Физическая культура и спорт /1.Физическая
культура и спорт: проблемы, исследования, предложения.
Студентка Домитрович
С.
Научный руководитель: ассистент кафедры иностранных языков
Анисимова Светлана Анатольевна
Донецкий национальный университет экономики и торговли
имени
Михаила Туган - Барановского, Украина
Sports in the USA
Many
sports and sporting activities are popular in the USA. People participate in
swimming, skating, squash and badminton, tennis, marathons, track-and-field,
bowing, archery, skiing, skating etc. But the five major American sports are
hockey, volleyball, baseball, football and basketball. Basketball and
volleyball have been invented in America. There is a large choice of sports in
America. This can be explained by the size and variety of the country. Another
reason of the popularity of sports is the people’s love of competition of any
kind. One more reason is that Americans use sports activities for teaching
socials values, such as teamwork and sportsmanship. Every high school offers
its students many sports, such as wrestling, rowing, tennis and golf. There are
no separate “universities” for sports in the USA. Students of any higher
educational establishment are trained in different kinds of sports. Many
colleges and universities are famous for their sports clubs.
Some Americans
like active games and others like quite games. I think that quite games, as
golf and crocket, intend for rich elite people. The most popular games in the
USA are hockey, American football, baseball, basketball. Popular among Americans
are NHL games. In NHL games play our compatriots: Feudorov, Yashin, Bure
brothers. They are ones of the best players in NHL. American football is like rugby
with kicks. Every player can beat another one. I think American football is one
of the rudest games in the world. Baseball is played with wooden bat and hard
ball.
It's called "typical" American game. Basketball is one of the most
spectators game in the USA. It's my favorite game too. Some unusual kinds of
sports originated in America. They are windsurfing, skate-boarding and
tradition.
Triathlon includes swimming, bicycling racing and long-distances-running. Now
these are becoming more and more popular in Europe. Sports are a part of life
of an average American. A SPORTS-LOVING NATION whether they are fans or
players, the millions of Americans who participate in sports are usually
passionate about their games. A real fan not only can recite each player's
batting average, but also competes with other fans to prove who knows the
answers to the most obscure and trivial questions about the sport. That's
dedication. Dedication short of madness is also what inspired hundreds of
thousands of football fans to fill Denver's stadium in dangerously freezing
temperatures, not to watch an exciting game but just to demonstrate team
support in a pre-Super bowl pep rally, days before the actual contest. And it
is with passion that Americans pursue the latest fitness fad, convinced that
staying fit requires much more than regular exercise and balanced meals. For
anyone who claims a real desire to stay healthy, fitness has become a science
of quantification, involving weighing, measuring, monitoring, graph charting."
These are the tools for knowing all about pulse and heart rates, calorie
intake, fat cell per muscle cell ratios, and almost anything else that shows
the results of a" workout. MEDIA COVERAGE The immense popularity, of
sports in America is indicated by the number of pages and headlines the average
daily newspaper devotes to local and national sports. The emphasis on sports is
evident in local evening news telecasts, too every evening fox five to seven
minutes of the half-hour local new show, the station's sports analyst, whose
territory is exclusively sports, reports on local, regional, and national
sports events. Television has made sports available to all. For those who
cannot afford tickets or travel to expensive play-offs like baseball's World
Series or football's final Super bowl, a flick of the television dial provides
close-up viewing.
Although estimates vary, the major networks average about 500 hours each of
sports programming a year. Recently, the emergence of several cable channels
that specialize in sports gives viewers even more options. The foremost of
these channels, ESPN, runs sports shows at least 22 hours a day and is now
received by 37 million American homes, or nearly half of the 86 million homes
with television sets. Opportunities for keeping fit and playing sports are
numerous. Jogging is extremely popular, perhaps because it is the cheapest and
most accessible sport.
Aerobic exercise and training with weight-lifting machines are two activities
which more and more men and women are pursuing. Books, videos, and
fitness-conscious movie stars that play up the glamour of fitness have
heightened enthusiasm for these exercises and have promoted the muscular,
healthy body as the American beauty ideal. Most communities have recreational
parks with tennis and basketball courts, a football or soccer field, and
outdoor grills for picnics. These parks generally charge no fees for the use of
these facilities. Some large corporations, hospitals, and churches have indoor
gymnasiums and organize informal team sports.
For those who can afford membership fees, there is the exclusive country club
and its more modern version, the health and fitness center. Members of these
clubs have access to all kinds of indoor and outdoor sports; swimming,
volleyball, golf, racquetball, handball, tennis, and basketball; most dubs also
offer instruction in various, sports and exercise methods. Schools and colleges
have institutionalized team sports for young people. Teams and competitions are
highly organized and competitive and generally receive substantial local
publicity. Besides these sports, ice hockey, boxing, golf, car racing, horse
racing, and tennis have been popular for decades and attract large audiences.