SPORT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND OUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE

SPORT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND OUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE

EARLY CULTURES • Egypt • Warriors trained • Dancing was valued in religion • China • Only the military class valued physical development • India • Yoga, a system of meditation and regulated breathing

HOMERIC ERA (prehistoric time to 776 B.C.) • Homer’s Iliad — describes the funeral games in honor of Patroclus • Homer’s Odyssey — includes the story of Odysseus on the island of the Phaeacians • Aristocratic sports — warrior skills displayed in sports by noblemen • Individual events only • Informal • Spontaneous • Only amateurs

Events Chariot racing Boxing Wrestling Javelin Foot racing Discus • Development of the Greek Ideal • Man of Action — sports skills and military prowess and • Man of Wisdom — development of mind and philosophical abilities • Emulated the Greek gods who were believed to have superior intellect and physical capabilities

SPARTAN ERA (776 B.C. to 371 B.C.) • Early years they had freedoms and cultural activities • Man of Action later took over with an emphasis on military supremacy • State controlled life and education • Girls were trained at home in gymnastics — to bear healthy children • Boys • Raised at home until age seven and trained by mothers

Between ages 7-20 males stayed in barracks training for military; were in companies of 64 boys with one leader and later in 4 companies or a troop; discipline was severe • Between ages 20-30 males were in the military • At 30 years, males became citizens and married • Between ages 30-50, males trained boys in barracks • Narrow-minded society (conquering) until at one time — 9,000 Spartans to 250,000 captives • In the early years, the Olympic Games were dominated by the Spartans (46 of 81 victories)

EARLY ATHENIAN ERA(776 B.C. to 480 B.C.) • Developed into a liberal, progressive, and democratic city-state • Greek Ideal of the unity of the Man of Action and the Man of Wisdom • Athenian education • Moral (character) training at home for both girls and boys • Girls at home got no intellectual and practically no physical training

Boys • Raised at home until seven, but sometimes went with fathers to the gymnasiums • If could afford formal education • Palaestra — place for physical training, sometimes called a wrestling school (the teacher was called a paidotribe) • Didascaleum — place for intellectual training, sometimes called a music school

Males became citizens at 18 years • Between ages 18-20 males were subject to military service (always had to be ready for war) • Citizens — physical work-outs and intellectual (philosophical) discussions at the state-furnished gymnasiums

LATE ATHENIAN ERA (480 B.C. to 404 B.C.) • Military successes in the Persian Wars led to freedoms, individualism, and self-confidence • “Golden Age” (443 B.C. to 429 B.C.) —cultural explosion as Man of Wisdom was stressed and Man of Action ignored • Loss of interest in physical development • Intellectualism • Decline of Athenian military interest and involvement (no longer soldiers) • Replacement of citizens by mercenaries

HELLENISTIC PERIOD(323 B.C. to 146 B.C.) • Under Alexander the Great — all Greek city-states united • Diffused Greek culture throughout his empire

Olympic Information • www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/ • http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml

PANHELLENIC FESTIVALS Greek Athletic (Crown) Festivals Festival Place Honored Wreath Interval Founded Olympic Olympia Zeus olive 4 776 B.C. Pythian Delphi Apollo bay 4 582 B.C. Isthmian Isthmia Poseidon pine 2 582 B.C. Nemean Nemea Zeus wild celery 2 573 B.C.

IDEALS DEPICTED THROUGH GREEK ATHLETICS • Appreciation of the aesthetics of beauty of movement • Beautiful body matched with beautiful deeds • Respect for courage and endurance • Reverence for the gods • Emphasized honor, modesty, and fair play • Opposed one-sided development • Love of competition — man against man for superiority, not for records

OLYMPIC GAMES (776 B.C. to about 400 A.D.) • Held every four years in honor of Zeus and the Olympic Council of gods • Cultural interaction between city-states • Competitors and spectators (up to 40,000) were guaranteed safe passage (truce) through warring city-states • No women at Olympic Games except for those who were in charge of the sacrifices • Olive wreath for each winner

COMPETITOR REGULATIONS • Required to be a Greek citizen • Could be from any social class • Required to train 10 months • Required to train the last month at Olympia under the supervision of judges • Pledged an oath of fair play • Competed in the nude

EVENTS • Footraces — how started; turning post • Stade — the length of the stadium or about 200 meters (776 B.C.) • Diaulos — 2 stades (724 B.C.) • Dolichos — 24 stades (724 B.C.) • Wrestling — standing; the winner must throw his opponent to the ground three times before being thrown three times (708 B.C.)

