Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Diving
The first Wimbledon tournament was held in 1877. The court was
a bit different from the court that is used today. The rules were
basically the same as they are today though.
In the 1930's the game of tennis became rather chic. The outfits
for tennis were a little different from what is commonly worn today.
The outfits were longer and more constricting. Shorts were not worn in
the game until 1933 by Bunny Austin.
Throughout the times there have been many champions in the game of
tennis. The game became so popular that in 1986 the yellow ball was
introduced for the first time to make the balls easier to see on
television!
Ice Hockey
Everyone has a favorite sport, but not many are aware of the
history behind their favorite one. In this series we try to present history
of some of the major sports in the world. We will continue from our
previous article. Today we cover another sport: Ice Hockey.
The first sets of rules were laid down by students of the McGill
University (W. L. Murray, Richard F. Smith et al) in Montreal. These
rules included restricting teams to 9 players per side and replacing the
ball with a wooden puck.
Gymnastics
Fencing
By the end of World War I, fencing in Europe and in the United States
was no longer a duel. Schools began teaching students as a sport, instead of
training in case the need to fight in a duel ever arose. When the fencing
schools opened was when those who were not considered wealthy started to
participate in the sport. This was also the time when different types of fencing
began to come about as different schools and teachers taught fencing
different ways.
Horse Racing
People around the globe love horse racing as a sport. The
countries that get especially excited about it is Japan, England, and the
United States. Many other countries do carry a history of the sport.
When a horse has a perfect body, a sense of reliability, and indomitable
satisfaction he is ideal for racing. Think of all of the past cultures and
ancient times that relied on the horse species for combat and
transportation. It was only a matter of time before humans would be
able to tame them and use them for sport.
During the past century horse racing has advanced into a major
sport worth millions of dollars at stake on the results of a contest that
lasts for no more than a couple of minutes. Traditional horse racing has
faced some growth along its vast journey and it has also faced many
obstacles. By way of the Internet, people more than ever are able to
participate in the sport, even those in remote locations. In earlier times
it was only wealthy and powerful kings and princes that enjoyed the
sport of horse racing but today anyone can enjoy it.
Martial Arts
When you search the history of Marital Arts, you shall find the
task to be difficult and challenging. You find conflicting information
throughout the literature making it impossible in some cases to
separate fact from legend and fiction. Although this makes it difficult
when trying to do an academic treatment of the historical facts related
to martial arts, it should not alter the fact that these legends are an
integral and inseparable part of martial art history and are important in
the formation of the overall martial art philosophy.
The history of track and field event was started way back in 776
BC. The first foot race was held at the first Olympic festival in ancient
Greece. The walking, running, and throwing things is a natural process
in man from his birth. This process gave birth to track and field events.
Many individuals started to compete with each other and the events
became more popular as the days progressed. The events began to
develop and many new track events were included in the process. Well,
let us have a look at the history of track and field event.
The ancient track event included the stade race, which is called
sprint in modern event. The contestants ran from one end of the track
to the other. The distance covered was roughly 200 meters, which later
gave birth to 200-meter sprint. The 400-meter sprint was inspired from
two stade races and the long distance run was the result of 724 stade
races. The ancient field events such as long jump, javelin, short put,
etc had a similar look as in modern days. The history of track and field
in modern Olympics started in 1896.
Now, let us look at the history of track and field event such as
jumping and pole vault. The jumping events came from the past and
the pole vault was developed in Netherlands where people used poles
to jump over natural hurdles such as canals, streams, and marshlands.
The jumping events such as long jump, high jump, triple jump, and
pole vault were all included in first modern Olympics in 1896. The
women participants had to wait until 1928 and women's high jump was
first introduced in 1928 Olympics and soon followed by long jump in
1948. The triple jump for women was introduced in 1996 and pole
vault in the next Olympics in 2000.
In the past, the pentathlon included the five major events while
the modern Olympics in 1912 included the decathlon, which is
supposed to consist of 10 track and field events. The pentathlon for
women was included in 1964 and was again replaced by heptathlon (7
track and field event). The marathon event has its own history in
Olympics. The marathon was inspired from a legend that ran 26 miles
from the plains of Marathon to Athens in 490 BC. The first official
Marathon in the history of track and field event was introduced in 1896
Olympics. The 5000 and 10,000 meter was added in 1912 and 3000
steeplechase meter was added in 1920. The 800 meter was the
minimum distance for women in 1928 and the maximum 5000 meter
was added in 1996 Olympics.
The history of track and field mainly revolves around the Olympic
Games. Also, there are many international events such as Common
Wealth Games, Asian Games, etc that includes the different track and
field events. The track and field events in the United States are
reported to be started way back in 1860. As the time progressed, many
new events were added and the formation of IAAF in 1913 created
history in track and field events. Soon, the women were allowed to
participate in the track events. It was only after 1913 track and field
events were treated as a professional sport.
