Marching Band a sport?

[Kilometers]

I'm in the marching band at my school and I like to think of it as a sport. The definition of sport is "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc. "
Tell me what you think.

[workingatperfect]

At my school, it was part of the athletics program, but they didn't consider it a sport. Doesn't make sense, I know.

I was in marching band and the first part of the definition holds true, but I don't think there's any competition. At least, we never competed.

[Kilometers]

Oh boy. There certainly is a lot of competing. If you check out DCI, Drum Corps International, you will see there is a lot of it. My school for example competed in ISSMA which is the Indiana State School Music Association or something this that. There is also Bands of America that schools all around the U.S. compete and then come to a championships. As I think about it Marching Band is almost a whole new demographic.

[Ginganinja]

yes i think that it is as much of a sport as any other thing. i was in marching band and we ran and did pushups and stuff like that.i played trombone and let me tell you standing at attention with that thin gduring comp sucks. so yeah its a sport

[Iron Man]

Yes. It is a sport. There is physical activity, hours of strenuous practice, and it is competitive. Those who say otherwise are probably the football team who simply view us as "half time entertainment". Fucking wankers.

[cgk101]

It's on the borderline

[workingatperfect]

Oh boy. There certainly is a lot of competing. If you check out DCI, Drum Corps International, you will see there is a lot of it. My school for example competed in ISSMA which is the Indiana State School Music Association or something this that. There is also Bands of America that schools all around the U.S. compete and then come to a championships. As I think about it Marching Band is almost a whole new demographic.

Ah, okay. Well, my band never competed, so I didn't know that.
As a concert band we competed, but we never had any sort of competition involving marching.

[Iron Man]

It's on the borderline

How is it on the borderline?

sport
noun /spôrt/ 
sports, plural
An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment


Sounds like a sport to me. If you think otherwise, join the marching band, and see how much work is done.

[Microphone26]

I think its a sport. I mean i play football so i usually do take it as entertainment but from what i hear from the band kids at my school its some work, haha. i respect the band kids.

[Music4Lyfe]

It's definitely a sport! My school went to competitions and not to mention band camp. We had to stand still for the longest time out in the mosquitoes and the heat and it was intense!

[Alliegator]

If you're competing and not just performing for fun I suppose. But wouldn't that make playing the drums a sport?

[Olliolk]

Yes. It is a sport. There is physical activity, hours of strenuous practice, and it is competitive. Those who say otherwise are probably the football team who simply view us as "half time entertainment". Fucking wankers.

Our marching band arrives at practice, practices for an hour, then watches the football team walk to their practice. We then proceed to practice for another hour, watch the football practice end, and continue for yet another hour.

This occurs 4 nights a week, and then we have a literal day-long (12hour, usually closer to 20) competition. (That's just during the season, excluding hundreds of hours of summer practices.)

...and I walk into school on Monday and some Footbal player informs me that the marching band is unprofessional, lame, underpracticed, etc. etc.

[Horatio Nelson]

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