The term sports refers to any activity undertaken either as a form of recreation, as a way of passing time or as a profession. Some common sports include football, golf, basketball, athletics, baseball and many others. I will evaluate all the sporting activities in general. In doing this, therefore, I will use a number of variables. To begin with, sports sit embedded deeply in every society’s culture. Certain sports activities are associated with a specific region or country. An example of this is football with the Brazilians and Britons, cricket with the Indians and Pakistanis, American football with the Americans. What this means, therefore, is that sports is an important aspect of culture in most of the world’s societies.
As mentioned here above, various sports activities are popular in different parts of the world or region. However, there are sports, like football, which is popular around the globe. To this end, we therefore ask our self: What makes sports so important? The answer to this question lies in the benefits arising from it. In evaluating sports, therefore, I find that health benefits arising as a result of such an activity will be a vital method in evaluating sport.
Generally speaking, all sporting activities have profound health benefits to the player. Such health benefits include, among others, fat reduction that could prevent heart failure, maintaining a flexible body, and may also help reduce muscle fatigue. If the citizens of a nation are healthy, then the government is saved lot of expenses in terms of providing health care to the sick.
In today’s world, people are so busy trying to make ends meet. Some have taken multiple jobs or more and others work overtime. At the end of it all, is a group of people exhausted and needing away of relaxing from the daily hustles of life. Here, sport comes hardy as a recreational activity where peoples can release stress, either by playing or by watching a sporting activity. Sports have taken a role in promoting peace not only locally but worldwide-an important criterion.
Through activities such as Olympics and football world cup, people are brought together from various parts of the globe-their interaction creates understanding and this understanding transforms into peaceful co-existence. This peaceful coexistence is then manifested as international unity.
In evaluating sport therefore, it is important to find out whether the above roles are met by the sport. In addition, other criteria to be looked at are explained below. That is one should ask whether the sporting activity effectively promotes social unity. A good sport should create oneness among the members of the society either as players or spectators. Sport should create a healthy competing spirit among all the stakeholders. In evaluating sport therefore, a keen attention should be paid to how the sport affects the people’s morale to compete. An urge to compete and win leads to a spirit of hard work which then can be manifested in other areas such as in the work place.
How does sport promote trade? This is another aspect that should be looked into. Sports directly or indirectly promote trade and thus the economy of all the nations of world. Through sports companies such as Adidas, Nike, and Puma all manufacturing sports gear have been set. Such companies have employed many people and thus influenced the economy of such nations directly. On the other hand, there are some health risks that come with sports.
Cases have been heard of boxers who became paralyzed years after quitting boxing. There have been some sports like football that is highly revered by most people in the world-and the governments too. As such, in the course of history we have found large sums of money redirected in promoting such sport by e.g. building large stadiums. Such funds could have been used in other developmental areas such as building industries or improving important economic infrastructures of such a country or best still, offer services such as health.
Sport s plays a good role in ‘stealing’ people’s time. Sports are addictive activities and some times people may endlessly want to be sporting rather than doing something else such as working or looking at the family, or studying. In some instances, the peace promotion discussed here above is destroyed by the same sports. Sometimes the spirit of competition may change into rivalry and even to total chaos. In such an instance, peace is completely shuttered.
Though all these are so, in evaluating sports, the positives stand out more clearly. To this end we find therefore that sports promotes a better life among the people by promoting good health. Sports also act as a recreational activity and thus helps people release stress and thus be able to face another day filled with the hustles of the world. Through the association of the different countries in international sports, world unity is built and trade promoted.