Darts
The accepted opinion is that darts was first conceived due to the
boredom connected with being a soldier during medieval times. In the
course of downtime between brawls, troops might challenge one
another to games of throwing short spears at a thin piece of a cut down
tree. The age rings within the timber as well as the splits that
developed from drying out created a basic likeness to a present day
dart board comprised of numerous lines and several various scoring
regions. The sport evolved into somewhat accepted in the middle ages
as it was used to maintain soldiers' hurling arms in practice.
Currently the sport is most well known in Britain in which you will
find an incredible number of competitors and thousands of registered
groups, however it's rapidly growing to be a global hobby. The sport is
common in the Netherlands, Germany and the Scandinavian areas. In
the U.S. many of thousands of dartboards are bought yearly and
numerous Americans play darts every week.
Judo
The history of judo makes a fascinating study. Soon after the end
of the Tokugawa period in Japan, the Restoration period was in
progress, and the old forms of hand-to-hand combat were replaced by
weapons of steel. The masters of the jujitsu art were dismissed from
service to their feudal lords, and many turned to public showmanship
as a means of making a living. The natural result was a degradation of
the art.
Dr. Kano began to study jujitsu because of his respect for the
prowess of his masters, but he soon began to thirst for a mental
knowledge that was lacking in their teachings. He began to look for the
secrets behind the superior expert control that the professors had
mastered. He theorized that there would be greater value in combining
the various schools and their techniques into one standard system: one
that could be adopted as a physical education program for schools and
would at the same time embody mental culture as well as physical skill.
In 1882 Dr. Kano formed his system and called it "judo," the
word which has now superseded the term "jujitsu." The final step in the
history of judo came when he founded the Kodo-kan in Tokyo, the
institution that was to become the mecca of judo. The name Kodokan is
made up of three words: ko, meaning "to preach," do, meaning "way,"
and kan, meaning "hall."
Dr. Kano explained the new art of judo by pointing out that
"gentleness means giving way until the right moment arrives"; that is,
not to oppose the brute force of your opponent and thus to be
defeated, but to utilize this force to your own advantage.
Suppose that your opponent has a total force of ten units, while
yours is equal to three. If he pushes toward you with a force of seven
units and your force equals only three, it is futile for you to try to
oppose his force, for it will overcome you. But if you give way and
harmonize your force of three units with his attacking force of seven,
you automatically acquire a force of ten units.
Now you can defeat him because you can overcome his force of
seven units with yours of ten. It can thus be appreciated that judo is a
highly valuable science as well as an art.
Handball
Variations on the game of handball have been played all over the
world for thousands of years. Known as one of the oldest ball games,
handball was played in Egypt over four thousand years ago, in ancient
Rome, and by many South American cultures.
In the Roman Empire, the game was called expulsim ludere, and
was played on courts called sphaeristas. Alexander the Great is said to
have been responsible for spreading the game amongst Greek colonies
in Italy in the first millennium BC, and from there it spread to other
countries of the Roman Empire. Details of how the game was played
during this era are sketchy, but it is believed it was similar to what is
known today as one-wall handball.
In France during the Middle Ages, the game was called jeux de
paume (palm play) and was popular with both nobility and peasants.
The ball was made from pieces of tightly-rolled cloth stitched together,
and as the game evolved gloves were used to allow more forceful
hitting of the ball. This form of handball is thought to be an early
precursor of tennis - as the game evolved in France, players began to
use larger and larger gloves, until eventually they began to use items
which resembled early tennis racquets.
Triple Jump
During the year of 1896 this jump was put into the modern
Olympics and it adopted a technique of only 2 hops and one long jump.
The hop, hop and jump would be a practiced routine that would stay as
a method used during that time period.
A more modern version of this athletic event made its way to the
Olympics and was known as hop, step and jump. This newer technique
would redefine the event as an athlete would jump and land down on
the leg he or she took off from. This technique would stay as part of
the athletes performance of this jump well into the present time.
Towards the end of the inaugural Olympics was when the first
medal for this event was earned back in 1896. It was performed by
using the two hops and one jump routine, but right after that the
modern version came along and would stay as the commonly used
method in this sporting event.
Long Jump
Canoeing
A canoe is a small and narrow boat; many people use this type of
boat for fishing and transportation. Other people use a canoe as a
mode of recreation. Early men made every canoe that they used out of
wood. In fact, these canoes were made out of hollowed out tree trucks.
Paired with every canoe were paddles. Paddles are used by every
canoe operator to properly move that boat in and around the water.