First, let me define the word “sports” in my own terms. To me, “sports” means physical education and recreation, activities that are healthful and enjoyable. I certainly do not mean anything like professional football, basketball, or baseball. Those are not sports in that word's original intent. Those are multi-billion-dollar mega-businesses. The amount of money acquired and spent is obscene. Also, the fact that millions of people “go crazy” sitting in bleachers or in their recliners at home watching, screaming, and shouting, but not otherwise exercising, seems to be some sort of insanity. There certainly is not much healthful exercise, especially when drinking beer and eating tons of junk-food.
And by extension, I'm not referring to football, basketball, or baseball in high schools or in peewee league. Winning at all costs seems to have become the main concern, not the well-being of the participants. Too often, young players have been coerced into continuing to play with injuries and even concussions. Winnng has become so important that arguments sometimes have broken out between parents, coaches, and officials. Unlike the U.S., Canada is sane enough to have eliminated football from its school programs.
Let me tell you what physical education and recreation activities I have engaged in from my earliest years onward. Of course, not everyone needs to attracted to the same activities as I, but one can see from my list that what I did was for enjoyment and health.
As in most grade schools, we kids played kickball and softball. We had fun, and winning was not so important. We even had some lessons in square-dancing. Around home, we rode bikes a lot. We also played all kinds of games which provided us with lots of fun and exercise.
The high schools in my town were not big enough to have swimming pools, tennis courts, or some other facilities that larger school-systems might have had in bigger cities. Besides, they felt obliged to select footbal, basketball, and baseball as their primary activities, just like most public schools. Instead, my parents had me engaged in all kinds of sports and physical activities for enjoyment and good exercise outside of school.
We had access to the university swimming pool, and we often made use of it. My father set up a good badminton court in our yard; and, for many years, we played badminton so often that we each became quite good. Later on, I even won playing a man from Japan. In the same yard, we often played croquet - - backyard rules, of course, not international rules.
As we became older, we often rode bikes to see friends, which expanded our explorations to outlying neighborhoods. Because the wooded hills were so close by, we often took long hikes, enjoying the beauties of nature as well as getting good exercise. Sometimes during summers, we drove out to two diffferent lakes to go swimming or, once in a while, canoeing.
Starting at age seventeen, I spent a couple of years learning judo. The following year, I also started mainline Japanese karate and continued that for many years. Both disciplined the mind and developed skills often not reached through other activities.
I never did join a team in school. I know that some people claim that there are all kinds of advantages to joining a team, supposedly learning self-discipline, drive, the ability to endure hard-knocks and defeat. Of course, there is the social aspect as well. Apparently in most public schools, the “jocks” often seem to become the most popular.
There appears to be another possible advantage that has nothing to do with actual physical education and recreation, and that is listing those activities on one's school-record. Many universities seem to prefer accepting applicants who appear to have “well rounded school records.” I know that the ambitious mother of a friend of mine went to extremes in this way. She had him join football for a while, then track, then debate, then this and that, adding them all to his school-record even if he did not remain long with any particular activity. He had reasonably good grades but not great ones, yet he managed to be accepted by Harvard. The captain of our high-school football team also was accepted by Harvard. In contrast, my brother had one of the best academic records the school ever saw, along with high recommendations from his teachers; yet, because he had not joined a team, he was not accepted at Harvard. Apparently, they must have thought that he was not “well-rounded.”
There certainly was one downside for me in junior high. The coach noticed that I was quite good in baseball, pitching and batting. He asked me to join the team. My mother said no because she was concerned about possible injury to my hands. The coach never forgave me for not joining. He happened to be the wolrd-history teacher; and even though I made the highest score on all the tests, he never would give me more than a B. I was terribly upset, but I was too naïve to take this up with my parents or the school principle.
It seems to me that, in these days, people most often think of “sports” as ritualized combat involving lots of money and endless rhetoric by sports-casters, pontificating as though it all were so very important. It has become almost like another religion, so passionate are some people. At the same time, many Americans appear to have become fat and lazy. They seem to think that just sitting and watching others running around is exercise for them, too. It amazes me, and somewhat depresses me, that, just in my own city, 44,000 people showed up to sit for hours in the bleachers just to see a pro-football practice session.
But all may not be lost. I must say that I have seen some evidence of improvement among certain socio-economic groups. I recently have taken some walks in the foothills west of Denver, and I was impressed with seeing a large number of young people hiking, jogging, and mountain-biking; but this may be more evident in Colorado than in many other states. There also were some older folks walking. I continue to go five times per week to adult-swim at the nearby city pool, and I see some familiar faces who regularly swim there, too. And, during good weather, the city park nearby is filled with people bicycling, jogging, playing volleyball, tennis, and Frisbee. So, maybe there is some hope left that there are people who engage in, as I see it, true sports for enjoyment, good health, and re-creation.
© 10 October 2014
About the Author
I have had a life-long fascination with people and their life stories. I also realize that, although my own life has not brought me particular fame or fortune, I too have had some noteworthy experiences and, at times, unusual ones. Since I joined this Story Time group, I have derived pleasure and satisfaction participating in the group. I do put some thought and effort into my stories, and I hope that you find them interesting.
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