Personal factors that affect participation in sport.

Age

The sport and leisure pursuits that people take part are closely related to their age and local tradition.
As people get older the time spent taking part in sport becomes less and the nature of the sport changes.
Activities with high-energy requirements and output such as rugby are generally associated with younger players while activities that rely on skill rather than physical fitness such as lawn bowls are associated with older people.
As the body ages it becomes less flexible, strength is lost as are speed and stamina.
Sprains and other minor injuries become more frequent and recovery time becomes longer.
There are activities where age does not affect participation such as swimming, walking and playing golf.
There is therefore no reason why sport and related activities should not be participated in at any age.
Age only limits the type of activity.

Ability

Ability will limit the level at which an activity is pursued.
Having a high ability in any sport means that there could be increased participation, which in itself can lead to improvement in performance.

Disability

Sport for people with disabilities has changed considerably, with governing bodies devising rules and activities suitable for all disabilities.
The then Sports Council now Sport England, published an action plan in 1993 to help the disabled take part in sport.
The seven main objectives were:

1. To raise the profile of disability in sport.
2. To ensure that plans for sport included people with disabilities
3. To provide sporting opportunities for people with disabilities.
4. To improve access to sport.
5. To encourage people with disabilities in international sports.
6. To ensure the best use of resources and increase finance.
7. To make sure that the sporting needs of people with disabilities are met.

Over time more and more sport is being made available to people with disabilities.
The profile of sport for the disabled is rising with the televised wheelchair basketball and the media coverage of the Paralympics.
More sports centres now make provision for people with disabilities.

Gender

Fewer females pro rata take part in sport than males.
At the ancient Olympic Games, women were not allowed to watch the activities let alone participate in them.

By the end of the nineteenth century, English women, from the middle classes, were taking part in sport. Victorian attitudes meant that women often played in cumbersome dresses making movement difficult.
In the early twentieth century, the national governing bodies of some sports were formed and there were organised competitions for women, usually separate from men.
Women competed in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1904 but only in archery.
Even in the 1996, Atlanta games there were 163 men's events and only 97 women's events.
The First World War was the turning point for women's sport, where the myth that women were weak, had little energy and were unable to cope with men's work was broken.
If they could cope with the work of the munitions factory then they could cope with men's sport.
Heavy industry called women to work again during the Second World War but after the war more women continued to work.
They had more money to spend and more freedom to participate in sport and leisure activities.

Reasons for Low Participation:
All the profile of women's sport has continued to grow over the past two or three decades, there are still obvious reasons why sport participation by women still falls short of that of men.
Physique:
Women are still viewed as the fairer, weaker sex and some sports are deemed too dangerous for them.
The 1928 Olympics cast doubt over women's ability to run the 800 metre race when several of them collapsed during that race.
This race was not re-instated as a women's race until the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Four athletic events have remained closed to women until quite recently. They are the 3,000 metres, pole-vault, the hammer and the triple-jump.
Only triple-jump appeared at the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Social Attitudes:
Victorian attitudes that a woman's place is in the home continue to be prevalent even in today's society.
To be a top sportsperson you need to train for long hours, be psychologically tough, muscular and competitive. These characteristics are often seen as acceptable for men but not for women.
Role Models:
For boys there are many role models in a wide range of sports.
There are fewer role models for women.
Finance:
Sportswomen receive only a fraction of the sponsorship that sportsmen receive.
Prize money is very often less for women's events than men's.
Media Coverage:
There is less media coverage of women's sport than there is of men's sport and so the profile of women in sport continues to remain low.
There are fewer women involved in the media itself although there has been a more recent shift in this with presenters such as Sue Barker, covering more sporting events on TV.

The advantage of sports.

