Sports terminology refers to the important words used in the field of sports. It is important to know about various sports terminology. This increases general awareness and helps enjoy sports programs to the maximum.
It also encourages several people to join the field of sports as they feel more confident about it. There is different terminology for various sports such as boxing, football, snooker, cycling, polo, wrestling, etc. It is important for sportspersons to be aware of such terminology when they are under training.
Important Terminology Of Sports
Basketball Terms
- Personal Fouls: These refer to the fouls caused by commencement of contact with an opponent player. These are of 2 major types – offensive and defensive. These include charging, holding, tripping, elbowing, blocking.
- Technical Fouls: These refer to the fouls displaying a lack of sportspersons spirit. There is an inclusion of ill behaviors and poor conduct during the game. This includes aggressiveness against opponents, coaches, referees, etc.
- Free Throws: These are also known as foul shots. This is for the opposite team when the members of their opponent team commit a foul. These are also given out after technical fouls or when the foul conducting team enters the bonus or penalty situation. The player has to shoot from a 15 – foot free throw line.
- Double Dribble Foul: This takes place either when a player dribbles the ball using both their hands or when a player stops to dribble and then starts to dribble again.
- Lay Up Shot: When a shot occurs from very near to the hoop, occurring usually when a player moves towards the basket.
Football Terms
- Penalty Kick: A method of resuming the game, wherein a player gets the opportunity to score on the goal which is only defended by the goalkeeper of the opposite team.
- Goal: Scored when the ball crosses the goal line at any end of the football field between the goalposts which are set up.
- Hattrick: Term used when a player scores 3 goals in a single football match.
- Defender: A player whose role is to stop the attacks and attempts to score goals by the opponent team members.
Badminton Terms
- Smash: A quick, sudden, powerful shot that takes place from high above to below landing in the opponent’s court. It refers to taking control over the game for that particular instant.
- Net: The equipment which divides the court into 2 equal halves. The shuttlecock must pass over this to play a continuous rally game.
- Shuttlecock: The equipment which acts as the projectile goes from one side to the other. It has a conical shape with feathers based on a rounded cork base. It is aerodynamically very stable.
- Double Fault: When both the umpire and the service judge call out a fault for the server. It means there were two faults committed.
- Fore Hand: A swinging shot made by the racket which moves across the player’s body with the moving hand’s palm first.
Baseball Terms
- Throw: To arm throw a baseball in a forward manner as it further propels through the air. It includes the straightening of the arms and wrists.
- Base Runner: A player at the bat who is either at the first, second, or third base or is reaching for the base.
- Homerun: When a batter hits a fair ball and scores without getting the benefit of an error made. He cannot be out due to which he can circle the ground at his own rate.
- Pinch Hitter: Refers to a substitute batter who is often an infielder or outfielder.
Athletics Terms
- High Jump: The participant takes a running jump to achieve a certain height above a crossbar.
- Relay: A race consisting of four stages, which is usually run by different members of the same team. One runner passes the baton to the next runner in a marked zone.
- Cross Country: A race run across large terrains by individuals or teams in an open-air manner. This comes under Umbrella Sports.
- Shot – Put: Throw of a spherical weight which is probably a metal ball from the shoulder to attain a maximum length. It is a measure of the explosive power of a player.
Bridge Terms
- Dummy: It is the declarer’s partner’s hand and after opponents have tabled their opening lead, the dummy reveals The declarer orders the card he needs from the board and his partner plays it from the dummy.
- Trump: The wild cards known as trump cards or the final bid for the entire hand.
- Master Point: These are the points given by bridge organizations to individuals for success in competitive bridge tournaments. Generally, the awardees are members of the issuing organization.
- Grand Slam: The bet and winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand. It means winning all available bids in a particular year or a sports season.
Boxing Terms
- Knock Out: When the fight has ended, it is a winning criterion in combat sports. One boxer is unable to resume playing the game.
- Low Blow: An unpermitted blow below the waistline of the opponent. It is a foul and is not allowed. The players upon doing it receive a warning or have 1 point deducted.
- Cornerman: A trainer or coach who assists the boxer during an ongoing bout. They may also apply ice, adrenaline to reduce hurt and swelling symptoms.
- Dive: To feign a boxing knockout in order to lose purposefully or intentionally.
