- General description of the activity (distinguishing characteristics, trends, etc.)
- What is the background/origin/history/key figures of this activity?
- What is the current status of the activity (participation, popularity, geography, etc.
Minimum 300 words or 2 pages typed double spaced.
DUE Friday 2/1
9 comments:
Min Jae Roh
1/27/08
Table Tennis
I chose table tennis for research about it, and I actually wanted to play it for exercise. If I tell background about it, table tennis is a sport in which two to four people hit a light weight hollow ball back and forth to each other with table tennis rackets. Players are playing on a hard table, about 7ft wide, and 4ft length divided by about 4in high net. Players must allow a ball goes to towards them only one bounce on their side of the table and the ball must bounce on their side of table again except opposite way. This is basic rules for game play. Now I’ll talk about facts and history that related to table tennis.
Table tennis is very popular, especially in East Asia. Table tennis is among the most popular sports in the world in terms of player numbers, table tennis as known as the newest of the major sports. Each different country called different name for table tennis, such as Ping-Pang-Qiu from china, Takkyu from Japan, and Tak-gu from Korea. People from each country computed that Table Tennis or Ping Pong began as a social hobby in England toward the end of the 1800s. The game was played with wooden bats or paddles and cork balls, usually on dining room tables, and was referred to as ping-pong, gossima or flim-flam. Early in the 1900s pimpled rubber were used on the bats or paddles and celluloid balls were introduced. It wasn’t until around the 1920s that the game gained some popularity in Europe, and started to refer to it as table tennis.
The International Table Tennis Association was formed in 1926. Soon after that the sport spread to Japan and other Asian countries. Japan dominated the sport for most of the 50s and 60s, but the Chinese slowly started to catch up. Eventually the Chinese started to dominate the sport and continued to do so for most of the late 60s and 70s. It wasn’t until 1980 when table tennis became an Olympic event. After this the game became popular in other countries like Sweden and South Korea, and many other countries followed.
www.google.com – information results
Ultimate Frisbee
Wellness- In 1973
Although Frisbee has been around for ages, Ultimate Frisbee is a relatively new sport. In 1968, David Leiwant watched a couple High School kids at Columbia high school as they were throwing around a disc (much like a Frisbee) when suddenly it dawned on David that this would someday be a popular sport. He talked with the high school kids and tweaked the rules of their game, thus creating a new sport; Ultimate Frisbee.
Ultimate Frisbee is basically a mix of Frisbee and Football. The only piece of equipment you technically need is a Frisbee. The game consists of two team’s 4-10 players each and two end zones. Much like football, to start off the game you throw or “Rush” the Frisbee to the other team. The other team would then pass the Frisbee to their teammates by throwing the Frisbee to their teammates. However players can’t move while they have the disc. The object of the game is to pass the Frisbee by the other team and get it into the end zone without dropping it or throwing an interception. If the disc is intercepted the other team’s player that intercepted it would then quickly look for somebody to pass the Frisbee too. The rules are similar if you miss a catch and the disc falls to the ground, the opposing player would then pick up the Frisbee and attempt to pass the disc into the opposite end zone. Ultimate Frisbee is a very fast paced, high-intensity game with little or no breaks in the game, thus requiring the players to be very fit.
Today Ultimate Frisbee is played all over the world and is one of the fastest growing sports. It is played in 42 countries and has even received government funding in Japan. A recent survey projected that almost 100,000 people play Ultimate Frisbee worldwide. The reason that ultimate Frisbee is so popular is because of the limited amount of equipment needed, the fact that there is no specific field or court it has to be played on, and the intensity of the game.
I chose Snowboarding. Which is a sport I would describe as surfing on snow. Snowboarders go down a slope by standing sideways on a board about 5 ft long, attached to their feet. The sport, which originated in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, borrows techniques and tricks from surfing and skateboarding. Snowboarding gained popularity rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, partly because it is easy to learn. Most riders can snowboard decently after only a few sessions. The sense of freedom the sport offers, in equipment and techniques, adds to its awesomeness.
Snowboarding can take place wherever skiing does, except on flat, cross-country trails. No poles are used, making it difficult to ride flat terrain. Deep snow is ideal. Most winter resorts now have special areas for snowboarding known as halfpipes. A halfpipe is a long, deep trench dug in the snow and shaped like a pipe cut in half along its length. Halfpipes are located in terrain parks, which consist of easy to intermediate slopes shaped to have a variety of bumps, jumps, gaps, and other features that riders use for jumping and doing tricks. Unlike skiers, who shift their weight from one ski to the other, snowboarders shift their weight from heels to toes as well as from one end of the board to the other. Riders achieve quick turns by pushing the back foot forward or pulling it backward to change direction. They stop the board’s motion by pushing heels or toes down hard to dig the edge of the snowboard into the snow. Snowboarding started of as a small group of people looking for something different, and has now become extremely poular and is recognized as a snow sport just as much as skiing. Yeehaw
Karate is a term used to mean all martial arts. Actual Karate is a old Japanese form of martial arts. Karate is defined as being an activity that uses your hands and feet to move in different patterns for self-defense or for mental discipline. In America karate is a sport and is used for self-defense. It is popular among kids and adults and since 2001 has been used in the military.