With competition increasing in every sphere, children are getting less time to participate in sports. Fierce competition is making children concentrate more on their studies and less on other extra curricular activities. The importance of participating in sports and games is being forgotten by a lot of people. Sports and games form an integral part of the growing up of the children. Parents should not underestimate the importance of sports and should actually encourage their wards to actively participate in sporting activities.
There is a famous old adage that “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”. Parents should always remember that the same does not happen with their children. They should instill in the mind of their children the necessity of sports. It is sports which help you children stay physically fit. During the growing up years it is sports and physical activities which help in toning and strengthening the various muscles and bones of the body. It helps you in making agile physically as well as mentally.
The more you are involved in a sport the more you tend to be mentally strong. You start taking success and failure with the same virtue. You become aware that there will be times when you will win a match whereas there can be times you will lose a match. It is all about working hard and giving your best shot. The development of team spirit is another important feature of sports.
There are team sports which involve a lot of people. There are games which require an entire team consisting of a few people along with the team manager and the coach. You need to learn and play together in order to win a game. You will learn how to work together in a group and make it stronger. This aspect will help you immensely in your future when you have to work in a team alongside a lot of co-workers.

Benefit of running exercise.

Running Exercise Benefits
 

Running is one of the top activities for burning fat and keeping your metabolism high. In fact, with the exception of cross-country skiing, running burns more calories per minute than any other form of cardiovascular exercise.
Running reduces the risk of heart attacks, by strengthening the heart and lowering blood pressure. Running lowers blood pressure and maintains the elasticity of arteries incredibly well because as you run your arteries expand and contract nearly three times as much as usual.
Running also helps maintain and improve general health. It raises HDL(or "good") cholesterol, reduces the risk of blood clots and strokes, and encourages use of the 50% of your lungs that usually go unused.
Running also boost the immune system by creating a higher concentration of lymphocytes (white blood cells that attack disease), thus reducing the risk of getting sick or contracting a disease.
A Complete Jogging And Running Guide For Beginners. Everything You Ever Need To Start Jogging Or Running
Mental Benefit of Running Exercise
Running can help train the mind as much as it trains the body. By making yourself overcome the obstacles that running brings, you learn focus and determination. The will and strength that gets your body through long runs or those runs you'd much rather skip is what in turn strengthens your mind and gives you focus and determination in other areas of your life.
Long distance running helps ”clear the mind”, and allows you time to think about life’s challenges or time to escape them for awhile.
Unique New Running Book About Marathon Training For Beginners
Emotional Benefit of Running Exercise
Running, especially outside and on trails, creates a release of endorphins that can cause euphoria (runner's high) or just a general sense of happiness. Running also helps relieves stress, generally improves your attitude, and gives yourself a sense of satisfaction that you have accomplish something challenging.
A word of caution is to not to try to do too much too fast or the extreme and intense running may lead to injury or suppress the immune system. But to those who run regularly within limits and include proper nutrition and rest, will find running is beneficial to your overall health.

The health benefits of swimming

James Magnussen

You dive into the pool for a game of Marco Polo or to cool down from the hot summer heat. You love the calming feeling of being submerged in water and the fun factor of frolicking in the pool like you were 10 years old again. But do you ever just swim for exercise and for the array of the health benefits of swimming? Don’t be a fish out of water when it comes to knowing just how wonderful swimming is for your mind, body and soul…

Have you ever watched the Olympics and found yourself in awe of the professional swimmers’ physiques? Their long, lean and toned muscular bodies seem to glide through the water effortlessly. Swimmers are in fantastic shape and those who swim regularly know that they not only look great on the outside but feel just as great on the inside. The healthbenefits of swimming are almost unmatched by most any other sport.

Why is Swimming So Good?
Swimming works your whole body, improving cardiovascular conditioning, muscle strength, endurance, posture, and flexibility all at the same time. Your cardiovascular system in particular benefits because swimming improves your body’s use of oxygen without overworking your heart.

As you become fitter and are able to swim longer, your resting heart rate and respiratory rate will be reduced, making blood flow to the heart and lungs more efficient. If you’re looking to lose weight, swimming is just the ticket. On average, a swimmer can burn as many calories in an hour as a runner who runs six miles in one hour. Simply put, some call swimming the perfect form of exercise.