Billiards And Snooker Terms
- Cue: A sporting equipment stick used to strike a ball. It is a tapered stick about 60 inches long.
- Object Ball: The first ball struck by a cue ball is the object ball. It is usually referred to as any ball except the cue ball.
- Break Shot: Breaking the racked object balls pocketing at least one ball and starts to pocket the remaining balls without giving a chance to the opponent at the table.
- Scoring: Potting balls by a cue ball into a pocket. This is done by cannons too. This helps to score a point.
Cycling Terms
- Point Race: This is an event that involves large numbers of cyclists together on one track. It is one of the Olympic events too. The top 4 finishers get awards and this is a part of long-distance cycling.
- Time Trial: These include episodes of competition wherein individual cyclists or a team of cyclists goes out at intervals to cover a specific distance on a road course.
- Sprint: An event taking place between 2-4 riders, though usually, it is a one on one match between opponents who start together at the same mark cycling at full speed giving their best.
- Track Race: A bicycle racing sport that occurs on banked tracks that are specially designed or velodromes. It is present in both – Olympics and Paralympics.
Golf Terms
- Ball Mark: An indentation on a putting green takes place when a usually long, high approach shot lands on the green.
- Ballooning: Hitting down steeply will cause the club to pass a high rate of backspin to the ball, leading to the probable occurrence of a ballooning shot.
- Bogey: This consists of one stroke over par on a hole or simply an average golfer’s score used as a standard for a particular hole or course.
- All Square: A tie match wherein both the opponent teams have won an equal number of holes is an all-square match.
Horse Riding Terms
- Showjumping: Competitive horse riding race events conducted in which hurdles are also placed to test the participants on speed and their ability to overcome the obstacles.
- Three Day Events: An event where a single horse rider competes against other competitors across the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping.
- Faults: If the horse touches any part of the water, it counts as a fault, which is actually equivalent to knocking down a rail on another kind of jump.
Gymnastics Terms
- Sit Up: A strength and endurance exercise to tone up and highlight the abdominal muscles.
- Horizontal Bar: An equipment bar placed parallel to the ground for exercises such as chinning up used majorly by men.
- Parallel Bar: Consisting of two wooden bars on uprights about 11 feet high, adjustable in height, and used for swinging, vaulting, balancing exercises, etc.
- Floor Exercise: Exercises and movements performed on the floor in an area of 12 meters square. Only cushioning of the floor is there and the time duration for this is short.
Cricket Terms
- Silly Point: This refers to a fielding position located very near the batsman on the offside.
- Mid-Wicket: A fielding position which is 40° I.e approximately midway between the square leg and the mid-on.
- Dead Ball: When a ball served is not playable and the game cannot occur without the permission of the umpire.
- Sixer: When a batsman hits a six or scores 6 runs due to the ball crossing the outer boundary of the stadium. Majorly used in Indian cricket.
Chess Terms
- Checkmate: Instance of maneuvering the opponent’s king into a check or trap from which there is no way out. It is a warning symbol of threat and usually used when the game is about to end.
- International Master: A title awarded to brilliant chess players under the level of grandmaster. This lasts for a lifetime and the giver is an international chess body called the ‘FIDE’.
- Gambit: A chess opening in which a player sacrifices a possessioned material in order to achieve an advantageous position. Eg: Sacrificing a pawn.
- Move: This refers to the chance to turn off a player to go ahead with their game trickles according to the rules of the game.
Polo Terms
- Chukker: A playing duration or period of a Polo game.
- Mallet: An equipment used to strike the ball in the game of Polo. It is also called a Polo stick i.e. having a long handle and a head like a hammer.
- Polo-Bunker: A specially prepared area that tests a player’s ability to play a ball from the sand. A bunker is a depression, but it doesn’t always have to be full of sand.
Shooting Terms
- Air Rifle: A rifle propelling a projectile with the use of compressed gas rather than a gunpowder explosion. It has a spring-loaded piston pump. It is also called a BB gun.
- Bull’s Eye: Category: The aim is to score points by hitting and targeting around shooting targets as close to its center as possible. This encourages slow precision firing.
- Free Pistol: A 50-meter pistol is a Free pistol. It has the most amount of precision and is also a part of the ISSF shooting events and some principles are also used in the Olympics.
