Introduction
The Oxford advanced learners dictionary 2008 (7th edition) defines sports as any physical activities done for exercise and leisure usually in a special area and according to specific and fixed rules.
Sports may be defined as a recreational or competitive activity that involves some amount of physical strength or skill (Britannica Encyclopedia, 2007). Sports in-facts, is a physical or Psychological activities undertaken for exercise and pleasure sport after entertainment or excitement and may be undertaken just for the pleasure of it or on a competitive base sports is a physically active game e.g. football, basketball and other sports.
The human race is however the only species that is known to have deliberately or accidentally invented sports as part of culture rather than native. It is not really known when human kind started to invent sports. According to Olajide (2004) the early occupation of man seems to be the genesis of all modern sports. Hunting of animals and gathering of willow fruits roots and herbs involved application of motor and psychomotor skills such as running, jumping throwing lending lifting and digging, pulling and coordinating physical and mental functions.
A lot of factors have influenced people participation in sports and games. Spots complex is constructed in schools and colleges for the edification of the mental status and building of the body physically, student and pupils are advised to take into sports in order to engage in extracurricular activities and to develop and discover talents.
Mikel Obi a Nigerian footballer playing professional football in the United Kingdom once said that he started football from this secondary school team. Victor Moses, a former Nigerian key player stated in you tube that he discovers the gift of football in Primary three (3). Sports has gone beyond exercise and building up the mind to wealth creation industry where footballers make less than N1.5 millions per week as wage. Many factors have influenced the mind of students or youths negatively into engaging sports in general. Such as mismanagement of sports funds, personal interest, peer group influence, cultural influence and among others. Vanguard sports newspapers, vol.18: No 4, Sat, Feb 19 –2011).
According to Leonard (1999) over the years, governments at all level have adopted many strategies to put on and to the issue of violence particularly in our higher institutions of learning. Owning to the significance of sports in promoting Peace and Unity among people, competitions such as principle’s cup, Chairman’s cup, inter community cup, shell cup, Nigeria Universities Games, Association (NUGA) have been organized and are still being organized to foster peace and solidarity among youths at various levels. Sports have great potential for bringing people together, fostering unity, understanding, tolerance and love among people which are essential ingredients in the promotion of peace. The developmental impact of sports cannot be questioned.
Nelson Mandela the former president of South Africa once said “sport has the power to unite people in a way nothing else can”. According to Dzathor (2003) sports can create hope where there was once despair. It breaks down racial barriers, it laughs in the face of discrimination. Sports speak to people in a language they can understand. It foster understanding between individuals, facilitates dialogue between divergent communities and breeds tolerance among nations.
Conceptual framework:
Today, the climate of opinions has changed so drastically in favour of non-participates in sporting activities some even argue that sports and games is hard to define.
The 2008 (7th edition) of the Oxford Advanced learners dictionary defines sports as any physical activity done for exercise any pleasure usually in a special area and according to specific rules.
Sports may be defined as a recreational or competitive activity that involves some amount of physical strength or skills (Britannica Encyclopedia, 2007). Sports in fact, are physical or psychological activities undertaken for exercise and pleasure. Sports offer entertainment or excitement and may be undertaken just for pleasure of it or on a competitive bade sports is a physically active game e.g. football, basketball and others.
According to Sports for Development and Peace International working Group / Right to Play” (2007), sports is referred to as all forms of physical activity that contribute to physical fitness, mental well being and social inter action such as play, recreation, organized or competitive sports and indigenous sports and games.
European Sports Charter (2001) described sports as all forms of physical activity which through casual or organized participation aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well being forming relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels the human race is however the only species that is known to have deliberately or accidentally inventers sports as part culture rather than nature. It is not really known when human kind started to invent sports. The most famous association and religious sports is “Olympic games.” The early occupation of man seems to be the genesis of all modern sports.
Eastaway (2004) quoted that sports is generally recognized as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition and other organizations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Games Committee (through ARISF) recognizes both chess and bridge as bonafide sports and the international sports Federation association, recognizes five non-physical sports although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.
Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance including objective or subjective measure such as technical performance, or artistic impression.
Kobiluo (2011) stated that sports is carried out everywhere even in schools as part of curriculum and communities to enhance physical and mental wellbeing of the individual. He further stated that modern sports is as wealthy as crude in any nation. Stating that in a country like Nigeria, Kanu Nwankwo is the richest footballer in Nigeria rating 151,000 dollars while Mikel Obi earning 15 million dollars per week. Incentives showed are giving to players to boast their morals.
Olajide (2004) said that the realization of the Federal Government of Nigeria that sports men and women should be discovered while they are still young, grown to maturity, its attentions has been drawn to the schools where there are talents in abundance. For effective coordination of sports at various levels of education, several games associations in communities have constituted.
Sports could be entertaining and exercising, any sport that includes spectators, either free or paid admission with no pre-scripted plot of the final outcome. The athletics might also get entertained by complete sports objective. Some sports are physical exercise while others are mental exercise.