PENTATHLON—All-around athlete (708 B.C.) • Race of 1 or 2 stades • Javelin — 8-10 feet to test both distance and form (with leather thong) • Long jump using halteres • Discus — using 1-foot diameter and 4-5 pound stone thrown from a fixed position • Wrestling — always the deciding event

OTHER EVENTS • Boxing — with leather thongs on hands (688 B.C.) • Confined blows to the head • No weight classifications • Loser had to give up • Chariot racing — (680 B.C.) — 12 laps around 500-meter hippodrome • Horse racing (648 B.C.) — (1-6 laps) • Pancratium — combination of boxing and wrestling (loser had to give up) (648 B.C.) • Boys’ events (632 B.C.) • Races in armor (580 B.C.)

Professionalism and specialization in athletics (citizens became spectators instead of participants) • Athletes sold their services to city-states and winners received cash, pensions, statues, and triumphal processions at city-states • Gymnasiums became pleasure resorts and places for philosophical discussions instead of activity-filled centers; the only ones who trained physically were the professional athletes

Ending the Games: “The conquest of the Greeks by the Romans had a bad influence on the Pan-Hellenic Games. Unable to value gymnastics as a means of attaining beauty, symmetry of body, grace, complete development and harmony of body and soul, the conquerors hastened the decay of the games which had already begun under the Later Greeks. Professionalism was encouraged, the more brutal and exciting sports came to be and bribery followed. The games ceased to have any connection with general education; the moral values to be derived from friendly competitions disappeared.”

HERAEAN GAMES “Every fourth year there is woven for Hera a robe by the Sixteen women, and the same also hold games called Heraea. The games consist of footraces for maidens. These are not all of the same age. The first to run are the youngest; after them come the next in age, and last to run are the oldest of the maidens. They run in the following way: their hair hangs down, a tunic reaches to a little above the knee and they bare the right shoulder as far as the breast. These too have the Olympic stadium reserved for their games, but the course of the stadium is shortened for them by about one-sixth of its length. To the winning maidens they give crowns of olive and a portion of the cow sacrificed to Hera. They may also dedicate statues with their names inscribed upon them.”

ROMAN REPUBLIC (@500 B.C. to 27 B.C.) • Freedoms for people under aristocratic oligarchy; more democratic • Moral and military training — superior to intellectual attainment • Goal was to become a citizen-soldier • Campus Martius and military camps —training for military (running; jumping; swimming; javelin; fencing; archery; riding; marching) • Ages 17-47 — could be drafted for war • When not training or fighting, males and many females were spectators at festivals

ROMAN EMPIRE (27 B.C. to 476 A.D.) • Loss of individual freedoms; lessened emphasis on military prowess; hired mercenaries after Romans had established the Empire; accompanied by a decay of morals • Games and festivals (maybe as frequently as 250 days of the year) • Staged for spectator entertainment with political overtones • Professional athletes and gladiators competed for lucrative prizes

ROMAN EMPIRE (27 B.C. to 476 A.D.) • Chariot races — usually 7 laps for a 3-mile event; the more brutal, the more popular; took place at the circuses; the Circus Maximus had a capacity of 260,000 people • Thermae or bathes — contrast baths with minimal exercise (except for the training of professional athletes and gladiators); cultural centers; dining areas

