1 / 18

Sport as a Natural Religion: Exploring the Concepts of Play, Games, and Ethics

This chapter explores the idea of sport as a natural religion, examining its rituals, costumes, and the sense of power it provides. It also delves into the definition of leisure and play, and differentiates between child's play and adult play. The chapter then discusses the characteristics of games and sports, and the various categories they fall under. It concludes by examining the role of competition and ethics in sports.

judyellis
Download Presentation

Sport as a Natural Religion: Exploring the Concepts of Play, Games, and Ethics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Chapter 10 Basic Concepts of Sport

  2. Sport – the Natural Religion • Novak (1976) describes sport as a natural religion based on qualities and characteristics fundamental to the experience • How is sport a religion? • Rituals, i.e., coin toss • Costumes • Sense of power outside of one’s control • People who enforce rules • Teaches principles, i.e., courage

  3. What is Leisure? • Can be viewed as an attitude of freedom • Often distinguished from work activities • Viewed also as discretionary time left-over after work

  4. What is Play? • Sport is a manifestation of play • Characteristics of play represent a continuum such as: • Free • Uncertain • Governed by rules • Separate • Economically unproductive • Governed by make-believe Play is not trivial, but rich with psychological, sociological, and historical meaning

  5. Caillois: 6 characteristics of play • Free (voluntary behavior) • Separate (conducted in places where the time and space limits are fixed), e.g., let us go to the gym and play BB for half an hour • Uncertain (evenly matched competition) • Economically unproductive • Governed by rules • Governed by make believe

  6. Differences BetweenChild’s Play vs. Adult Play • Play is the most basic behavior in young children • Children’s continuum includes: turbulence, gaiety, spontaneity, diversion • Adults’ continuum includes: calculation, subordination to rules, contrivance and ritual One is not better than the other, however, as children grow and develop, their continuum goes toward the adult side

  7. Games • Physical skill • Strategy • Chance

  8. Games vs. Sports • There are no exact distinctions between the two terms • Three important areas of the concept “game”: • Games derive from play • Games involve competition • Game outcomes are based on skill, strategy or chance • Not all games are sports but all sports are a game

  9. Games vs. Sports, cont’d • Sports are games involving skill and strategy • Sport games have primary and secondary rules • Sport games are classified into four categories: • Territory or invasion games • Target games • Court games • Sector games

  10. Territory/Invasion Games • Goal is to invade the space of the opponent to score. • The use of goals or end zones are prevalent. • Games can vary in skill: use of arms, legs, stick implements. • Examples: football, ice hockey, soccer, rugby

  11. Target Games • Primary objective is to propel an object with great accuracy toward a target or targets. • Examples: golf, bowling, horseshoes

  12. Court Games • Primary objective is strategically propel an object in such a way that it cannot be returned by an opponent. • Examples: tennis, badminton, handball, squash

  13. Sector Games • Primary objective is for one opponent to strike an object so as to elude defenders. • Examples: baseball, softball, cricket

  14. Competition Concept • Rituals and traditions are easily seen • Strives to achieve an objective • Involves a state of rivalry

  15. Roles that Contribute to Sports as an Institution • Codification of rules • Officials or referees • Organization and structure of sport teams, i.e., NCAA • Record keeping to measure performance • Dissemination of information to the public, i.e., newspaper

  16. Aesthetics of Sports • One tries to find the beauty in sports, form sports, and other sports • Form sports: performers consciously work on achieving a physical form that is aesthetic • Examples of qualities are: harmony, form, dynamics, flow, gracefulness, rhythm, poise

  17. Aesthetics of Sports, cont’d • Carlisle (1974) has suggested four types of beauty in other sports: • Well-developed physique • Well-designed play or execution of the maneuver • Dramatic competition • Unity of an entire performance

  18. Ethics in Sports • How people behave or conduct themselves in particular situations, i.e., games or sports • Fair play: how a competitor behaves before, during and after competition • 19th Century concept from England, i.e., Arnoldism • Concept still permeates in our society today • Rule violations are meant to be enforced by officials or referees • Sports still can build character and teach important life lessons • However, sport can be corrupt and has the ability to teach negative lesson in life

More Related