Express Action Sports

In ancient societies, athletics and especially competitive contact games always have been rough, but aggression in the past was tempered by an insistence that playing hard, playing to win, did not countenance playing to cheat and to hurt. One of the very first nations that expressed athletic ideals, were the Greeks. As enunciated by Pindar, the athletic ideal incorporated courage and endurance with modesty, dignity, and fair-mindedness, those elusive qualities the Greeks called Aidos. As sports became more specialized, the general populace increasingly withdrew into spectatorship. Sports history reveals that although Greek sports had increasingly marred by corruption and bribes, nonetheless they flourished in an era which witnessed the rapid expansion of stadiums and arenas under the Roman Empire. During the Roman Empire, violence in sports became the generally accepted principle and spectators not only endorsed it, but also embraced it as a social norm.

In recent years sports violence has become to be perceived as a social problem. Commissions have been appointed in Canada and England to investigate violence among hockey players and soccer fans. Numerous examples of violence in professional sports exist today, as counties like the United States, Canada, Greece, Italy and Germany, report court cases have been heard which concern the victims of violence perpetrators. Newspapers, magazines and television programs portray bloodied athletes and riotous fans at hockey, boxing, football, soccer, baseball, and basketball games with what appears to be increasing regularity. But are sports violence incidents actually increasing, and if so, what is the reason of such a negative increase? Or does the heightened public attention and media focus on sports violence reflect not an increase in the incidence or severity of aggression, but greater public concern with moral issues and political discourse?

Contrary to popular belief, there appears to be growing dissatisfaction with sports violence. Changes in sports rules, developments in the design of equipment, and even the physical characteristics of modern sports arenas evolved in an effort to reduce violence or its consequences. But still, among athletic management teams, government officials, fans and athletes themselves, there is an ambivalence attitude towards sports violence. The ambivalence takes the form of justifying the existence of violence in sports, but not taking personal responsibility for it. Coaches and managers tend to blame fans, saying that violence is what attracts people into stadiums, as the risk entailed makes the game more “interesting”. Athletes frequently admit that they are opposed to violence, but it is expected of them by coaches. Fans justify it by attributing aggressiveness to athletes and to situational aspects of the game. Spectators view violence as an inherent part of some sports as one cannot play games like hockey or football, without accepting the necessity of violent action.

Nevertheless, public opinion tends to focus more and more on sports violence as major advances in the technologies used have increased media coverage making information available to a vast global audience. Thus, contemporary critics tend to consider sports violence as a worldwide phenomenon with highly disturbing future course and social outcomes.

Jonathon Hardcastle
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/sports-violence-54150.html

Bigger, higher, further and more dangerous! The people of the world are constantly becoming more adventurous. Sport is at the forefront of the extreme revolution with new and daring sports springing up everywhere! From the now relatively established sports like wakeboarding to the wacky and frankly silly, extreme ironing!

It seems the human thirst for action and adventure knows no bounds, whether it is kayaking down the Congo or climbing Kilimanjaro and then jumping off the summit with nothing but an umbrella! Okay, so perhaps parachutes are used rather than umbrellas but how extreme would that be? Paragliding, only with an umbrella! (Don’t try that at home kids!)

Popularity for these sports is huge and growing daily and some of them have even found themselves accepted as Olympic events in recent years, such as snowboarding and BMX biking. This brings sometimes lesser known sports to the masses and encourages more and more people to get involved.

It’s reasonable to suggest that the explosion of these adventurous sports is shaping the way sport will be perceived in years to come. I don’t think soccer fans have anything to worry about, there will always be soccer but it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that some of these events may end up on college curriculums in the not too distant future.

How cool would that be? To look at your timetable and see that after Maths you have double wakeboarding at the local lake! The English language is already taking on new complex shapes as the extreme sports community expands into homes and families the world over.

The internet is jam packed full of websites dedicated to various shades of extreme sport. If you “Google” kitesurfing, for example, you will see almost two million results pop up! Make that more than six million for wakeboarding and a massive sixteen million for snowboarding! The revolution is in full swing and one of the great things about taking part is that you can often explore and experience some amazing parts of this great planet too.

So, hold on tight, grab your board, skates, chute, sail, boots, shades etc and enjoy the ride of your life as you join the extreme revolution.

spidergoose