Sports, Society and Culture

If you are a sportsman and play any kind of game. If you are just a sports lover and start your morning by opening a sports page of a newspaper with a cup of coffee. And if you prepare your Sunday by sitting relaxed in front of the TV with snacks and a cup of tea, or if you just want to play for time passing, especially on these quarantine days, and if you want to take knowledge about sports and culture then you’ll enjoy this article. But in this article, I would not share any news about any specific sports and celebrities, or athletes. I would also not share general information about any kind of sport. I would discuss in this article what are games or sports? What are the benefits of the games? The importance of sports in culture and society, and which games can you play easily these days in lockdown due to the Coronavirus. 

Sports are the art of one kind. We can say it's a physical form of art, like martial art. According to ethnographic literature, a wide range of recreational activities has been called games. These recreational activities have some rules and patterns which we have to follow. These activities include both physical and mental activities, we cannot say, sports are just related to physical skills, but they have also related to mental skills. By the way, all sports, have both physical and mental activities, but some games just have mental activities; such as Chess or Bridge. 

Sports are an essential part of every society. It helps to learn accountability, dedication, leadership, and other skills. Sports develop collaboration, decision-making, and problem-solving skills in society. Trying too hard for achieving a common goal with a group encourages us successfully convey to tackle issues. It also develops self-esteem or self-confidence to achieve other goals in life and urges us to fight the serious problems of life. Sports reduce our stress and anxiety and make us feel relaxed. It also discourages negative activities like smoking and drinking. 

Sports events increase the social interaction with the people, not only in a single society, but it also helps to understand different people of different societies, ideologies, caste, and creeds. 

Sportsmen or sportswomen can cause promoting human rights through generating shared interests, and values and teaching social skills that are necessary for democratic citizenship.

Sports improve social and cultural life by uniting people and communities. It can assist with beating contrasts and supports discourse, and thereby help to break down prejudice, stereotypes, cultural differences, ignorance, intolerance, and discrimination. 

Many prominent personalities from the world of art, music, film, and literature are working as a member of the UN; similarly, in the field of sports, many sports personalities perform different activities as a member of the UN to promote human rights or other tasks of the organization. Such as; footballer Leo Messi is a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF and tennis star Maria Sharapova is Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP). 

A few games have significance on the worldwide level and are famous all over the world. But some games are just played in local societies and represent it’s the culture of the society. Like; in the subcontinent (India and Pakistan) many games are played in this region. These are just local games, especially played in the villages, and represent the folk culture of the society. In these games, Gilli Danda, Oonch Neech, Kanchay, and so forth are incorporated.

Many sports are known as indoor games; similarly, some games are played outdoors and are called outdoor games. Nowadays, where the whole world is compelled to stay at the home due to COVID-19, we have less chance to play outdoor games, that’s why the importance of indoor games increases these days. 

All of us know about indoor sports, like badminton, volleyball or chess. Many of these games can be played with just two players so that we can easily play these games in our houses. 

Because of the recent disease Coronavirus, every parent has the hassle of how to engage their young children in positive activities in the home, it is their holidays, and we can’t keep children away from playing. So, we can indulge them in different indoor games.  There are many indoor games for children. Such as Balancing Beam, In and Out Hangman, and Pictionary.