Judo Terms
- Green Belt: This belt depicts the intermediate level especially in Japan.
- Blue Belt: It is one level below the Green belt and it takes 1-2 years of training to reach here.
- Red Belt: For the 9th and 10th ranks and above, the belt is solid red.
Tennis Terms
- Netplay: Refers to the activity or play made from a position close to the net.
- Grass Court: A court made from different compositions of grasses for the sport of lawn tennis. This is one of the 4 major types of courts.
- Grandslam: This refers to the accomplishment of winning all four major championships- the championships of Australia, France, Britain (Wimbledon), and the United States in the same calendar season.
- Break: To win a game as a player or team, there is a breaking serve that takes place. At a high level of play, the server is more likely to win a game, so breaks are often key moments of a match.
Wrestling Terms
- Freestyle: A type of wrestling practiced throughout the world. The main aim is to throw and pin the opponent to the mat, which results in an immediate win. This is also included in the Olympic games.
- Hal Nelson: This is a type of wrestling that is easy and effective. This is like folkstyle wrestling and is very commonly used. The half-nelson uses only one hand, bypassing it under the arm of the opponent and locking the hand on the opponent’s neck.
- Heave: To raise or lift with effort is to Heave. It is a common skill during the wrestling match.
- Point: A wrestler whose opponent regularly refuses to take caution receives a point. Three cautions automatically result in the match being won by the opponent.
Swimming Terms
- Butterfly Stroke: A technique in which the arms come forward above the water. It helps create propulsion and allows the swimmer to keep its head of the water.
- Lane: Swimmers swim up one side of the track called Lane. They swim up and down the same line. Swimmers in a lane swim in ‘chains’ – they leave a few seconds gap in between. The fastest swimmer is usually given the center lane.
- Pool: The structure designed to hold water and enable swimming as a sport.
- Crawl: The fastest of the 4 primary strokes, in these arms, move alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick.
Volleyball Terms
- Smash: A high energy powerful shot which takes place when the ball is at a good height and near to the opponent’s court.
- Penetration: This technique includes moving a back row setter into the frontcourt in order to perform a set. A front-court setter can then act as a third smasher.
- Libero: In this position, you’re expected to cover the whole court and make sure the ball doesn’t hit it.
Table Tennis Terms
- Back Hand: It involves topspin and is an attacking stroke. These use float balls.
- Chop: A shot in which The racket face points primarily horizontally, perhaps a little bit upward, and the direction of the stroke are straight down. The object of a defensive chop is to match the topspin of the opponent’s shot with your own racket speed
- Drive Spin: Spin given onto the ball using the racket in a tangential brushing action. But when brushing your racket against the ball at an angle of less than, or more than, 90° using an upward, downward, or sideways movement, the ball will spin
- Volley: A major foul in Volleyball, and it’s an illegal shot in table tennis. On doing this players lose the point. The player is not allowed to hit the ball while it’s on its way to bouncing on the table.
Weight Lifting Terms
- Jerk: Performed with a barbell, it is a bar exercise that includes lifting weights and squatting.
- Snatch: The objective of the snatch is to lift the barbell from the ground to overhead in one continuous motion. There are four main techniques of snatch used: squat snatch, split snatch, power snatch, and muscle snatch.
Hockey Terms
- Biscuit: A hockey puck is a biscuit. It consists of vulcanized rubber and plays the role of a ball as in other games.
- Bender: This refers to a bad hockey player with bending ankles when they skate due to an inability to skate well.
- Bar Down: This is when the puck hits the crossbar and lands up in the net. This is when a point scores.
Boat Rowing Terms
- Bow: The first half of the forward section of the boat is the bow.
- Coxswain: The crew coach and the one responsible for steering the shell.
- Button: A collar on the oar that keeps it from slipping through the oarlock. This is useful.
