Have you ever thought about what a sport actually is? What actually counts as a sport and what doesn't? If so to starts off according to the Webster New World Dictionary a sport is defined as any activity or experience that gives enjoyment or recreation; pastime; diversion. It's also defined as such an activity, especially when competitive, requiring more or less vigorous bodily exertion and carried on, according to some traditional form or set of rules, whether outdoors, as football, golf, etc. or indoors, as basketball, bowling, etc.
But one thing that has been part of my life for a while but has never actually been considered as a sport but definitely has been argued quite a bit on whether or not marching band is a sport. Here are the top five reasons why marching band is a sport.
1. It requires more effort than some sports...
Don't get me wrong, you do have to practice when it comes to bowling and golf but that still doesn't mean that marching band doesn't involve a lot of work. Between hours of rehearsal each week, marching, playing our desired instruments, doing whatever the individual marching band does for pre-game, learning and memorizing drill spots and memorizing music there's definitely a lot more effort than some other sports.
2. There are competitions, with scores too...
The majority, almost all, sports involve some type of competition, scores or both. Some people don't realize that with marching band and even if it might not be as bad of competition in marching band in some areas there's still marching band competitions that involve bands competing against each other to win the competition, win second place and third place, kinda like a tournament for softball or soccer or any other sport.
Score wise even at marching band festivals they give out scores from one to five. One being the best and five being the worst. This may not be in a competitive level on the surface but underneath bands are having competitions between their rival bands to get the best of their score and be better. Even if both bands get a one, bands can get be better than the other band by getting more A's than B's.
3. It's an activity that gives enjoyment to most of its members...
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Like it said in the definition, a sport is an activity that gives enjoyment which is normally what happens with the majority of the members, the ones that don't get enjoyment are normally the ones that end up quitting either during or after one season. Either way as much work it is in the moment marching band is very enjoyable and even gets to the point of feeling like one giant family, that's one thing I never really felt often in softball, the family part not the enjoyment part (a couple of the teams I was on are exceptions).
4. The amount of time and practice put in is equal to or higher than other sports...
Don't get me wrong, most sports do have a bit of work put into them, but it gets annoying when people say there's not as much work put into marching band as there is with sports. There's multiple hours of rehearsal put into it while, unless your marching in a DCI band which goes throughout the summer, worrying about school, practicing and memorizing outside of rehearsal, worrying about making sure you're doing well enough to get a good grade seeing the majority of the time marching band is a class, paying for equipment and the class aspect if its a band that's a class.
Rehearsal wise is a lot like practice for sports in the aspect where there's stretching at the beginning as well as warming up on the instruments which is like stretching for the face or arms, running everything that needs to be done like running music, running drill, putting music to drill, running fundamentals and everything else needed to be run in the couple hour rehearsal that happens.
5. Some of the things/fundamentals are similar or the same to other sports...
Depending on which band you're in, all the fundamentals you have to do will be different. In high school marching band for pregame, we would have to high step in pregame like the Michigan Marching Band does, which was also like one of the warm-up things we would do on one of the softball teams I was on in high school. Stretching between when I played softball and marching band is pretty similar too.
When it comes to injuries even though it doesn't happen as often as some sports doesn't mean it doesn't happen. There's the possibility of rolling/twisting an ankle in a hole in the practice field or performance field. There's the possibility of not taking the exact correct path from one dot to another dot during a drill and running into each other.
Depending on how hard the impact is getting injuries from that, hurting your knee in a similar fashion to rolling your ankle, possibly getting hit in the head by a flag from the color guard section or possibly getting too close to a trombone slide and getting drilled in the back of the head with a slide, etc. Some sports that are considered sports right now don't have as many injury possibilities as this.
With the amount of things going on with marching band, it's shocking that it's not a sport. But hey, even though it may not be considered a sport at the moment, it's given me a lot higher sense of family than any sport ever has and that's the best thing there can be.
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