Reflections on Competition and Nature Sports

Abstract

Over the past several years, I have been arguing that nature sports such as surfing, backcountry skiing, and mountaineering are best described as sports in which athletes interact dynamically with natural features rather than compete with other humans. This article is part of a larger attempt to trace the implications of that view. Specifically, I consider the relationship between nature sports and competition. To this purpose, I address three separate, but related topics: First, I reply to Leslie Howe’s article, ‘On Competing Against Oneself, Or, I Need to Get a Different Voice in My Head’, in which she argues that there is a version of self-competition that is central to nature sports. Second, I argue that adapting nature sports to fit into formal competitive frameworks is problematic because, when we do so, the focus shifts from athletes interacting with natural features to athletes using natural features to outdo other athletes. And third, I argue that nature sports may seem competitive because the interaction between humans and natural features produces a type of intensity that is very similar to the intensity produced in competition. I argue further that because nature sports can produce this intensity in an environment that is not based on competition, they present an important alternative to traditional sports.

A lo largo de los últimos años, he defendido que la naturaleza de deportes como el surf, esquí de travesía, y montañismo son descritos mejor como deportes en los que los atletas interactúan dinámicamente con elementos naturales en vez de competir con otros humanos. Este artículo es parte de un largo intento por trazar las implicaciones de esa propuesta. En concreto, considero la relación entre los deportes de naturaleza y la competición. Para este propósito, analizo tres temas relacionados, pero distintos: contesto al artículo de Leslie Howe ‘On Competing Against Oneself, Or, I Need to Get a Different Voice in My Head’, en el que ella defiende que hay una versión de competición contra uno mismo que es central para la naturaleza del deporte. Segundo, defiendo que adaptar los deportes de naturaleza para que casen en los esquemas competitivos habituales es problemático porque, cuando lo hacemos, el centro de atención cambia de los atletas que interactúan con elementos naturales a atletas que usan elementos naturales para vencer a otros atletas. Y tercero, defiendo que la naturaleza del deporte puede parecer competitiva porque la interacción entre los humanos y los elementos naturales produce un tipo de intensidad que es muy similar a la intensidad producida en la competición. Añado que porque los deportes de naturaleza pueden producir esa intensidad en un ambiente que no está basado en la competición, representan una alternativa importante al deporte tradicional.

In den vergangenen Jahren habe ich das Argument gemacht, dass Natursportarten wie Surfen, der Tourenskilauf und der Bergsport am besten als Sportarten beschrieben werden, in denen Athleten mehr dynamisch mit natürlichen Gegebenheiten interagieren denn mit anderen Menschen. Dieser Artikel ist Teil eines größeren Versuchs, die Implikationen einer solchen Perspektive herauszuarbeiten. Insbesondere betrachte ich die Beziehung zwischen Natursportarten und dem Wettbewerb. Für diesen Zweck behandele ich drei getrennte, aber trotzdem miteinander verwandte Themen: Erstens antworte ich auf Leslie Howes Artikel, „On Competing Against Onself, Or, I need to Get a Different Voice in My Head“, in welchem sie das Argument macht, dass in Natursportarten eine Art vom Selbstwettbewerb zentral ist. Zweitens stelle ich dar, dass die Anpassung von Natursportarten an formalen Wettbewerbsrahmen problematisch ist, da somit eine Fokusverschiebung von den Athleten, die mit natürlichen Gegebenheiten interagieren, zu Athleten, die diese natürlichen Gegebenheiten nutzen, um andere Athleten zu übertreffen, stattfindet.

Und drittens postuliere ich, dass Natursportarten kompetitiv aussehen mögen, weil die Interaktion zwischen Menschen und natürlichen Gegebenheiten eine Intensität erzeugt, die dem Wettbewerb ähnlich ist. Weiter mache argumentiere ich, dass Natursportarten eine wichtige Alternative zu traditionellen Sportarten darstellen, weil sie eine Intensität in einer Umgebung erzeugen können, die nicht auf dem Wettbewerb basiert.

Au cours des dernières années, je soutiens que les sports de nature tels que le surf, le ski hors piste et l'alpinisme sont mieux décrits comme les sports dans lesquels les athlètes interagissent dynamiquement avec des caractéristiques naturelles plutôt que de rivaliser avec d'autres êtres humains. Cet article fait partie d'une tentative plus grande de retracer les implications de ce point de vue. Plus précisément, je considère la relation entre sports de nature et de la concurrence. Pour cet effet, je considère trois sujets distincts, mais connexes: d'abord, je réponds à l'article de Leslie Howe, «sur la compétition contre soi-même, ou, je dois obtenir une voix différente dans ma tête", dans lequel elle fait valoir qu'il existe une forme d’auto-concurrence qui est au centre des sports de nature. Deuxièmement, je soutiens que l'adaptation de sports de nature pour les intégrer dans des cadres formels compétitifs est problématique parce que, quand nous le faisons, l'accent se déplace d'athlètes qui interagissent avec les éléments naturels aux athlètes utilisant les caractéristiques naturelles pour surpasser les autres athlètes. Et troisièmement, je soutiens que les sports de nature peuvent sembler concurrentiels parce que l'interaction entre les humains et les caractéristiques naturelles produisent un type d'intensité qui est très similaire à l'intensité produite en compétition. Je soutiens en outre que parce que les sports de nature peuvent produire cette intensité dans un environnement qui ne repose pas sur la concurrence, ils présentent une alternative importante aux sports traditionnels.