Additional Health Benefits of Swimming

• Whole body conditioning: Swimming tones your upper and lower body because you’re using almost all of your major muscle groups. The best strokes for all-over body toning are the freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke.

• Low risk of injury: There is a low risk for swimming injuries because there’s no stress on your bones, joints or connective tissues due to buoyancy and the fact that you weigh 1/10th less in water. If you’re looking for a safe daily workout routine, swimming is ideal because you can rigorously work out with a reduced chance of swimming injuries. Many athletes supplement their training with swimming.

Sport facts

Ronaldo had simply had enough of Fabien's ridicuolous outfield runs!

PoloCross hit by shortage of horses!!

Diego wondered if the judges could be swayed with humour

Geoffrey found this position strangely theraputic

Sports Facts

• For winning Wimbledon WTF Billie Jean King received a 25 pound gift voucher
• For winning Wimbledon venus Williams received £300,000
• In America Alex Rodriquez recently signed a 275 million dollar Baseball contract with the texas rangers
• A badminton shuttle travels easily up to 180 km/h (112 mph). It is one of the fastest objects in sports
• All athletes competed nude in the ancient Olympics
• Where does the word "soccer" come from?
In the 1880s students of Oxford university abbreviated words by adding "er" to the end; for instance, "rugby rules" was referred to as "rugger." When one student, Charles Wreford Brown, was asked if he'd like to play rugger, he was the first to abbreviate "association rules" (Football Association rules) by answering, "No, soccer."
• Fishing is the biggest participant sports in the world.

• Soccer is the most attended or watched sport in the world.

• Boxing became a legal sport in 1901.

• More than 100 million people hold hunting licences.

• Jean Genevieve Garnerin was the first female parachutists, jumping from a hot air balloon in 1799.

• In 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the top of Everest.

• The record for the most Olympic medals ever won is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina. Competing in three Olympics, between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals.

• The record for the most major league Bbaseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.

• The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in under 5 minutes.

• In 1898, one of the first programmes to be broadcasted on radio was a yacht race that took place in British waters.

• Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the summer Olympics, World Cup soccer and Formula One racing.

• Gymnasiums were introduced in 900BC and Greek athletes practised in the nude to the accompaniment of music. They also performed naked at the Olympic Games.

• The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef.

• The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors.

• Michael Schumacher is the highest paid sportsman, ahead of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. (Not including sponsorship endorsements.)

• Martina Hingis is the highest paid sportswomen.

• The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop.

• The Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.

• About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.

• A baseball ball has exactly 108 stitches, a cricket ball has between 65 and 70 stiches.

• A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels, held together by 642 stitches.

• Basketball and rugby balls are made from synthetic material. Earlier, pigs' bladders were used as rugby balls.

• The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide.

• Golf the only sport played on the moon - on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.

• Bill Klem served the most seasons as major league umpire - 37 years, starting in 1905. He also officated 18 World Series.

• The oldest continuous trophy in sports is the America's Cup. It started in 1851, with Americans winning for a straight 132 years until Australia took the Cup in 1983.

• Volleyball was invented by William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895.

• Ferenc Szisz from Romania, driving a Renault, won the first Formula One Grand Prix held at Le Mans, France in 1906.

• The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek word gymnos, which means naked. In ancient times athletes practised in the nude to the accompaniment of music. They also performed naked at the Olympic Games. Women were not allowed to participate or even to attend as spectators.

