"Sport" and "game" might once have described separate concepts but the words are interchangeable today. Some people argue that a sport is a skill performed by an individual while a game is a recreational activity involving team effort and strategy. Others maintain that usefulness is the key to defining sport: Fishing, boxing and auto racing are sports because they are useful skills in the real world, while football, soccer and baseball have no practical use and are therefore games. All sports can become games but games cannot become sports, although games can incorporate sports. The sport of javelin throwing becomes a game when athletes compete against one another at a track and field meet. The sport of running is part of many games, including field hockey.
Game Defined
According to the World English Dictionary, the first definition for game is "an amusement or pastime." Second on the list is "a contest with rules, the result being determined by skill, strength, or chance." The Olympic Games are included in the sixth definition: "an event consisting of various sporting contests."
Sport Defined
The World English Dictionary definition of sport is much the same as its definition of game. Sport is "an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game such as football, tennis, etc." The dictionary's second and third definitions use the phrase "pleasurable pastime" to describe sport.
Field Hockey
The IHF is the world governing body of field hockey and its rules provide the framework for U.S. NCAA colleges and NFHS high schools. Field hockey first appeared in the 1908 Olympics. Similar to soccer and, to an extent, ice hockey, two teams of 10 field players and one goalkeeper attempt to score the most goals by shooting a ball into the opposing team's "cage" or net. Players use sticks with curved blades to move, pass and shoot balls, which are a little bigger, harder and heavier than baseballs. Players may not shield the ball from opponents, and ball possession requires dribbling, passing and receiving skills. Attackers score goals from the "circle," a marked area surrounding the cage, when a legally pushed, flicked, scooped, hit or deflected ball crosses the goal line.
Sport or Game
Some folks believe there is a difference between "sport" and "game," but most people do not and use them interchangeably. "Game" appears 43 times compared with no instances of "sport" in the "NCAA Field Hockey Rules Modifications 2010," yet the official Olympic website states that only recognized sports are eligible for the Olympic program. The FIH rulebook refers to the "game of hockey," while the organization's 2010-16 strategic plan states that hockey is a "popular, global sport."
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