MIDDLE AGES (11th to 16th centuries, especially 1250-1350) • Chivalry — moral and social code for noblemen (to serve God, lord, and lady) • Feudalism — protection and government • Manoralism — economics • Knightly training • Until 7 years — training at home • Page (7-14 years) — under the lady of another castle for general training • Squire (14-21 years) — under the direction of the knight or lord for physical training • 21 years — could become a knight

MIDDLE AGES (11th to 16th centuries especially 1250-1350) • Activities of the squire • Attended the knight or lord of the castle as a valet and bodyguard • Served his meals • Assisted him in battle • Cleaned his armor • Learned knightly arts of riding; swimming; archery; climbing; jousting; wrestling; fencing; courtly manners • Learned responsibilities of knighthood

MIDDLE AGES (11th to 16th centuries especially 1250-1350) • Tournaments — favorite amusements of the people • Joust — combat between two armed horsemen with blunt weapons • Grand tourney or melee —similarities to war with many men fighting with real weapons • Crusades — interrelationship between the physical and spiritual (1095-1200s)

RENAISSANCE (1400-1600) • Artists again depicted the human body as a revelation of beauty • Health stressed to overcome epidemics • Embraced the classical ideal of “a sound mind in a sound body”

REFORMATION (15OOs) • Protestant sects relegated physical education to an inferior position and endeavored to curb worldly pleasures • Martin Luther and John Calvin were leaders in this movement • Exercise was okay for health — in order to serve God better • Protestant work ethic affected the United States

TIMELINE Middle Ages Enlightenment <-------------------------------> Reformation <------Dark Ages------------------------------><---------------------------><------------- 476<------->1095<---------->1200s<-----------1400--------->1600<-------1700s Crusades Renaissance

THE ENLIGHTENMENT (1700s) • John Locke • Knightly activities for British gentlemen • “A sound mind in a sound body” in 1693 in Some Thoughts Concerning Education

EDUCATIONAL NATURALISM (1700s) • Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Wrote Emile as a philosophical model • Stressed “everything according to nature” • Training of the body preceded formal intellectual training — best if both could develop together naturally • Stressed recreational, vigorous activity for children (natural activities) • Readiness was the key concept

GERMAN GYMNASTICS • Johann Basedow — Philanthropinum — 1774 • Based on naturalistic principles from Rousseau • Program — 1 hour in morning; 2 hours in afternoon; 2 hours of manual labor • Fencing; dancing; riding; vaulting —Basedow • Running; jumping; throwing; wrestling — Simon • Johann Friedrich Simon — first physical education teacher

GERMAN GYMNASTICS • C.G. Salzmann (teacher at Philanthropinum) Schnepfenthal Institute—1785 • Patterned after the Philanthropinum and naturalism • Program — daily for 3 hours • Natural activities — running; jumping • Greek-type activities — wrestling; throwing • Knightly activities — swimming; climbing • Military exercises — marching; swordsmanship • Manual labor — carpentry; gardening

GERMAN GYMNASTICS • Johann Friedrich GutsMuths — 1786-1835 • Gymnastics for the Young — 1792 — foundation for physical education • Games — 1796 — 105 games classified with skills

GERMAN GYMNASTICS • Friedrich Ludwig Jahn • Half-holiday excursions in natural settings — based on GutMuths’ ideas • 1810 — Turnplatz (outdoor exercising ground) with vaulting bucks; parallel bars; climbing ladders and ropes; balance beams; running track; wrestling ring • Physical education was a means, not an end — the hope of German freedom lay in the development of strong, sturdy, fearless youth — national regeneration

GERMAN GYMNASTICS • Common uniform to make all social classes equal (gray canvas smock and trousers) • Working classes and lower middle classes predominately • Initially open only in July and August; later open year round • Individualized under Jahn • Vorturners trained younger boys • 1819 — illegal (underground) • 1840 — legal • 1848 — illegal (underground)

ADOLPH SPIESS—GERMAN SCHOOL GYMNASTICS (late 1840s) • Stressed the essentially of physical education within schools • Required exercise hall • Trained instructors — established a normal school to train them • Offered one class period per day • Made physical education equal to other subjects by giving grades • Adapted to age levels • Provided for boys and girls

