itself (collecting, upgrading, accessorizing) is just a hobby, not a sport.  When you involve other people and use it competitively, it becomes a sport.
-BATMAN

[Bow-tie Assasin]

Another thing: it drives me crazy when people try to argue airsoft as a "sport vs. hobby," as though it can only be one or the other. Goodness, a sport IS a hobby!! Some people are fortunate enough to also make a sport their career, but for the rest of us, it's a hobby.  Airsoft by itself (collecting, upgrading, accessorizing) is just a hobby, not a sport.  When you involve other people and use it competitively, it becomes a sport.
-BATMAN

Somebody is up past their bedtime [-X .Thats a really good point though. I never really comprehended sports as a hobby until you pointed it out. Even though every time people ask me what my hobbies are I include basketball. ](*,)

[Winters]

sport   /spɔrt, spoʊrt/  Show Spelled Pronunciation [spawrt, spohrt]  Show IPA
–noun 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
2. a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.
3. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.
4. jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry: What he said in sport was taken seriously.  
5. mockery; ridicule; derision: They made sport of him.  
6. an object of derision; laughingstock.
7. something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.
8. something or someone subject to the whims or vicissitudes of fate, circumstances, etc.
9. a sportsman.
10. Informal. a person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person: He was a sport and took his defeat well.  
11. Informal. a person who is interested in sports as an occasion for gambling; gambler.
12. Informal. a flashy person; one who wears showy clothes, affects smart manners, pursues pleasurable pastimes, or the like; a bon vivant.
13. Biology. an organism or part that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; mutation.
14. Obsolete. amorous dalliance.

I think airsoft is clasified as a sport, but acording to definition 12 we need someone to wear a tux to the next game. who sould?

Actually, now that you mention it, Since ive been in vegas working Ive seen some one dress up like hitman and play the field with an mp7. its a sick pic

[saw gunner clayton]

weather it is an official sport, will be told only by time and the next few years of what we and other organizations make of it. part of this process will be granting access to AOs closer and maybe inside city limits as goes for tucson. Phoenix has way more AOs, but us down here in tucson have a long way to go. But in the next few years, it is almost certain that airsoft will trive with almost as many befits as paintball, but with less vandalisim that paintball can cause. I think big box stores such as walmart should cancell selling airsoft products, because those who make our sport face ruin by vandalisim, and hoodlumisim feed off those very products from big box stores. Airsoft is rising, and we will be the ones who lift it.

[jwc122393]

If airsoft isnt a sport then why is there a website based on finding recruits and competeting teams. So, anyone who doesn't think that it is a sport why dont you come out to a game and find out what happens when you treat it like a thing to do cause your bored.