Did Curryman "do" Kendo last week?

[Paul]

Is it just me or does "do" when it comes to individual sports like karate, kendo, swimming, bowling, etc etc etc sound incorrect?

I also think that the word "play" is inappropriate as well particularly for competitive sports competition.

I usually try to have my students use the word practice instead.

[Otaku]

The general rule I use if the sport uses a ball it's "play"...no ball, "do". "Practice", to me, sounds like people practicing to prepare for an event.

However, we could keep going all day long because in Japan "practice" is the only thing they seem to ever do. So, in Japan, I think it would be acceptable to say "practice basketball".

[Paul]

The general rule I use if the sport uses a ball it's "play"...no ball, "do". "Practice", to me, sounds like people practicing to prepare for an event.

The examples I gave were for sports that dont use a ball. The word "do" doesnt seem quite right.

What do you think?

I meant to say in the OP play being used for individual competitive sports......sorry for any misunderstanding.

[jessen100]

many people who do judo in the US use the word play, as in play judo.

i also dont think any of the examples from the op sound incorrect.
but you also might want to consider just saying, "I swim" or "I bowl".
"I karate" however, sounds rediculous.

[Otaku]

Is it individual sports that the OP thinks "do" sounds funny or is it sports that aren't usually in mainstream back home that sound funny? Like Jessen said, I wouldn't say I do swimming or bowling, but rather I swam or bowled. If I was talking about a specific group, like a club activity, I don't think I would say "practice" or "do", but rather something along the lines of: "I went to my karate club practice yesterday."

I think we sometimes forget that straight translations don't work because of culture? For example, I would dare argue that on norm, there aren't 'club activities' back home but rather 'teams', and we "go to basketball practice," or we "go to kendo practice."

Of course I'm just going out on a limb here...

[Paul]

Is it individual sports that the OP thinks "do" sounds funny or is it sports that aren't usually in mainstream back home that sound funny? Like Jessen said, I wouldn't say I do swimming or bowling, but rather I swam or bowled. If I was talking about a specific group, like a club activity, I don't think I would say "practice" or "do", but rather something along the lines of: "I went to my karate club practice yesterday."

I think we sometimes forget that straight translations don't work because of culture? For example, I would dare argue that on norm, there aren't 'club activities' back home but rather 'teams', and we "go to basketball practice," or we "go to kendo practice."

Of course I'm just going out on a limb here...

As the "OP" here Hello My Name is Paul and I am an Englipedia-aholic!

Ok in class we are often having kids tell us, well in JHS anyway, what sports they participate in or what club they belong to and to me anyway, could be a generation "thing" well follow along with me here......

I play basketball
I play tennis
I play handball

No problem I think everyone would find these above here acceptable, my "problem" is here below.

I play judo..........I do judo
I play bowling......I do bowling
I play karate.......I do karate

When it comes to individual sports I was suggesting that neither do nor play, even though I didnt express myself well enough , "sound" appropriate even though depending upon the situation they may be grammatically correct.
Play somehow doesnt fit. Particularly for JHS students. Just like adults usually don't say I am going out to play with my friends. But Japanese will use the term because of the direct translation of the word asobou.

Generally speaking I try to have them use the word "practice" vs either "play" or "do".

I do basketball or I do handball is grammatically correct however we most often do not use the word do to express that we practice or play the sport. However when it comes to team sports there is no problem with using the word play and it is pretty much universally acceptable.

I have come across other "native" English speakers that agree with me on this one here and was looking to see if anyone had any other ideas about how to use this correctly when there is no "rule" and neither are incorrect just one that "sounds" clumsy vs the other as in "play or do" and practice.

Thanks for patiently listening to my speech.........