[ninjaturtlez]

Do you seriously not think that playing a sport requires control of your entire body? Have you ever tried to actively improve at a sport? Everything from basketball to golf is fine muscle control from the lowest to highest levels.

Some people cant see their own bias I guess. :)

[cactus2093]

Looks like you're just as caught up in your own bias as everyone else though :)

Not sure why you jumped to the conclusion that someone saying "X is not like playing a sport" is a claim that "sports are trivially easy compared to X". I don't think the parent comment was claiming that at all, just that they're different, namely that dance is not inherently competitive.

[cik2e]

It’s pretty obvious that the parent post isn’t saying that dance is different in that it’s not inherently competitive, but rather that sports have to be done at a competitive level to match the physical requirements of dance. And I strongly disagree with that sentiment. My claim is that sports done with deliberate practice aimed at improving technique are just like dance done with deliberate practice aimed at improving technique.

[jbverschoor]

He’s describing it as a musical instrument. I think that’s a very good comparison, and is indeed not related to other sports.

[cooliosis]

I think it's easier to be less aware of your entire body while practicing for other sports.

As someone who plays basketball and tennis, it takes a lot of focus to pay attention to my whole body for an entire practice session (vs. just a single part that I'm trying to improve). Most of the time, if I don't explicitly try to pay attention, I just use muscle memory and try to get into "the zone".

In tennis for example, I only need to pay maximal attention when learning a stroke (although of course it's beneficial to pay attention to every body part when just regularly playing - it's not necessary, and certainly something that a lot of recreational players don't do). Whereas with dance, it's required that you pay attention to your entire body for the entire practice session to memorize a choreography.

I think that's the difference that's important for this paper. If my elderly dad were to play basketball, he might rely on muscle memory. Whereas, if his nursing home taught dance classes, he would definitively have to pay attention to all of his body parts.

[pizza234]

My experience is different. In both sports and dances, I've always been asked/required to pay attention to the entire body. For example, in climbing, it's a mechanical necessity, while in table tennis, it's required for efficiency and power.

[reificator]

> Do you seriously not think that playing a sport requires control of your entire body? Have you ever tried to actively improve at a sport? Everything from basketball to golf is fine muscle control from the lowest to highest levels.

I want you to read this entire sentence, including the part after "except". I want you to tell me what you think that last clause means.

> It is not like playing a sport, except perhaps if you do it competitively

Do you think there is perhaps the slightest chance that they did not intend to say that "playing a sport does not require control of your entire body"?

Is there even a tiny possibility that they said that dancing non-competitively is not like playing a sport, perhaps because they are including competition in the definition of sport?

> Some people cant see their own bias I guess. :)

Agreed.

[networkimprov]

    it == dancing && it != sport
    dancing.entails(entire_body)
    sport.entails(entire_body)

Clearer now?

[rdp3453]

PR comments: - is this some kind of Shrodinger's "it", the second check is irrelevant - Needs indentation