An Introduction to Sports
Sports are competitive games and physical activities. These satisfy the human need for competition, physical exertion and play. Almost all sports can be potentially competitive. This is basically the main difference between recreational sports and recreation, play or even leisure. recreational activities are typically exercises or exercise programs which are intended to improve general health and fitness and which do not necessarily involve physical competition.
Recreational sports activities include horseback riding, skiing, inline skating, ball sports, gymnastics, motorboat racing, golf and swimming; generally considered to be for the active rather than for the competitive athlete. On the other hand, competitive sporting activities involve physical exertion, considerable movement of the body (including stretching and flexing muscles, ligaments and tendons) and competitive bodybuilding, weightlifting and/or physique competition. Sports also include participation in organized games such as soccer, tennis, basketball, softball, hockey and lacrosse, and track and field. In a number of developed countries, including the United States and Canada, professional and part-time athletics are organized on a professional circuit.
Some sports have universal significance, while others have local significance only. Cricket, for instance, is an English language and is widely regarded as a sport of common interest and recreational interest. It involves bat, ball and baton. American football is the most common American contact sport. Basketball is largely played in the southern United States, with the North American Soccer league (Nascar) as its recognized governing body.
A wide definition of sports may include contact sports such as boxing, wrestling, golf, softball, basketball, softball, sailing, baseball, softball, track and field and aerobics as well as fitness-based sports like yoga, swimming and dancing. Sports competition is often defined by degrees of physical intensity, competitive goals, rules of play and structure of the events. These differences in the various games may be the result of geographical location, time of day, climate conditions, or a combination of these and other aspects. Thus, the definition of sport can depend on these conditions and other aspects.
Sport, according to popular opinion, includes any competitive physical activities that involve any of the physical faculties: speed, strength, stamina, agility, flexibility, coordination, balance, reaction time, and mind/body connection. Most sports do not require skill or use of any skill other than those needed to participate. However, some sports require skill such as skiing, tennis and fencing. Sports competitions usually involve participants from all over the world and also include competitors from a wide range of ages, from kids to adults.
Sports are considered competitive when participants take part in an activity that involves the use of their bodily faculties in a sustained and deliberate action to the end of either personal or communal benefit. Sports competition is distinguished from the exercise by the distinction between physical exertion of the mind or spirit, where the latter type of activity requires no muscular effort. In most sports, especially contact sports like contact boxing and kick boxing, there is an element of mental exertion as the participant attempts to withstand an opponent who is employing every trick in the book to take him down, while the latter type of sport is about pure physical exertion with very little psychological pressure. There is a clear difference between sports that engage physical exertion and ones that do not. However, some sports involve both physical and mental exertion, and each has its own set of rules and regulations.