The Role of Sports in Society - Research Paper Example

Role of Sports in Our Society Examine the role of sport and leisure in society, drawing on sport/leisure policy documents to support your answer. Introduction Sports have become essential for today’s society. It not only brings new things to learn but also provides the opportunity for economic development of a country. Sports also help in keeping one physically active and healthy. In today’s society, it has become crucial to introduce children to sports. Being overly attached to indoor activities and electronic media, children are becoming more inactive and unhealthy. Sports not only provide physical fitness to children, but also improve their mental health. In subsequent paragraphs, the importance of sports in today’s society has been discussed. Recent research reveals that playing some sort of sports enhances the arithmetic skills of children. Those types of sports which include hitting and aiming for instance baseball, tennis, cricket and badminton helps in increasing the focus. Importance of Sports Sports have always had great influence on society and people. Sports such as Olympics and World Cup evoke people with excitement and enthusiasm. Sports are always considered as fundamental in maintain and enhancing different important aspects of life. They are listed as follows: Team Spirit Sports are very advantageous in developing social skills of a person. It teaches you to communicate and interact with people and helps in collaborating as a team. Another important factor is that it nurtures collective thinking and fosters the skills related to planning and delegation. Physical Fitness Almost every type of sports helps in maintaining the physical fitness. It tones and shapes the bones and muscles of the body. For kids, sports are excellent in keeping them active and in shape. Confidence Sports help in inculcating self-confidence of a person. When a person wins a tournament or excels in a particular sport, it boosts his confidence. Sports evoke dedication, discipline and responsibility by which a person becomes able to apply these traits in his other areas of life as well. Health Regular participation in sports activities strengthens the immune system of a person and hence it fight against the many types of diseases. Sports burn the extra fats and also improve the appetite of a person and thus the overall health of a person gets improved and stable. Constructive usage of Time When adults and children are indulged in sports activities, their time is utilized in constructive way. Sports activities keep teenagers away from destructive habits and addictions like smoking, alcohol, drugs etc. If they are not allowed to play sports, then they might indulge in these activities or may show up anti-social attitude. Mental Strength Sports make a personally mentally strong. Failure and success are part of sports as well as life. Encountering failures in sports activities assist a person in dealing with failure in life as well. Sportsperson handles defeat and success in an equitable manner. It also teaches a person about how to handle competition and being courageous while facing opponents. Decision Making Last but not the least, the most important aspect of sports is that it improves the decision making skills of a person. Sports make a person capable of making quick decisions according to the requirements of a situation. Therefore, a sportsman becomes wise enough to take quick and effective decision in other areas of life as well. [Dog11] Role of Sports in Society Sport is an essential part of society for both educational fixture as well as entertainment enterprise. Sports contribute a great deal in maintaining and improving integration, social cohesion and tolerance for the human and social development. [McM11] Sports possess a distinctive ability to bring people together. It stimulates teamwork, coordination and confidence. They also attract attention of media as well as general public, for this reason sports program works as useful tool in enhancing policy and social change. Sports program can help people in finding a voice both collectively as well as individually. By doing so, they can bring change in their societies and lives. In Egypt, a team sports campaign names as ‘Save the Children’ helped in providing literacy and health training to young girls. It not only boosted girls’ confidence but also provided them with the sense of delaying their marriage until they become more sensible and mature to handle it. In Croatia, disability athletes/ advocates helped a local town in establishing a wheelchair basketball team. Municipal governments involved in the program so much that they devoted their efforts in making the town more manageable for wheelchair users. [USA1] According to the World Economic Forum, sports in today’s environment can be a major driver for social and economic change because a large part of population is involved watching and playing different types of sports. For this reason, Sports Council can play an imperative role by leveraging businesses, individuals, governments and elite sportsman to initiate for substantial development at social, political and economic level. [Wor12] Useful Dimensions of Sports in Society According to World Economic Forum, sports are useful in the following mentioned dimensions Education and Sports Extra-curricular activities at school mostly consist of sporting activities. It develops a spirit of team work, discipline, coordination and confidence among students. Sporting activities warrants a substantial place in the educational institutes. Politics and Sports Politics and sporting activities go hand in hand. Prominent events such as World Cup and Olympics can be important tools in enhancing understanding among countries. Economic Development and Sports Sporting activities and events bring a great deal of employment, marketing and growth opportunities to countries. It creates additional sources of revenue for a country by adding extra streams of income. These income streams include hosting a