在过去几年，我一直认为，象冲浪、野外滑雪与登山等户外运动最好不要被看成与其他人的竞赛，而要看成运动员与自然特征的动态互动。本文部分是对上述观点内涵的深度追索。因此，我提出了三个彼此分离但相互关联的主题：首先对Leslie Howe的文章《与自己竞争还是我需要听到我头脑中不同的声音》做出了回应，在那篇文章中，她认为，野外运动的核心是存在一个自我竞争的版本。第二，我认为，使野外运动适用正式的竞技框架存在问题，因为，当我们那样认为时，运动员与自然特征互动的核心将会变成运动员利用自然特征来战胜其他运动员。第三，野外运动看起来有竞争性是因为与人的互动和与自然特征的互动产生了一种紧张，这种紧张非常类似于竞争的紧张。我进一步指出，由于野外运动可以在一种不基于竞争环境而产生的紧张，对传统体育来说，它提供了一种重要的替代方式。

Keywords:

• nature sports
• competition
• adventure sports
• alternative sports
• extreme sports

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Alison Krein for reading early versions of this article and providing valuable conceptual and editorial advice. As well, comments by reviewers at JPS added significantly to the quality of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For examples of statements of this position, see the following: John Loy, in an article, I will discuss shortly, ‘The Nature of Sport: a Definitional Effort’ (Loy 1968) argues, that sports are ‘specialized instances of games’ and as such involve competition. In ‘What is Sport?’ (Jeu 1972) Bernard Jeu, considering the various meanings of the word, claims, ‘“sport”—and this is without question its strongest meaning—designates competition’(Jeu 1972, 151, emphasis Jeu’s). Scott Kretchmar, in his classic article, which I refer to below, ‘From Test to Contest: An Analysis of Two Kinds of Counterpoint in Sport’, (Kretchmar 1975) says ‘It is commonly recognized that winning and losing are essential to sport’ (Kretchmar 1975, 224). For a more recent example, see Daniel Dombrowski’s ‘Homer, Competition, and Sport’ (Dombrowski 2012) in which he claims that ‘Sport is a type of play, specifically a type of competitive play that can roughly synonymously be called athletics’ (Dombrowski 2012, 38). The view that sport is, by nature, competitive is also held to be the case by nonphilosophers who work in the field of sport studies. See, for example, William Freeman’s textbook, Physical Education, Exercise, and Sport Science in a Changing Society (Freeman 2015), in which he explains, ‘Sport is above all, a competitive activity. We cannot think about sport without thinking about competition … the competitive aspect is essential to its nature’ (Freeman 2015, 7).

2. For the most complete development of this conception, see Krein (2014). I presented the topic first in Krein (2007). And also address the topic in Krein (2008, 2010).

3. Many of the claims made in this section were originally presented in Krein (2007, 2014).

4. See Kretchmar (1975).

5. See Dixon (1999) for a discussion of this aspect of athletic contests.

6. Kretchmar (1975, 28) also makes this point.

7. See Wittgenstein, Philosophical investigations, §66 (2001, 27e).

8. Even if we leave animals out, I think that Howe’s claim that competition always requires two or more human competitors is mistaken. Considering the argument above that competitions require us to be able to meaningfully compare competitors. We seem to at least be able to make sense of humans competing against certain sorts of machines, namely those that we can be compared to on the basis of some skill. John Henry can compete with a steam drill or Kasparov can win or lose to Deep Blue for example. I am not sure if the competition in these examples more or less similar to whatever we take to be paradigm cases of competition to be than instances of humans competing against each other. But they seem to be far more coherent as examples of competition than do cases describes as humans competing against mountains, waves, or rivers.

9. Kretchmar makes a similar point concerning Howe’s position, but reaches it through different means (Kretchmar 2014, see his footnote 10, 37).

10. For discussions of these rare experiences of unified minds in nature sports and other contexts, see Krein (2014) and Krein and Ilundian (2014).

11. See Booth (2003) for a history and discussion of this development in surfing.

12. For an extended discussion of some of the ways the values of alternative sports are at odds with competitive values and commodification, see Rinehart (2007).

13. See Russell (2014, 239–40). Kant’s distinction is from his discussion of Jealousy found in Lectures on Ethics (Kant 1963, 215–17).

14. See, for example, Sailors comparison between mountaineers and summiteers for a critical discussion of troubling ethics that underlie some approaches to climbing (Sailors 2010).

15. See for example Cody Townsend’s line in the 2014 Matchstick productions film, Days of My Youth. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDEaAOcDKnA (accessed 16 March 2015). The performance won Powder Magazine’s Line of the Year Award. Compare this to lines skied in formal extreme skiing competitions. In general, the best big mountain skiing takes place outside of competitive structures.

16. Howe’s description of sport in the argument I discuss above captures this aspect of sport well (see Howe 2008a).

17. See Krein (2014) for a developed account of the term ‘primary role’.

18. While it is easy to see this in sports such as surfing and skiing, it may be less obvious in the case of sports like rock climbing. But it is clear that success in rock climbing is a matter of adapting oneself to the changes in the rock as they are encountered and to ascend with as little effort as possible using variations in the shape of the rock to do so. There is no overcoming the rock, only adapting oneself to it. The same is true for mountaineering, but on a larger scale that involves not only rock, but snow, ice, etc.

19. See Krein (2007) and Goodman (1988).

20. See Gebauer (1993) on this point.

21. For an excellent account of the influence of sport on the history, politics, and economic ideals of the United States, see Oriard (1991).

22. See Krein (2007, 294–99) on this point.