Contact sport

Contact Sport

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Contact sport

Many sport

Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
s involve a degree of player-to-player and/or player-to-object contact.

The term "contact sport" is used in both team sport

Team sport

Team sport refers to sports that are practiced between opposing teams, where the players interact directly and simultaneously between them to achieve an objective....
s and combat sport

Combat sport

A combat sport is a competitive contact sport where two combatants fight against each other using certain rules of engagement, typically with the aim of simulating parts of real hand to hand combat....
s, medical terminology

Medical terminology

Medical terminology is a vocabulary for accurately describing the human body and associated components, conditions, processes and process in a science-based manner....
and television game shows (such as American Gladiators

American Gladiators

American Gladiators was an United States game show television program that matched a cast of amateur sportspersons against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility....
and Wipeout) to certain degrees.

Contact between players is often classed by different grades ranging from non-contact (where there is no contact between players) to full-contact or collision sports (where the rules allow for significant physical contact).

ent medical terminology in the United States uses the term collision sport rather than contact sport to refer to Rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of England....
, American football

American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive team sport known for mixing strategy with physical play....
, lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport originated by several tribes of Native Americans in the United States. There are four distinct versions of the modern game: men's field lacrosse, women's field lacrosse, men's box lacrosse and intercrosse ....
, and ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
.

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Encyclopedia

Many sport

Sport

Team sport

Team sport refers to sports that are practiced between opposing teams, where the players interact directly and simultaneously between them to achieve an objective....
s and combat sport

Combat sport

Medical terminology

American Gladiators

Issues and trends

Medical

Current medical terminology in the United States uses the term collision sport rather than contact sport to refer to Rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of England....
, American football

American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive team sport known for mixing strategy with physical play....
, lacrosse

Lacrosse

Ice hockey

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet high hoop under organized rules....
and association football that allow limited contact. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics

American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics was founded in 1930 and now has 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists as members....
issued a policy statement in 2001 entitled "Medical Conditions Affecting Sports Participation" that included the following definitions:

This terminology may have evolved from a quote attributed to both Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi

Vincent Thomas Lombardi was an United States American football coach. He was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League from 1959-67, winning five league championships during his 9 years....
and Duffy Daugherty

Duffy Daugherty

Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty was the head coach of the Michigan State University Spartans football team from 1954 to 1972, where he compiled a career record of 109-65-5....
: "Football isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport."

Contact sports have a higher risk of transmission of blood-borne disease

Blood-borne disease

A blood-borne disease is one that can be spread by contamination by blood.The most common examples are HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and viral haemorrhagic fevers....
between players.

Injuries & legal issues

Many sports will penalise contact with the rules for certain situations or instances to help reduce the incidence of physical trauma

Physical trauma

Physical trauma refers to a body injury. A trauma patient is someone who has suffered serious and life-threatening physical injury with the potential for secondary complications such as Shock , respiratory failure and death....
or litigation for assault

Assault

Assault is a crime of violence against another human. In some jurisdictions, including Australia and New Zealand, assault refers to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, while in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, assault may refer only to the threat of violence caused by an immediate show of fo...
or grievous bodily harm

Grievous bodily harm

Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English law criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861....
.

Equipment

As a result of the risk of injury, some sports require use of protective equipment a notable example is American football protective equipment

American football protective equipment

American football protective equipment consists of equipments worn by football players for the protection of the body during the course of football games....
, and other sports require to be played on soft grounds and for padding on physical obstacles, such as goal posts.

The cost of equipment can be an obstacle to people participating in the sports.

Social

There is a perception among some sections western society toward full-contact sports being barbaric prone to sporting violience

Violence in sports

Violence in sports can result in chaotic brawls, both by athletes and fans. They may involve beer bottles, sinks from stadiums, improvised stabbing utensils, stadium seats, and whatever else may be found on hand....
, thug

Thug

A thug in Modern English means a violent and/or anti-social person, including:...
gery and cause injury

Injury

Injury or bodily injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or Purpose of the body caused by an outside wiktionary:agent or force, which may be physical or chemical....
. This has led to the phenomenon of the soccer mom

Soccer mom

The phrase soccer mom broadly refers to a middle class suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to activities such as Association football practice and music lessons....
and a general increase in sports with less contact.