• The first Olympic games were held in 776BC. For many years the Olympics consisted of only one race, a sprint of 192 metres (210 yards, the length of the stadium) called the "stadion." A second race of 400 metres was added 50 years later.
• No medals were awarded in the ancient Olympics. A winner received an olive wreath to wear on his head. Second and third placings received nothing. When the Olympics were revived in 1896 in Athens, Greece, winners received silver medals instead of gold medals. Eight years later, at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, gold replaced silver for first place. Today's gold medals actually are sterling silver covered with a thin coat of gold.
• At the first modern Olympic Games there were 311 male but no female competitors. Women were allowed to take part in the next Olympics in Paris. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games there were 3543 female competitors.
• The youngest ever Olympian is Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras, who competed in the 1896 Athens Olympics. He was 10 years old.

• The Olympic Games is the largest single broadcast event in the world, broadcasted in 220 countries to more than 3.5 bilion people.

• The Sydney 2000 Olympics was only the second Olympic Games to be held in the Southern hemisphere

More information.....

The effect of mental and physical practices.

Michael Phelps

The Effect of Mental and Physical Practice on

Muscle Electrical Activity in Force Production Task

1Ahdiyeh Yadolazadeh, 2Mehdi Namazizadeh, 3Seyed Mohammad Kazem Vaez Musavi,

4Bahareh Behaen and 5Pejman Beikzade

1Islamic Azad University, Research and Science Branch, Iran

2Islamic Azad university, Esfahan Branch, Iran

3Emom Hossin Universioty, Tehran, Iran

4MA, Physical Education, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Iran

5MA, Physical Education, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of mental and physical exercises on muscle electrical

activity in force production task. This research is fundamental in nature and in terms of methodology it is quasiexperimental.

For executing this research, different exercise methods (physical, "clear - vague" mental practice

and integrative) in 10 kg force values, at acquisition, retention and transfer stages, against a hand grip task,

were studied. Results showed that physical practice and clear mental practice, integrative practice at 10 kg force

significantly caused electromyography changes at acquisition stage. None of physical practice, clear mental

practice, vague mental practice and integrative practice groups caused significant changes in electromyography

at retention stage, at 4 kg and 8 kg forces. Thus, physical practice, clear mental practice and integrative practice

had significant effects on electromyography changes in transfer stage at 10 kg.

Key words: Mental Practice % Mental Imagery % Ability imagery % Psych Neuro Muscular % Electromyography

More Information.......

Children with sports.

Why sport is important with children?

Children have to be active every day. Physical activity stimulates
growth and leads to improved physical and emotional health. Today,
research shows that the importance of physical activity in children is
stronger than ever. For example, medical researchers have observed that highly
active children are less likely to suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer
of the colon, obesity, and coronary heart disease later in life.
Exercise is also known to relieve stress. Some children experience as much
stress, depression, and anxiety as adults do. And because exercise improves
health, a fit child is more likely to be well-rested and mentally sharp. Even
moderate physical activity has been shown to improve a child’s skill at
arithmetic, reading, and memorization.
But sport, not just exercise, gives a child more than just physical well-being;
it contributes to a child’s development both psychologically and socially. Sport
psychologist Dr. Glyn Roberts of the University of Illinois has worked primarily
in children’s sport for the last two decades. He emphasizes that sport is an
important learning environment for children.
“Sport can affect a child’s development of self-esteem and self-worth,” explains
Roberts. “It is also within sport that peer status and peer acceptance is
established and developed.”
One way children gain acceptance by their peers is to be good at activities
valued by other children, says Roberts. Research shows that children would
rather play sports than do anything else. A study conducted in the United States
showed that high school boys and girls would rather be better at sports than in
academic subjects. The same study showed that high school boys would rather
fail in class than be incompetent on the playing field.
Because sport is important to children, being good at sports is a strong social
asset. Young boys in particular use sports and games to measure themselves
against their friends. Children who are competent at sports are more easily
accepted by children of their own age, and are more likely to be team captains
and group leaders. Such children usually have better social skills.
The primary goal of parents and coaches is to help children find the success in
sport they need to make them feel valued and wanted. Every child can be
successful at one sport or another. Take the time to find the sports that are right
for each child.
3 Children and Sport: An Introduction
Straight Talk About Children And Sport