Sport as a (mere) hobby: in defense of ‘the gentle pursuit of a modest competence’

In this essay, I defend sport as a (mere) hobby in contrast to sport as a ‘mutual quest for excellence through challenge’. With the assistance of ideas found in the novel Don Quixote, I raise questions about the clarity, merit, and sufficiency of the quest-for-excellence apologetic. I employ arguments made by James and Dewey to support my alternate defense of sporting activity as a hobby, that is, as ‘the gentle pursuit of a modest competence’. Based on the work of Wu, my defense stands as both a philosophic argument and a cultural critique.     

‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press

ABSTRACT

When Mexico hosted the 1971 Women’s World Cup, it raised considerable challenges for local journalists. The domestic game had never received significant press attention, but mounting public interest in such a prestigious tournament demanded a response from national and sporting newspapers. In this chapter, we analyse the extent to which the masculine hegemonic environment of the newsroom dictated the perspective, language, and imagery deployed by journalists in their reports. While underlying sexism and cynicism characterised more traditional, conservative sections of the printed media, our analysis reveals a surprising degree of willingness to adapt and learn new ways. In tracing the dynamics of this process we assess the extent to which a more enlightened appreciation of Mexican women’s football only lasted for as long as they continued to win matches.     

‘Intensive mothering’ in the early years: the cultivation and consolidation of (physical) capital

Growing pressure on parents to equip their children with the skills required for future success, coupled with an increased focus on providing quality learning experiences in the early years, has contributed to an upsurge in the enrolment of young children in formal (often privatised) activities. Moreover, in response to growing societal concerns over the perceived risks of obesity and sedentary lifestyles, parents are often acutely aware of the importance of providing plentiful physical activity opportunities for their children within this enrichment context. In this paper, the tendency for parents to provide copious developmental opportunities is referred to as ‘intensive mothering’ and is explored through the theoretical lens of Bourdieu, specifically his concepts of habitus and capital. This paper reports on a small-scale study undertaken within the UK, which sought to explore the impact of social class on access to early years' provision as well as parental attitudes towards physical activity and the provision of preschool physical development opportunities. Data were generated through a questionnaire (disseminated via early years settings) as well as three in-depth interviews with ‘middle-class’ parents and were analysed to draw out key themes relating to the cultivation and consolidation of (physical) capital. The data indicate that many parents perceive a ‘responsibility’ to aid their children's physical development and demonstrate a willingness to facilitate the acquisition of physical capital via the provision of play equipment, privatised classes and additional (informal) physical activity opportunities. Moreover, they suggest that ‘middle-class’ parents, in particular, articulate the need to invest heavily in enrichment activities, influenced by their own experiences, tastes and values. It is argued that ‘intensive mothering’ is illustrative of the reproduction of a class-based habitus and can be perceived as an attempt to maintain or improve social position through the cultivation, consolidation and, ultimately, conversion, of appropriate capital.     

‘Governmentality’ in the origins of European female PE and sport: the Spanish case study (1883–1936)

The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) to contribute to the analysis of the origins of modern European female PE and sports from a power perspective, inspired by Foucault's work; and (2) to present a detailed analysis of female PE and sport in Spain (1883–1936) as a specific European case study. It is argued that these physical activities could be conceived in the Spanish case as part of a specific kind of ‘governmentality’ with a dual nature. On the one hand they represented disciplinary ‘technologies of power’ over the female body. Selected physical activities—dictated mainly from the hygienic-moral position of the Regeneracionistas (‘Regenerationists’)—were exerted as a kind of ‘bio-power’ for the control of the female population. On the other hand, such kind of activities (especially sports) represented certain ‘technologies of the self’ for middle and upper class women. Through participation in sports, women gained a more active and public role in the Spanish society of the era, obtaining some degree of autonomy in self-governance over their bodies and their lives.     

Much ‘more than a club’: Football Club Barcelona’s contribution to the rise of a national consciousness in Catalonia (2003–2014)

In Catalonia, fervour for Football Club Barcelona (Barça) goes well beyond sporting success as the team supports the demands of the stateless nation. Much ‘more than a club’, Barça is a platform for the expansion of a Catalan national consciousness. At a time when Catalonia is at a critical point in its relations with the Spanish state, claiming the right to national self-determination and presenting the possibility of secession, this paper examines how Barça boosts the strength of Catalan nationalist feelings through dynamics characteristic of the football sphere, such as rituals of group belonging, fandom performances of loyalty, the dramatization of rivalries, the elevation of those achieving sporting success to national icons or the strength of feeling provided by the sports ground. Looking at the period 2003–2014, it concludes that Barça is key in advancing claims that Catalonia is a sovereign nation with the right to decide its political future.     

