Based on the views of representatives of domestic and Western philosophical thought (M. Merleau- Ponty, P. Bourdieu, N.A. Bernstein, E. Knyazeva), the author offers a nontraditional approach to the study of essence and nature of sports activity. The productive analysis of sports activity requires such technics of intellectual procedures, which allow to consider sports activity not only as a physical sphere but also as a mental one, including cognitive, mental, psychomotor and emotional aspects.