Types of sports:
Oliver (1997) enumerated and elucidated the types of sports in his book fettled “satisfaction” which are as follows;
- Amateur sports: Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The decision is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants who are financially remunerated for the time they spend playing or training.
- Athletic sports: Athletic sport encompasses the human competitive sports and games requiring physical skill and the system of training that, prepare athletes for competition performance. It can also be regarded as “Contest,” are competitions which are primarily based on human, physical competition, demanding the qualities of stamina, fitness and skill.
- Blood Sports: This is a category of sports or entertainment that involves any sports that causes bloodshed in any game, sport or contest involving bloodshed. On the other hand, can bridge online dictionary defines blood sport as any sport involves animals being killed or hurt to make the people watching or taking part feel excited. Sport blood includes covering, combat sports such as cock fighting and dog fighting, or other activities of human animal blood sport. These usually involved blood drawn and often result in the death of one or more animals.
- Disabled sport: Disabled sport also called adaptive sports are sports played by persons with disabilities like physical and intellectual disabilities. As many of these based on existing sports, is modified to meet the needs of persons with a disability however at all disabled sports and adapted.
- Female sports: Just as the word implies, it is the sports of women. It includes armature and professional competitions in virtually all sports. Female participation in sports rose dramatically in the twentieth century, especially in the last quarter, reflecting changes in modern societies, which emphasized gender pointy. An important aspect about women’s sports is that women usually do not compete equal teams against men.
- Fantasy sports: This is also known as “owner simulation” is a game where participants act as owners to build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by the real individual players or teams of a professional sports.
- Extreme sports: This is also known as free sport action and adventure sports. It is a popular term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. The definition of an extreme sport is not exact and the origin of the term is unclear.
- Motor sports: Motor sports are the group of competitive event which primarily involves the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition. Motor sport refers to motorcycle racing specifically and includes off road racing such as motocross.
- Spectator sports: This is characterized by the presence of spectators, watchers at its matches, for distance, Tennis, Rugby, formula one, baseball, basketball and football are spectator sports. Spectator sport may be professional or amateur sports. It requires venues or sometimes stadiums in which the fans may observe a game or event.
- Team sports: This includes any sport which involves players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in which a group of individuals on the same team work together to accomplish an ultimate goal which is usually to win.
Team members get goals, make divisions, communicate, manage conflict and solve problems in a supportive, trusting atmosphere in order to accomplish their objectives.
Factors affecting sports in Nigeria:
Leonard and Marcellus (1999) spoke that non-participation of sports by Nigerian youths. These reasons he gave includes;
- Age: Age is a determining factor to sport participation among people in a giving Community. The sport and leisure pursuits that people take part are closely related to their age. As people get older, the time spent taking part in sport becomes less and the nature of sport changes.
Activities with high – energy requirements and out put such as rugby are generally associated with younger players while activities that rely on skill rather than physical fitness such as lawn bounds are associated with older people. As the body ages, it becomes less flexible, strength is lost as are speed and stamina. Sprains and other minor injuries become more frequent and recovery time becomes longer.
- Gender: At the ancient Olympic Games, women were not allowed to watch the activities let alone participate in them. Even in the 1996, Atlanta games there were 163 men’s event and only 97 women’s events. All the profile of women’s sport has continued to grow over the past two or three decades, there are still obvious reasons why sports participation by women still falls short of that of man.
Women are still viewed as the farer, weaker sex and some sports are deemed too dangerous for them. The 1928 Olympics cast doubt over women’s ability to run the 800 meter race when several of them collapsed during that race. There is less media coverage of women’s sport than that of men’s sport and so the profile of women in sport continues to remain low.
- Disability: Disabilities of any kind could have a negative factor in sports participation. An individual who is suffering from polio and an amputee cannot become an athlete on even perform a flexible exercise. Though there are sports for disables.
- Negligence of community heads towards sports: Community heads has little or no interest in sports rather, they engage in other money making sector that can raise money in their community. Sports are not encouraged in some communities.
- Mismanagement of sports fund: Sports representatives and executives symphonies sports funds into their pocket there by providing fake sport equipments rather than original ones budgeted. The youth lacks motivation and incentives from their boss. They intend leaving sports totally for other talent hunt.
Violence in sports
According to Leonard (1988), sports violence could be as a result of frustration. This frustration could be questionable calls by officials, failure to make a particular play, injuries that interfere with optimum performance, heckling from spectators or taunts by coaches or players. He further define sports violence as a behavior which causes harm, occurs outside the rules of sport and unrelated to the competitive objectives of the sports.
He also identified two forms of aggression in sports, instrumental aggression which is non-emotional and task – oriented and the second as reactive aggression which has an under wing emotional component. Violence is an outcome of reactive aggression.
Terry and Jackson (1994) claimed that reinforcement for acts of violence may come from three sources;
- The athlete’s immediate reference group coaches, team mates, family and friends.
- Structure of the game and implementation of rules by officials and governing bodies.