There is a predicted trend away from participation in contact sports.

In some societies, contact in sports can have an influence on the attitudes of sex roles.

Trends

Because of the issues raised above, many sports are reducing their levels of contact. In recent years, very few sports governing bodies have encouraged aggression and rough play.

One example of a sport which has shifted between levels of contact is Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian football, or simply known as football, footy, Aussie rules or as AFL, is a team sport played between two teams of 18 players with a football in the shape of a prolate spheroid....
. While degrees of contact are still allowed between players, the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The 'Australian Football League' is the professional Australian national competition in the sport of Australian Rules Football.The league comprises sixteen teams which play 22 home and away rounds between late March and late August or early September....
the sport's governing body has in recent years moved to penalise any form of "rough play" and including incidental contact and aggressive actions. The move has led to perceptions of it no longer being classed as a full-contact sport. The AFL has argued that this has not effected the number of people attending matches or watching it on television.

Grades

Full-contact

A (full) contact sport or collision sport is any sport in which significant physical Impact force

Impact force

An impact force is a high force or Shock applied over a short time period. Such a force or acceleration can sometimes have a greater effect than a lower force applied over a proportionally longer time period....
on players, either deliberate or incidental is allowed for within the rules of the game.

Contact actions include tackling

Tackle (football move)

File:Afl tackle.jpgMost forms of football have a move known as a tackle. In most cases this move involves bringing an opposing player to the ground....
, body checking

Checking (ice hockey)

Checking in ice hockey is the act of physically keeping an opposing player in check. It is usually not a penalty ....
and blocking

Blocking (American football)

In American football, blocking is a legal move occurring when one player obstructs another player's path with his body. The purpose of blocking is to prevent defensive players tackling the ball carrier, or to protect the quarterback, in the pass, in the backfield hand-off to other backs, or when the quarterback attempts to run with the ball...
and a whole range of other moves which can differ substantially in their rules and degree of application.

Examples of contacts sports are: Rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football is a competitive Full-contact sport team sport played with a spheroid-shaped ball by two teams of thirteen on a rectangular grass field....
, Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union is a competitive outdoor contact sport, played with an oval ball, by two teams of 15 players. It is one of the two main codes of rugby football, the other being rugby league....
, American football

American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive team sport known for mixing strategy with physical play....
, Ice Hockey

Ice hockey

Lacrosse

Water polo

Water polo is a team water sport. It is the oldest continuous Olympic team sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper with a maximum of six substitutes....
,Amateur wrestling

Amateur wrestling

Amateur wrestling is the most widespread form of sport wrestling. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games under the supervision of International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles : Greco-Roman wrestling and Freestyle wrestling....
and Team handball

Team handball

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass and bounce a ball to throw it into the goal of the opposing team. The team with the most goals after two periods of 30 minutes wins....
in Europe. Full-contact martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts share a single objective: to physically defeat other persons and to defend oneself or others from physical threat....
include boxing

Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
, MMA

MMA

MMA may refer to:* Mixed martial arts, a full contact combat sport* Metropolitan Museum of Art, a museum in New York City...
, puroresu

Professional wrestling in Japan

Professional wrestling in Japan is commonly referred to as in Japanese language, short for "professional wrestling" . The word puroresu was made popular by Hisaharu Tanabe among the English-speaking fans in the early 1990s through Usenet and online services....
, Muay Thai

Muay Thai

Muay Thai is a form of hard martial art practiced in large parts of the world, including Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. The art is similar to others in Southeast Asian such as: pradal Serey in Cambodia, lethwei in Myanmar, tomoi in Malaysia, and Lao boxing in Laos....
, judo

Judo

, meaning "gentle way", is a modern Japanese martial art and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either Throw one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling manoeuvre, or force an opponent...
, and full-contact styles of karate