ADOLPH SPIESS—FOUNDER OF GERMAN SCHOOL GYMNASTICS (late 1840s) • Program • Free exercise with music • Marching with music and stressed discipline • Little formalism in sports, games, and dancing • Manual of gymnastics for schools

SWEDISH GYMNASTICS • Per Henrik Ling — founder of Swedish gymnastics • 1814 — Royal Gymnastics Central Institute — established by the government for military purposes with Ling as director • Four areas of gymnastics • Military — national preparedness • Medical — therapeutic healing • Pedagogical — educational • Aesthetics — expression of feelings

SWEDISH GYMNASTICS • Program — used to achieve an already established objective • Posture correcting — rigidly held positions • Movement on command into positions (no freedom of movement) • Apparatus — stall bars; vaulting boxes; climbing poles and ropes; oblique ropes; Swedish boom

SWEDISH GYMNASTICS • Hjalmar Ling — leader for the educational segment of the RGCI in 1840s • Developed Swedish school gymnastics — based on Per Henrik Ling's principles • Program • Day's order — progressive, precise execution of movements on command (for 11 body parts) • Adapted to age and ability levels • Adapted to both sexes • Adapted apparatus to children

DANISH GYMNASTICS —FRANZ NACHTEGALL • 1799 — Established his private gymnasium based on the ideas of GutsMuths • 1804 — Director of the Military Gymnastic Institute—government financed and the first normal school for physical education • Theme — nationalism • Formalized exercise on command with no individual expression allowed • Equipment — rope ladders; climbing masts and poles; balance beams; vaulting horse (like GutsMuths)

ENGLISH SPORTS • English sports movement in the public schools — for upper-class boys • Students worked toward (and were) the highest ideal of British sportsmanship • Influenced amateur sport worldwide and especially in the United States • The best sportsman makes the best citizen • Sports included rugby, association football, cricket, track and field, and rowing

ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORTS HELD BY STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS • A "public-school" type boy was more a product of sports and games than of books and scholastic training • Physical fitness was not valued; instead, if one engages in sports, he will be fit; sports are just a part of life • Sport were played by those less specialized, therefore, the level of expertise will be lower • Skills are seldom practiced because sports skills will be learned by playing

ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORTS HELD BY STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS • Sports were mostly played between the houses with few spectators, although sometimes interschool matches were held. • Masters, out of school loyalty, acted as coaches. • Upper-class males believed in “playing the game for the game's sake.” • Sports were believed to teach socialization skills, leadership, loyalty, cooperation, sportsmanship, self-discipline, and initiative.

ENGLISH SPORTS IN THE UNIVERSITIES • Believed in informal, casual, and non-intense sports involvement — playing at their games • Usually students played several sports (exception was rowing) • No paid coaches — undergraduate captains • No faculty involvement and support • Purchased own equipment; paid own travel • Association football and (field) hockey paid for the upkeep of fields for other sports • Winning the “blue” was very prestigious (Oxford-dark blue and Cambridge-light blue)

BRITISH AMATEUR SPORTS IDEAL • Learning moral values such as sportsmanship and teamwork, through sports • Upper-class snobbishness toward competing against those who might violate the amateur tradition • Develop muscular Christianity

“Since games are regarded in Great Britain as essentially play rather than work, the line between the amateur, the man who plays at his games, and the professional, the man who works at sport for financial profit, is strictly drawn in most branches of athletics, nominally drawn in all. The whole force of public-school and university opinion tends to keep this distinction constantly charged with meaning. Very few people depend upon school, college, or university sport for their livelihood, and those who are thus dependent are regarded not as leaders, but as employees. No person depends upon victory for his living. These facts, supplementing the traditions of the public schools, stimulate a conscious effort to prevent the commercialization of school and university sport and of amateur sport in general. Thus, the phrases, ‘play the game’ and ‘to play the game for the game’s sake,’ transcend the usual emptiness of such slogans, gather an almost mystical significance, and become the rallying cries of British sportsmen.”

SPORT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND OUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE