I guess we are not Athletes

[Dye Angel Guy]

I have been in this game for a long time (12 years) and now that I am 22 and all these college kids tell me I am not an athlete really pisses me off. Granted these days I do not play nearly what I did in High School and none of the people in Iowa saw me play in High School in Georgia but appearently we are not athletes.


As I recall when I played with Team Ultimate out of Canton/Holly Springs Georgia from Ultimate Paintball Georgia that we were practicing everyday after school and reffing on the weekends plus playing on the weekends. During summer we practiced for hours each day plus reffing thurs, fri, sat, and sun. I am pretty sure I fullfilled the athlete requirement as does everyone on here like a football player does. If being an athlete means hitting the gym everyday than no I am not an athlete but I am pretty sure that is not the only requirement.

This was only brought up today because of an athlete's foot commerical on TV and some one said their brother had it and I said, "does he not wash himself" and my roommate said, "you have to be an athlete to know". I was silent. I really had nothing to say at that point except for,"so I am not an athlete?".


I just love it when people laugh when you tell them you play paintball...

[SpitFire1299]

The definition of athlete- an individual who demonstrates skill in a sport, trains and competes as part of her/his regular routine or career goal.

You officially are an athlete.

[Dye Angel Guy]

See now that is what I thought.

[Hexis]

See, the moral of the story is is do not get upset by what people say, espicially so when they have a limited command of the language.

[athomas]

If anyone says you are not an athlete, then they are also discounting many other sports types as well.

[Maggot6]

Think about it this way...Would you say Hacky Sack is a sport? Obviously 99/100 people would not. And the one person would often say it was just to be funny. This is because you probably see hacky sack as kicking a hemp bag around while stoned...

However, when you see things like this http://www.flipsider.com/gallery/?g2_itemId=35 representing hacky sack, generally peoples views of stoned teenagers changes...

_____________________

Now, what do people think of when they hear paintball? Mainly camo suits sitting in the brush for 2 hours waiting to shoot someone. NOT people sprinting with full gear in shiny suits around astroturf and thousand dollar bunkers, such as this.. http://jayloo.com/videos/gallery/1/41.html

I try not to get pissed off whenever people say that I am not an athelete for Paintball, or things of the sort. I don't (usually) try to show them the light. Just take it as it is, and remember how ignorant they are while you are bunkering the cocky kid from other side of the field...

By the way, hacky sack is a sport..Called footbag...World Championships in Frankfurt are going on as we speak......

[Lohman446]

You are playing a game that involves hiding behind big balloons and shooting little gobs of gelatin at each other. Please don't take it too seriously.

[SpitFire1299]

Maggot6.. i think hacky sack is a sport. :clap:

[Toll]

Ask them if they'd like to play you a game or two, since it's not really heavy on athletic requirement.

[olinar]

thats the dumbest thing i have heard in a while,i hear that all the time from my bro and ge got me into the sport.he says i spend too much and i dont play enough.true i dont play as much as id like to but i still but the stuff for it. its the same thing as playin football and something like that in high school and hopin to get drafted. as a matter of fact i think the sport of basketball was started by a coach tryin to get his players to do better inanother sport.

[Dye Angel Guy]

Basketball was something like that and they used a peach basket for the first goal, go Georgia.

[SCpoloRicker]

thats the dumbest thing i have heard in a while,i hear that all the time from my bro and ge got me into the sport.he says i spend too much and i dont play enough.true i dont play as much as id like to but i still but the stuff for it. its the same thing as playin football and something like that in high school and hopin to get drafted. as a matter of fact i think the sport of basketball was started by a coach tryin to get his players to do better inanother sport.

I think I agree with this guy, all things considered.

[SlartyBartFast]

Obviously the friend considers communal showers and change rooms to be central to being an Athlete. :argh:

But, seeing as the discussion was about athlete's foot, it's a pretty ignorant statement to say that catching it has to do with not washing. Particularly one of the prime places to get infected is from shower room floors.

[mobsterboy]

Obviously the friend considers communal showers and change rooms to be central to being an Athlete. :argh:

But, seeing as the discussion was about athlete's foot, it's a pretty ignorant statement to say that catching it has to do with not washing. Particularly one of the prime places to get infected is from shower room floors.

i knew it. All the football players are GAY!

jk
but really, next time he thinks its not a sport, just take him along and have him run to the snake off the break. After the 4th or 5th time, he'll be begging for his contact football with his padding and such. Its not that you physically exert yourself during paintball, its that your usually pushing yourself to the limits trying to manuveur around the field and then you get lit up. So then you walk off the field tired, sore and aching, but somehow ready for another round of it, like you didnt get lit up enough the first time :D

[SlartyBartFast]

i knew it. All the football players are GAY!

Well, showering together, changing together, the whole towel slapping thing, tight pants, grabbing each others behind, group hugs...