There have been many different types of karate and many have originated from many different countries. Karate as we know it originated from Japan. No one is sure who the first person who invented karate was. We do know the reason though. People needed a way to defend themselves and since weapons were expensive and forbidden to the lower class. So they developed karate (which means way of the open hand). Eventually policemen began using it to capture criminals and the army began using it to train their troops. In Japan, it was considered honorable to know karate, because you could better protect your lord even if you had no weapon. After the Vietnam War, karate became more popular as troops returned home telling stories of men doing amazing things. It became very commonplace after Hollywood introduced it into their movies. Some people that made it more popular were Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and Kanazawa Shihan (one of the highest ranked black belts alive)
Karate is incredibly popular throughout the world. In America, the most common forms are judo, jujitsu, tae-kwan-do, and kenpo. Kenpo has become so popular that it is now considered an American karate. Many people enjoy karate because of its health benefits. It is a physical challenge as well as a mental challenge. Other people enjoy it because of the self-defense benefits. Karate has lost some momentum nowadays, but is enjoyed by different generations all around the globe.
Chris Maloney
1/30/08
Life Fitness
Golf
Golf is a game in which a ball is struck with a club from a prepared area, known as the "teeing ground", across fairway and rough, to a secondary area, which has a hole in it, known as the "putting green". The object of the game is to complete what is known as a hole by playing a ball from the teeing ground into the hole on the putting green in the fewest possible number of strokes. A "round of golf' consists of playing 18 such holes.
Most people agree that the Scots were the earliest to play golf, but as to those who actually invented the game there is much debate. Golf has existed for at least 500 years because James II of Scotland, in an Act of Parliament dated March 6, 1457, had golf and football banned because these sports were interfering with archery practice which was used for defense. It has also been suggested that bored shepherds tending flocks of sheep practiced hitting rounded stones into rabbit’s holes with their wooden crooks.
One of the first clubs formed outside of Scotland was the Royal Blackheath Golf Club of England which came into play in 1766, followed by the Old Manchester Golf Club founded on the Kersal Moor in 1818. In the 18th century golf was known by Americans but, did not catch on until Canada started golf clubs. The clubs started were, The Royal Montreal Club, The Quebec Golf Club, and The Toronto Golf Club. It wasn't until 1888 that golf resurfaced in the United States. A Scotsman, John Reid, first built a three hole course in Yonkers, New York near his home and later that same year formed the St. Andrews Club of Yonkers on a nearby 30 acre site. By the turn of the century more than a thousand golf clubs have sprung up, and golf was on its way to being a very popular sport in America.
I chose SWIMMING. Swimming is an excellent form of exercise. Because the density of the human body is very similar to that of water, the body is supported by the water and less stress is therefore placed on joints and bones. Therefore, swimming is frequently used as an exercise in rehabilitation after injuries or for those with disabilities.Swimming is characterized as the movement by humans or animals through water, usually without assistance. Swimming is an activity that is both useful and recreational for many species. One interesting thing about swimming that its not just a activity that humans only do, animals do it too!Drawings from the Stone Age were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Sura, dating back to 2000 B.C There is evidence that swimming was also a very popular sport in Greece and Italy in the original Olympic games. Athletes would compete in competitions that usually involved many nations competing in water sports in order to gain a prize. In 1538, Nicolas Wynman, German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book. Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. The front crawl, then called the trudgen,now known as the "front crawl" or "freestyle", was introduced in 1873 by John Arthur Trudgen, copying it from Native Americans.People swim for many different reasons. Excercise, competition, recreation, and occupational. The goal of competitive swimming is to be the fastest to swim at a given distance and drop time. Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century, and comprises 34 individual events - 17 male events and 17 female events. Swimming is a popular event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 13 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50 meter pool. The most common purpose for swimming is recreation. Recreational swimming is considered by many a good way to relax, while enjoying a good full-body workout. Some occupations require the workers to swim. For example, abalone divers or pearl divers swim and dive to obtain an economic benefit, as do spear fishermen.Swimming is used to rescue other swimmers in distress.
Biking
The first wheel with spokes was reported to be used by the Mesopetamians 4,000 years ago the Chinese also used the wheel with spokes 6000 years ago. The first bicycle was invented in 1718 by Baron von Drais of Baden, he did'nt call it a bicycle either he called it a running machine, he used it to get around his forests faster. The machine was known as the Draisiennne. It was later improved by putting cranks on the front wheel, this design was made by a french machanic by the name of Pierre Michaux in the 1860's. Later the bicycle was made with a wider front wheel this design was known as the penny-farthing, this was made by James Starely of the Coventry Machinest Company. First Tricycle was made because a scottish blacksmith by the name of Kirkpatrick Macmillan knocked over a young boy riding a bicycle, he was on his way from Dumfries to Glasow. Macmillan got a 5 shilling fee and thus the first tricycle was made. Later the brakes wheels and gears were upgraded to make the bicycle safer. John Kemp Starely put the gears on the back tire to make it less dangereous and more stable. in 1888 John Boyd Dunlop invented pneumatic tyres, this created a competiton between the penny farthing the the and the bike with pneumatic tyres could match each other in speed.
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