How do I convince my friend that yoga isn’t a competitive sport?

Ashely Corner: How do I convince my friend that yoga isn’t a competitive sport?
She is convinced that a sport is anything where you lift your leg above a certain point. I have told her a sport is a physical activity that you compete in but she doesn’t listen. Basketball players don’t lift their legs up to a certain point but it is still a sport (the certain point is above your waist). She says that competitive cheerleading (like competition type stuff) isn’t a sport but yoga is because in yoga you lift up your leg. You lift up your leg in cheerleading too but that isn’t why it’s a sport.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Pratik Bhattacharjee
simply ask her to point out even one competitive event which has yoga as a discipline. Duh.

Answer by lestermount
Yoga is a form of exercise, but it not a competitive sport.
There are no games or tournaments for yoga.
If your friend is convinced that yoga is a sport I doubt anything you say will change her mind, so let it go.

Answer by Ken P
Ask her to explain the ‘scoring system’ for ‘yoga’ competitions. To be a sport there must be a competition that has a winner, thus there must be a way to score it. Sports like gymnastic or even competive cheer have scoring systems like figure skating.

Answer by Dances with Buddha
True, throughout history, yoga postures were not performed as part of scored competitions such as we are familiar with today.
There have been yoga competitions in India since around 1975.
Bikram Choudury (founder of Bikram yoga, generically known as hot yoga) has organized competitions within the US since 2003, and actively promotes the idea of making yoga an Olympic event.

Proponents of yoga competitions say they would promote interest/participation in yoga.
Opponents say the very idea of competition runs counter to basic yoga perspectives, such as developing personal inner awarenessss within the moment.

Namaste’,
dwb