List of Sports Terminology
| Sports | Sports |
| Basketball | Personal Fouls, Technical foul, Free Throws, Underhead, Overhead, Double Dribble Foul, Lay UpShot, Rebound, Travel, Zone – Defense, Paint, Airball, etc. |
| Football | Penalty Kick, Kick, Goal, Head, Side Back, Pass, Baseline, Rebound, Comer Bick, Right Out, Hattrick, Move, Dribble, Left Out, Off Side, Stopper, Defender, etc. |
| Badminton | Fore Hand, Smash, Hit, Drop, Net, Love, Double Fault, Shuttlecock, Service Court, Back Hand, etc. |
| Baseball | Throw, Strike, Put Out, Perfect Game, Base Runner, Homerun, Pinch Hitter, etc. |
| Athletics | High Jump, Triple Jump Cross Country, Photo Finish, Hammer Throw, Relay, Track, Lane, Discuss Throw, Shot Put, Hurdles, etc. |
| Bridge | Perfect Deals, Dummy, Trump, Master Point, Grand Slam, etc. |
| Boxing | Roughhousing, Southpaw, Spar, Stablemate, Technical knockout, Walkout Bout, Whiskers, Low Blow, Ring Generalship, Plodder, Neutral Corner, Mauler, Liver Shot, Haymarket, Glass Jaw, Cutman, Dive, Eight Count, Counterpunch, Cornerman, Corkscrew Punch, Buckle, Canvas, Card, Caught Cold, Clinch, Foot Work, Accidental Butt, Bleeder, Bolo Punch, Bout, Brawler, Break, Kidney Punch, Upper – Cut, Round, Stoppage, Punch, Knock Out, etc. |
| Billiards And Snookers | Cushion Billiards, Cue, Hit, Object Ball, Pull, Scoring, Break Shot, etc. |
| Cycling | Point Race, Time Trial, Track race, Sprint, etc. |
| Golf | Albatross, Tea Shot, Birdie, Blind Shot, Ace, Double Eagle, All Square, Approach Putt, Apron, Ballooning, Beach, Ball Mark, Bogey, Bunker, Caddy, Mulligan, Four-Ball, Off The Deck, Sand Trap, Peg, Dogleg, Condor, Claw Grip, Dub, Flag, etc. |
| Horse – Riding | Faults, Dresses, Showjumping, Three Day Events, etc. |
| Gymnastics | Sit Up, Floor Exercise, Uneven Bar, Push Ul, Horizontal Bar, Parallel Bar, etc. |
| Cricket | Midwicket, Mid On, Forward Short Leg, Deep/Mid-Wicket, Runner, Cover, Yorker, Silly Point, Gully, Long On, Slip, Square Leg, Follow Through, Turn, Bouncer, Hattrick, Round The Wicket, Over The Wicket, Seamer, Boundary Liner, Sixer, Pull, Shot, Dead Ball, Overthrow, Maiden Over, Bye, Leg By, Glance, Hook, Late Cut, Stroke, Wide Ball, Hit Wicket, Googley, Not Out, No Ball, Stump Out, Run Out, L.B.W, Ashes, Catch, Bowled, Over, Followon, Rubber, Spin Wicket Keeper, Wicket, Pitch, Stump, Bails, Crease, Pavilion, Gloves, Toss, Run, etc. |
| Chess | International Master, Checkmate, Grandmaster, Gambit, Move, Resign, Kings Indian Defence, etc. |
| Polo | Chukker, Mallet, Polo – Bunker etc. |
| Shooting | Air Rifle, Range, Bull’s Eye, Free Pistol, Standard Rifle, Rapidfire Pistol, etc. |
| Judo | Green Belt, Blue Belt, Red Belt, White Belt, etc. |
| Tennis | Drop Shot, Netplay, Baseline, Game Point, BreakPoint, Smash, Shot, Break, Grass Court, Service, Grandslam, Deuce, Advantage, etc. |
| Wrestling | Point, Hal Nelson, Heave, FreeStyle, etc. |
| Swimming | Butterfly Stroke, Lane, Pool, Crawl, Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, etc. |
| Volleyball | Smash, Sidearm, Penetration, Deuce, Libero, Booster, Spikers, etc. |
| Table Tennis | Back Hand, Chop, Half Volley, Drive Spin, Late Service, Volley, etc. |
| Weight Lifting | Snatch, Jerk, etc. |
| Hockey | Bully, Short corner, Hattrick, Goal, Biscuit, Bender, Bar Down, etc. |
| Boat Rowing | Yacht Racing, bow, coxswain, button, etc. |
Conclusion
The above article mentions important sports terms which help in boosting general knowledge. These are a must – know and also make one prepare well for competitive exams. This also increases public interest in sports and further supports the field by encouraging them to join such sports.