Sports can loosely be defined as any physical activity involving a level of competition, including boxing or netball. Many forms of competitive athletics and some games are also classified as sports. A qualified athlete in a particular sport is sometimes described as a sportsman.

One can divide the activities included in sports into two broad categories; physical and mental. Physical games like horse-riding, weightlifting or swimming are considered as physical sports and involve the use of the physical body. Mental games like chess, puzzles or mind-benders are deemed as mental sports and involve the mental skills and abilities of the human being. A sport specialist can easily analyse a person’s physical and mental aptitude to identify what kind of sporting activity is ideal for the person.

The most popular sports in the United States include American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, aerobics, golf, tennis, track and field and water polo. Each of these has its own unique characteristic that sets it apart from the other sports. As the name suggests, American football stands for American football and is played between two teams in regular intervals of time. Baseball and basketball are both played among a single team at regular intervals of time, but their uniqueness lies in the fact that they involve two completely different sets of physical fitness and muscle strength, and hence they are not played together as well. Tennis is played between two different pairs of people, but its essence lies in the fact that it requires a lot of stamina and agility of the players.