- Attitudes of fans, media, courts and society. Reinforcement may take the form of rewards. Such as praise, trophies, starting positions, respect of friends and family vicarious reinforcement may be derived from seeing professional players lionized and paid huge salaries in spite of or because of their aggressive style of play. Players who don’t display the desired degree of aggressiveness may receive negative reinforcement through criticism from parents and coaches. Lack of playing time. Harassment by team mates, opponents or spectators.
These theories provide a basis for interventions that may curb excessive aggression, especially among young athletes. Socialization forces, particularly reinforcement, offer the best focus for intervention. In addition, psychological forces can be addressed by modifying or controlling situations that produce frustration.
Relevance of sports to youths
Sports, whether individual or team sport could be a very powerful tool for promoting peace, this does not mean that there is no sports related violence. Dzathor (2003) posited that sports do promote and contribute to development of societies and nations. First and foremost, a sporting culture just for the fun of it produces healthy and more productive citizens. A physically fit person is not only mentally alert, but also more productive when it comes to the use of motor and psychomotor skills in the work environment.
Professional sports persons have become some of the biggest income earners around the globe and the goods and services they demand causes significant multiplier effects in the economies.
Nearly all top players in National football association (NFA) Spanish, Italian and English Leagues even European Champions leagues are multi-millionaires. These top sports performers earn their income from signing on fees, winning prize money, regular wages and product promotion endorsement – contracts. Footballers in premier league earn salaries on the average of about $20,000.00 a week Bitner and Hubert (2004).
Sports recreates jobs, sports tourism contributes billions of dollars to the global economy. Sports tourism therefore, plays no mean role in the tourism equation, the rate of growth of visitors to hosting Olympic cities increase on the average by 25% in the second year after each Olympic Games (Jones, 2007).
Sporting activities keeps youth busy, thereby reducing the temptation of getting involved in criminal and unlawful activities. Sports discover talented sporting individuals, Rust and Oliver (2001).
Sports in school and communities
Olajide (2004) observed that realization of the federal government of Nigeria that sports men and women should be discovered while they are still young, and groomed to maturity. Its attention has been dawn to the school where there are talents in abundance, for effective coordination of sports at various level of education. Several games association has been constituted. Basically, the various types of sporting activities that take place in the tertiary and communities are also carried out in secondary except for a few. For instances, sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, table-tennis and track and field events such as 100 meters 200 and 400 meters relay take place in both secondary schools and tertiary institutions. However, monitoring and competitions is tougher in higher/tertiary institutions.
The sporting activities carried out in the secondary schools are done in order to expose the young ones to sport early in life either as recreational activities or as a means of earring a living in the nearest future. This has helped in no small measure in the discovering of talents who have made a positive mark in some sports, all over the world. In recognition of this development Nigeria as a nation has joined other parts of the world as we have Coca-cola, academy and various competitions organized by different organization for secondary school, student’s participation and Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA), NIPOGA and NICE GA for tertiary institutions.
Positive steps in encouraging sports
Dzathor (1988), in his paper suggested that more emphasis should not be laid on football rather other sports should be emphasized. He further said in encouraging sports, government should provide the enabling environment for sporting activities.
According to Rust and Oliver (2001) sports should be made compulsory and included in primary, secondary and tertiary school curriculum. Community heads should endeavour to provide sporting kits for upcoming youths and motivations and provision of incentives should not be denied, parents should inhabit the culture of early morning exercise in order to be mentally and physically fit for any future sports.
Gender inequality should be discouraged in sports in order to foster Peace and Unity among the opposite sex. Female sports should be developed, encourage in Communities and Schools. Government should organize workshops and seminars on female sports and its significance to the body and mind (Rust and Oliver, 2001).
References
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Fastaway. S (2004): The mysteries of cricket Explained: Great Britain, Robson works.
Hubbert .S (2004): Organisational. Downsizing: Westport, C.T Quorum Books.
James .K. (2011): Globalization and sport: Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com 12th of February 2012
Jones .B. (2007): Modes and themes of violence: Totowa New Jersey: Little field Adams and Co.
Lec M. (1985): Sociological and gender inequality in sports: New York, Macmillan publishing Company.
Leonard B. and Marcellus .J. (1999): Reason and Violence Totowa, Littlefield, Adams and Co.
Olajide O.A. (2004): Sports facilities: Problem of School Sports in Nigeria, Nigeria Journal of Emotional psychology, v. 6, 19 – 20.
Oliver R. L (1997): Satisfaction: A behavioural perspective on the consume: Mc Craw – Hill, New York
Oliver P. (1997): Spectator violence at sports Event: University of Vermont Press, Vermont.
Oyaziuwo Aluede, Basil Jimoh, Beatrice .O Agwirede and Eunice .O. Omorogie (2005) “Students Unrest in Nigerian Universities: Looking Back and forward” Journal Social Science, 10 (1): 17 -22.
Rust R. T. and Oliver R. L. (2001): Service Quality: C.A Sage Publications, New York.
