Marching Band - Is It A Sport?

A sport is a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.

So why isn't marching band in that category? Should it be?

My high school's marching band, the Marching Grey Ghosts, has been known throughout Illinois for a large number of years. We've gone to competitions and beaten other schools by a mile. But all of our success doesn't come without the brutal band camps and rehearsals.

Every so often, you'll come across a person who defiantly argues that band isn't a sport. Their argument? It's not as physical as football, or baseball, or basketball, or whatever else they might throw out there.

I'd like to think that marching bands often times work almost twice as hard as sports teams.

There are the summer music rehearsals to go along with memorizing the music to play on the field. There is learning the drill, and shipping off to band camp in the beginning of August to endure 90 degree weather (or hotter). They come home, and work even more to get their show done, eventually coming to the point where they refine, and refine, and refine, and refine the moves until they are almost perfect. The same thing goes for their music.

My band director once told me that music is one of the most psychologically challenging things that the human brain does. And we add that to the field?

Marching band may not look difficult, but with the three years of experience that I've had in a state-known marching band, I'd have to say that marching band is definitely a sport.