Seems obvious to me. The usual hatred of homosexuality just looks like repressed feelings.

lol


but really, next time he thinks its not a sport

But the friend said nothing of the sort. Dye Angel Guy just needs a good medical primer on Althlete’s foot (and its evil twin jock itch) and to get counciling for the whole persecution/unloved minority complex thing.

[Dye Angel Guy]

What in the world Slarty, No type of any itch will be wanted in my future. I am pretty sure no one wants that or to give it.

[mobsterboy]

What in the world Slarty, No type of any itch will be wanted in my future. I am pretty sure no one wants that or to give it.

thats what they ALL say. They never wanted it, but it was given to them

saying you are not an athlete is like saying that the goalie for a soccer game isnt an athlete. after all, he ONLY stopped 12 goals the whole game, exerted himself in short bursts and punts the ball almost all the way across the field...

[RT Old School]

This argument comes up alot in other areas as well. Poker, darts, and dominoes have all been picked up on ESPN lately. I wouldnt call any of those participants athletes. I'd say they are playing a game. Yet its on a sporting network. (I play a ton of poker, and it has nothing to do with athletics, trust me.) Here is something where the line is a little blurrier, how about bowling or golf? Ive played both. I wouldnt consider them athletic events either. Not the way I play anyways. Sure it takes a certain amount of physical dexterity and skill...but you can be a real porker and play golf, bowling, or paintball for that matter. (God knows I've seen lots of obese paintballers too) If you really feel the need to justify that you are an athelete because you play paintball, knock yourself out. Just know that some people wont agree with you because of their perception of the game. Maybe they havent played and dont know what kind of stamina it can take to play it well. Two guys could be playing on the same team, one, an overweight guy who just sprays and prays and never moves more than a couple of feet from the back bunker, and another guy who runs, dodges, leaps, and performs amazing feats of athleticism. I would call the later an athelete and the former not. Same game, same team, two different guys.

[SlartyBartFast]

This argument comes up alot in other areas as well...

Cute post, but I fail to see why all of this soul searching and attempt to define atheticism stem from an Athlete's foot commercial. :rolleyes:


This was only brought up today because of an athlete's foot commerical on TV and some one said their brother had it and I said, "does he not wash himself" and my roommate said, "you have to be an athlete to know". I was silent. I really had nothing to say at that point except for,"so I am not an athlete?".


I just love it when people laugh when you tell them you play paintball...

Perhaps the post was incoherent, or I still fail to grasp the meaning. When did they laugh at you for playing paintball and when did they say paintball wasn't athletic?

[REDRT]

I would say to be considered an athlete one should be involved in a sport. I don't consider paintball a sport as do many other people. So I wouldn't consider any pb player an athlete. Though players that have better athletic ability and stamina quite often do better in this game.

[Dye Angel Guy]

True, some things I think are games and others sports but if everything played by the rules with its definition we would get nowhere because Halo would be a sport and sleeping would be a sport also. I guess games have to be made by Parker Brothers, Sony, Mircrosoft, EA Games, etc. Honestly I think everyone is correct in their own opinion and the point of this thread basically only rationalizes personal belief because we think of something is how we will percieve it.


P.S. I was just pissed about it the other day but realistically it was retarded of me to even make this thread. Keep in mind being retarded and doing something retarded are two different things.

[REDRT]

Retarded is what retarded does... :D

[athomas]

...but realistically it was retarded of me to even make this thread.

No, it is a good thread. It has generated good dialogue.

There is a grey line between what is a sport and what is not. This same line obscures whether one is an athlete or not.Paintball has many similarities to many other popular sports.

The main goal of paintball is to push down the field with the flag and get it in the other teams end zone to score points. Other than Xball, we just have a few other added ways to score points. It sounds alot like many other sports we are all too familiar with. The methods we use to achieve the objective are a little different than hockey, football, soccer and basketball, but that is what makes it a unique sport and not a variation of the previously mentioned sports.

Now, does paintball require an athete to play? I have seen overweight and/or nontalented players in each of the other sports, just like I have seen in paintball. The teams that do well, thrive because they have talented players who have skill sets. They work hard on strategy, maintain good physical conditioning, and train their hand-eye coordination for shooting. The teams with superior athletes, win more often. That holds true in all sports, including paintball.

So, is paintball a sport and are the players athletes? I think so.

[SlartyBartFast]

There is a grey line between what is a sport and what is not.

It's not that the line is grey, it's that the line doesn't exist.

Sport, game, athletic, like beauty, are all subjective terms. Like beauty, whether one qualifies or not, is in the eye of the beholder.

While your arguments are sound logically, they don't hld up to the reality of the dictionary definitions of any of the terms being bandied about in this thread.

[rkjunior303]

my wristband provided by the NPPL in Boston told me I was an athelete.

[vonort]

You are playing a game that involves hiding behind big balloons and shooting little gobs of gelatin at each other. Please don't take it too seriously.

Couldn't say it much better than that. Other than WHO CARES what others say?!?!

:cheers: