INDOOR RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

WHAT is R-E-C-R-E-A-T-I-O-N?Recreation is an activity of leisure.

Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are
considered to be "fun". The term recreation implies participation to be healthy refreshing mind
and body. The term recreation appears to have been used in English first in the late
14thcentury, first in the sense of "refreshment orcuring of a sick person", and derived from
OldFrench, in turn from Latin (re: "again", creare:"to create, bring forth, beget).
Indoor Recreational Activities
For such indoor recreation activities, there are well-established clubs or recreation centers that
have well-equipped indoor leisure facilities, which cater for sports activities for all ages and
abilities, but it can be done just at home for simple activities.

List of Indoor Recreational Activities

Squash
Playing squash improves cardiovascular health, maintains healthy weight, and
promotes good coordination and flexibility. It also helps you to learn better social skills
and gives an opportunity to make new friends. Squash is a very good leisure activity to
try.
Squash is a ball sport played by two (singles) or four players (doubles squash) in a four-
walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. The players must alternate in striking the
ball with their racket and hit the ball onto the playable surfaces of the four walls of the
court.
The game was formerly called squash rackets, a reference to the "squashable" soft ball
used in the game (compared with the harder ball used in its sister game rackets).
The use of stringed rackets is shared with tennis, which dates from the late sixteenth
century, though is more directly descended from the game of rackets from England. In
"rackets", instead of hitting over a net as in sports such as tennis, players hit a
squeezable ball against walls.

Basketball has many health benefits as it demands lot of physical work. It also has a
cultural and social significance. There is a quote saying “Basketball doesn’t build
character. It reveals it.” Whenever you are stressed, find a hoop and shoot a basketball!
In the early years the number of players on a team varied according to the number in
the class and the size of the playing area. In 1894 teams began to play with five on a
side when the playing area was less than 1,800 square feet (167.2 square metres); the
number rose to seven when the gymnasium measured from 1,800 to 3,600 square feet
(334.5 square metres) and up to nine when the playing area exceeded that. In 1895 the
number was occasionally set at five by mutual consent; the rules stipulated five players
two years later, and this number has remained ever since.
Since Naismith and five of his original players were Canadians, it is not surprising
that Canada was the first country outside the United States to play the game. Basketball
was introduced in France in 1893, in England in 1894, in Australia, China, and India
soon thereafter, and in Japan in 1900.
While basketball helped swell the membership of YMCAs because of the availability of
their gyms, within five years the game was outlawed by various associations because
gyms that had been occupied by classes of 50 or 60 members were now monopolized
by only 10 to 18 players. The banishment of the game induced many members to
terminate their YMCA membership and to hire halls to play the game, thus paving the
way to the professionalization of the sport.
Originally, players wore one of three styles of uniforms: knee-length football trousers;
jersey tights, as commonly worn by wrestlers; or short padded pants, forerunners of
today’s uniforms, plus knee guards. The courts often were of irregular shape with
occasional obstructions such as pillars, stairways, or offices that interfered with play. In
1903 it was ruled that all boundary lines must be straight. In 1893 the Narragansett
Machinery Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, marketed a hoop of iron with a hammock
style of basket. Originally a ladder, then a pole, and finally a chain fastened to the
bottom of the net was used to retrieve a ball after a goal had been scored. Nets open at
the bottom were adopted in 1912–13. In 1895–96 the points for making a basket (goal,
or field goal) were reduced from three to two, and the points for making a free throw
(shot uncontested from a line in front of the basket after a foul had been committed)
were reduced from three to one.
Baskets were frequently attached to balconies, making it easy for spectators behind a
basket to lean over the railings and deflect the ball to favour one side and hinder the
other; in 1895 teams were urged to provide a 4-by-6-foot (1.2-by-1.8-metre) screen for
the purpose of eliminating interference. Soon after, wooden backboards proved more
suitable. Glass backboards were legalized by the professionals in 1908–09 and by
colleges in 1909–10. In 1920–21 the backboards were moved 2 feet (0.6 metre), and in
1939–40 4 feet, in from the end lines to reduce frequent stepping out-of-bounds. Fan-
shaped backboards were made legal in 1940–41.
A soccer ball (football) was used for the first two years. In 1894 the first basketball was
marketed. It was laced, measured close to 32 inches (81 cm), or about 4 inches (10 cm)
larger than the soccer ball, in circumference, and weighed less than 20 ounces (567
grams). By 1948–49, when the laceless molded ball was made official, the size had
been set at 30 inches (76 cm).

The first college to play the game was either Geneva College (Beaver
Falls, Pennsylvania) or the University of Iowa. C.O. Bemis heard about the new sport at
Springfield and tried it out with his students at Geneva in 1892. At Iowa, H.F.
Kallenberg, who had attended Springfield in 1890, wrote Naismith for a copy of the rules
and also presented the game to his students. At Springfield, Kallenberg met Amos
Alonzo Stagg, who became athletic director at the new University of Chicago in 1892.
The first college basketball game with five on a side was played between the University
of Chicago and the University of Iowa in Iowa City on January 18, 1896. The University
of Chicago won, 15–12, with neither team using a substitute. Kallenberg refereed that
game—a common practice in that era—and some of the spectators took exception to
some of his decisions.
The colleges formed their own rules committee in 1905, and by 1913 there were at least
five sets of rules: collegiate, YMCA–Amateur Athletic Union, those used by state militia
groups, and two varieties of professional rules. Teams often agreed to play under a
different set for each half of a game. To establish some measure of uniformity, the
colleges, Amateur Athletic Union, and YMCA formed the Joint Rules Committee in
1915. This group was renamed the National Basketball Committee (NBC) of the United
States and Canada in 1936 and until 1979 served as the game’s sole amateur rule-
making body. In that year, however, the colleges broke away to form their own rules
committee, and during the same year the National Federation of State High School
Associations likewise assumed the task of establishing separate playing rules for the
high schools. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Rules Committee for
men is a 12-member board representing all three NCAA divisions. It has six members
from Division I schools and three each from Divisions II and III. It has jurisdiction over
colleges, junior colleges, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA),
and Armed Forces basketball. There is a similar body for women’s play.

Table tennis
The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally
as follows: players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce one time on their side of the table,
and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player
fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. Spinning the ball alters
its trajectory and limits an opponent's options, giving the hitter a great advantage.
History

Parker Brothers Ping-Pong game

The sport originated in Victorian England, where it was played among the upper-class
as an after-dinner parlour game. It has been suggested that makeshift versions of the
game were developed by British military officers in India in around 1860s or 1870s, who
brought it back with them. A row of books stood up along the center of the table as a
net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball.
The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son
Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to describe the game
played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling
it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the
rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced its
trademark for the term in the 1920s making the various associations change their
names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but trademarked, term.
In 1921, the Table Tennis Association was founded, and in 1926 renamed the English
Table Tennis Association. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) followed in
1926. London hosted the first official World Championships in 1926. In 1933, the United
States Table Tennis Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.
In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star Over China that the Communist
forces in the Chinese Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table tennis"
which he found "bizarre".On the other hand, the popularity of the sport waned in 1930s
Soviet Union, partly because of the promotion of team and military sports, and partly
because of a theory that the game had adverse health effects.
The use of speed glue increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes
to the equipment to "slow the game down". Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic
sport at the Olympics in 1988.
Let
A Let is a rally of which the result is not scored, and is called in the following
circumstances:[37]
 The ball touches the net in service (service), provided the service is otherwise
correct or the ball is obstructed by the player on the receiving side. Obstruction
means a player touches the ball when it is above or traveling towards the playing
surface, not having touched the player's court since last being struck by the player.
 When the player on the receiving side is not ready and the service is delivered.
 Player's failure to make a service or a return or to comply with the Laws is due to a
disturbance outside the control of the player.
 Play is interrupted by the umpire or assistant umpire.
A let is also called foul service, if the ball hits the server's side of the table, if the ball
does not pass further than the edge and if the ball hits the table edge and hits the net.

Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, physical director of

the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It
was designed as an indoor sport for businessmen who found the new game
of basketball too vigorous. Morgan called the sport “mintonette,” until a
professor from Springfield College in Massachusetts noted the volleying
nature of play and proposed the name of “volleyball.” The original rules were
written by Morgan and printed in the first edition of the Official Handbook of
the Athletic League of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North
America(1897). The game soon proved to have wide appeal for both sexes in
schools, playgrounds, the armed forces, and other organizations in the United
States, and it was subsequently introduced to other countries.
In 1916 rules were issued jointly by the YMCA and the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA). The first nationwide tournament in the United
States was conducted by the National YMCA Physical Education Committee
in New York Cityin 1922. The United States Volleyball Association (USVBA)
was formed in 1928 and recognized as the rules-making, governing body in
the United States. From 1928 the USVBA—now known as USA Volleyball
(USAV)—has conducted annual national men’s and senior men’s (age 35 and
older) volleyball championships, except during 1944 and 1945. Its women’s
division was started in 1949, and a senior women’s division (age 30 and older)
was added in 1977.
International volleyball competition began in 1913 with the first Far East
Games, in Manila. During the early 1900s and continuing until after World War
II, volleyball in Asia was played on a larger court, with a lower net, and nine
players on a team.
The FIVB-sponsored world volleyball championships (for men only in 1949; for
both men and women in 1952 and succeeding years) led to acceptance of
standardized playing rules and officiating. Volleyball became an Olympic sport
for both men and women at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
European championships were long dominated by Czechoslovakian,
Hungarian, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Soviet (later, Russian) teams. At
the world and Olympic level, Soviet teams have won more titles, both men’s
and women’s, than those of any other nation. Their success was attributed to
widespread grassroots interest and well-organized play and instruction at all
levels of skill. A highly publicized Japanesewomen’s team, Olympic
champions in 1964, reflected the interest of private industry in sport. Young
women working for the sponsoring company devoted their free time to
conditioning, team practice, and competition under expert and demanding
coaching. Encouraged by the Japanese Volleyball Association, this women’s
team made its mark in international competition, winning the World
Championship in 1962, 1966, and 1967, in addition to the 1964 Olympics. At
the end of the 20th century, however, the Cuban women’s team dominated
both the World Championships and the Olympics.
The Pan American Games (involving South, Central, and North America)
added volleyball in 1955, and Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Cuba, and the United
States are frequent contenders for top honours. In Asia, China, Japan, and
Korea dominate competition. Volleyball, especially beach volleyball, is played
in Australia, New Zealand, and throughout the South Pacific.
A four-year cycle of international volleyball events, recommended by the
FIVB, began in 1969 with World Cup championships, to be held in the year
following the Olympic Games; the second year is the World Championships;
in the third the regional events are held (e.g., European championships, Asian
Games, African Games, Pan American Games); and in the fourth year the
Olympic Games.
Beach volleyball—usually played, as its name implies, on a sand court with
two players per team—was introduced in California in 1930. The first official
beach volleyball tournament was held in 1948 at Will Rogers State Beach,
in Santa Monica, California, and the first FIVB-sanctioned world championship
was held in 1986 at Rio de Janeiro. Beach volleyball was added to the roster
of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.