sporting event, developing infrastructure, offering sport related services and manufacturing of sports goods. Training and coaching of young prospect work force is another aspect of economic growth and development. [Wor12] According to USAID, UN system and Albanian Olympic Committee, several workshops and programs are conducted in Albania to promote sporting activities which help a great deal in contributing for the youth development and economic development. [USA1] Sporting Goods and International Trade In developing countries, the production of sporting goods is done at huge scale. The manufacturing and trade of sporting goods increase the exports of developing or underdeveloped countries. Discourage Negative Behavior As discussed earlier, sporting activities discourage abusive, negative and destructive behavior. From the ages of 11-19, there is higher probability of young generation to get involved in negative and destructive habits but if they are involved in sports then there are much lower chances of teenagers to get involved in such companies and habits. Integration with Disabled People If disabled people participate in sports, then it can lead to the shift in the perception of public towards disability. People will focus more on commonality and ability rather than differences and discrimination. Sports programs, integrating non-disabled as well as disabled people can be commenced so as to support this concern. According to Porter, (2012) the perception of business in our society can be changed. It is not necessary that corporations and limited companies can be considered as business entities, but in fact sports events and sporting entities can also be entitled as successful businesses. Sports businesses can enhance the shared value of sports by promoting the wave of productivity, economic development, growth and innovation. [Por12] Sports can bring possible positive changes in society. It must be determined in which dimension changes are required and then taking appropriate actions for accomplishing ii for example in U.K, an organization named as “Homeless World Cup” improves the livelihood of homeless people through a well-known sport; soccer. Homeless people participate in soccer tournaments and then are rewarded as per their performance. These programs help the homeless people in making their living conditions better. [Geo08] Jamil, (2009) conducted a study so as to determine the role of recreative activities and sports in eradicating and controlling the anti-social and immoral behavior from the society. These social immoralities and destructive behavior included drugs, gambling, abuse, hostility, negative sentiments, criminal offensiveness and delinquency. It has been found that respondents provided a positive and encouraging opinion about the usefulness of recreation activities and sports for enhancing the social and mental well-being. Most of the respondents revealed that maximum participation in sports can be highly beneficial for the treatment of drug abuse and other related immoralities among the youth. [Jam09] All over the world, people worship sports as much as they worship their religion. Sports mean so much to their lives that they feel incomplete without the sporting activities. Sports help a great deal in uniting individuals and making them a ‘nation’ through shared belief and common interest. In this regard, sports can be used as an agent of change and can shift the way people respond and take actions for some important causes and issues. [Rei10] Policy Implication of Sports and Recreational Activities In U.K, some policies have been designed related to sports and recreational activities. These policies determine the parameters and dimension which must be considered while involving and sports activities. For the purpose of formulating policies, Sport England has been actively participating in developing and implementing policies. These policies are for recreational and sports activities for regional, local and sub-regional levels. For creating policies at regional and sub-regional level, Sports England had developed wide range of practical tools and techniques. Sport England has prepared several handouts and documents which depict the policies which are formulated for both regional and local level. [Spo12] After the policies are formulated, Sport England put these policies into practice through following steps: Assessing demand and needs Determining applications for planning Design matters Protecting fields for playing [Spo12] U.K Sport Council has also played a prominent role in devising effective policies. Under U.K Sport’s Council, some stated policies are: Encouraging new talents, excellence and innovation and helping people in developing sporting skills Distribution of money for improving public value and not for private gain Maintaining the highest standards of ethics Implementing and working for sustainable development of people as well as sporting activities [Ram07] All over the world, hundreds of programs and organization tapped into the infinite power of sports for promoting peace and development. However, very recently some programs and projects have led to cause isolation of sporting activities. For the past decade, a movement has been commenced of utilizing sports for peace and development at international level. This has led to the unprecedented coordination, focus and strategic thinking. The next step for practitioners was to take this movement to the next level. At the same time, a lot of work has to be done to make people understand about the unlimited potential benefits of sports and recreational activities. Above all, there is a lot of room by which private entities can work and do partnerships to promote peace and development at global level. Works Cited Dog11: , (Dogra, 2011), McM11: , (McMichel, 2011), USA1: , (USAID-From the American People, n.d.), Wor12: , (World Economic Forum, n.d.), Por12: , (Porter, 2012), Geo08: , (Eric, 2008), Jam09: , (Jamil, 2009), Rei10: , (Reich, 2010), Spo12: , (Sport England, n.d.), Ram07: , (Ramsay, 2007), Read More