Karate

or , and often mis, is a martial arts developed in the Ryukyu Islands from indigenous fighting methods and Chinese martial arts kenpo. It is primarily a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands and ridge-hands....
. Also, kickboxing

Kickboxing

refers to the sport of using martial-arts-style kicks and boxing-style punches to defeat an opponent in a similar way to that of standard boxing. Kickboxing is a standing sport and does not allow continuation of the fight once a combatant has reached the ground....
in the early seventies in the USA was born which introduced a controlled version of full contact to martial arts

Martial arts

Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in the state of Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or Public administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin....
ruled that cheerleading

Cheerleading

Cheerleading is a sport that uses organized routines that range from 1 minute to 3 minutes made from elements of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and List of cheerleading stunts to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games and matches and/or compete at cheerleading competitions....
is a contact sport.

Semi-contact

A semi-contact sport is typically a combat sport

Combat sport

Strike (attack)

A strike is an attack with an inanimate object, such as a weapon, or with a part of the human body intended to cause an effect upon an opponent or to simply cause harm to an opponent....
and which contains physical contact between the combatants simulating full-power techniques. The techniques are restricted to limited power, and rendering the opponent unconscious

Unconsciousness

Unconsciousness, more appropriately referred to as loss of consciousness or lack of consciousness, is a dramatic alteration of mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli....
is forbidden.

Some semi-contact sports use a point system to determine the winner and use extensive protective gear to protect the athletes from injury. Examples of semi-contact sports include Taekwondo

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. It is the world's most popular martial art in terms of the number of practitioners....
(under ITF rules), amateur kick-boxing and various styles of Kung Fu that incorporate semi-contact rules sparring.

This category also includes sports where the rules prohibit direct contact but often times many violent incidences of indirect contact occur. Examples of this are soccer and basketball.

Light-contact

A light-contact sport is sometimes distinguished from above in which only light contact, intended to be non-damaging, is allowed.

In martial arts

Martial arts

Sparring

Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts. Although the precise form varies, it is essentially relatively 'free-form' fighting, with enough rules, customs, or agreements to make injuries unlikely....
similar in style to fencing

Fencing

Fencing is a family of sports and activities that feature armed combat involving cutting, stabbing, or slapping Club ing weapons that are directly manipulated by hand, rather than shot, thrown or positioned....
, where only touching the opponent (or, in case of hits and kicks to the head, just marking the blow) counts. Occasional or deliberate hits are counted against the hitter and may be the reason for disqualification. Light-contact combat sports include some styles of karate

Karate

American Kenpo

American Kenpo or Kenpo Karate is a system of martial arts created by Ed Parker, characterized by the use of quick moves in rapid-fire succession intended to overwhelm an opponent....
).

Limited-contact

Limited-contact sports are sports in which the rules are specifically designed to prevent contact between players either intentionally or unintentionally. Although contact can still happen, strong penalties are often used to discourage all contact between players. These penalties, including physically removing players from the field of play, means that contact is generally rare. Examples include netball

Netball

Netball is a non-contact team sport originating from the United States similar to, and derived from, basketball. Invented in 1895 by Clara Gregory Baer, a pioneer in women's sport, netball is now pre-eminently played as a women's team sport in Australia and New Zealand and is popular in the West Indies, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom....
. Another example is Ultimate frisbee

Ultimate (sport)

Ultimate is a Contact sport team sport played with a 175 gram flying disc invented by Laura Hinz. The object of the sport is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or Rugby football....
in which all contact is automatically assumed to be accidental due to the nature of the game. Any contact fouls are called by the players involved (often the player who initiates the contact) and if possession is lost, the play continues as if possession was not lost.

Non-contact sports

Non-contact sports are sports where players are physically separated such as to make it nearly impossible for them to make contact during the course of a game. Examples include all forms of tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
and bowling

Bowling

Bowling is a game in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface either into objects called Bowling pin or to get close to a target ball....
.