‘Between Work and Laziness’: Leisure in the Polish Countryside (1945–1989)

Abstract

The paper draws attention to free time activities in the Polish countryside after 1945. In pre-war rural worldview, every action in which the element of household usefulness was absent, was valued negatively, and considered to be laziness. Growing spatial mobility of village dwellers and changing attitudes towards work on farms resulted in depreciation of land as superior value. This shift together with industrialization and positive valuation of urban culture brought new patterns of spending time in the countryside. Traditionally, ‘Neighbourhood sit-ins’ – a kind of zone of pleasure and fun, situated on the border between the spheres of work and active rest – have been transformed into something totally different. The emergence of radios, TV sets, and pop culture meant that group meetings were focused on content entirely separate from work. In my article, I would like to examine the intersection of two domains of leisure in post-war countryside, time of community, associated with relaxing meeting, spontaneous fun on the one hand and organized time of the youth on the other. Another major issue I would like to discuss in my paper is emergence of private spare time and its perception by village dwellers.     

A dolphin only looks like a fish: Players’ behaviour analysis is not enough for game understanding in the light of the systems approach – a response to the reply by McGarry and Franks

Abstract

In this article I defend my previously published system approach to game playing in sports (Lebed, 2006). Founded on the main argument of mine about insufficiency of performance analysis only for games study, it is based on an inter-disciplinary comprehension of sporting game events from four different angles: the logical-philosophical, the behavioural (performance), the anthropological, and complexity angles. The paper consists of four parts, corresponding to the four angles. The first three parts offer deconstructive and reconstructive analysis. The three provide criticism of McGarry and Frank's arguments against my view of complex dynamical systems in sports. The logical analysis negates my opponents’ general view of a match (a process) as a dynamical system. The behaviour analysis refutes their claim about couple oscillator dynamics as a universal dynamically interpreted model of game playing. The anthropological panoramic vision of sporting games leads me to conclude that my opponents’ analysis of two exclusively interacting sides in a squash or soccer contest is too narrow and insufficient to explain the broad diversity of games. According to the, classification suggested in Lebed (2004), I offer seven possible models that can systematically reflect different groups of games. In the fourth part, the complexity angle is analysed from a constructive point of view. Here I take one of the above seven models and try to outline a ‘‘soccer-like’’ game perspective modelling founded on the view of play process as a conflict of two four-level self-regulating complex systems, where each one is additionally involved in its own loop of cybernetic regulation.     

‘Motivate’: the effect of a Football in the Community delivered weight loss programme on over 35-year old men and women’s cardiovascular risk factors

The purpose of this study was to examine whether an innovative, inclusive and integrated 12-week exercise, behaviour change and nutrition advice-based weight management programme could significantly improve the cardiovascular risk factors of overweight and obese men and women over the age of 35. One hundred and ninety-four men and 98 women (mean age?=?52.28?±?9.74 and 51.19?±?9.04) attending a community-based intervention delivered by Notts County Football in the Community over one year, took part in the study. Height (m), weight (kg), fitness (meters covered during a 6?min walk) and waist circumference (cm) were measured at weeks 1 and 12 as part of the intervention. Changes in body weight, waist circumference and fitness for men and women were measured by a 2-way repeated measures ANOVA, with significance set to p?<?0.05.Weight, waist circumference and fitness significantly improved over time in both men (4.96?kg, 6.29?cm, 70.22?m; p?<?0.05) and women (4.26?kg, 5.90?cm, 35.29?m; p?<?0.05). The results demonstrated that the FITC lead weight loss intervention was successful in significantly improving cardiovascular risk factors in both men and women. In particular, the weight loss reductions achieved were comparable to those seen in similar, more costly men-only programmes. This is the first study to demonstrate the efficacy of such an intervention in an inclusive, mixed gender programme and more specifically, in women.     

The need for ‘representative task design’ in evaluating efficacy of skills tests in sport: A comment on Russell,Benton and Kingsley (2010)

Abstract

Russell, Benton and Kingsley (2010 Russell, M., Benton, D. and Kingsley, M. 2010. Reliability and construct validity of soccer skills tests that measure passing, shooting, and dribbling. Journal of Sports Sciences, 28(13): 1399–1408. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) recently suggested a new association football test comprising three different tasks for the evaluation of players' passing, dribbling and shooting skills. Their stated intention was to enhance ‘ecological validity’ of current association football skills tests allowing generalisation of results from the new protocols to performance constraints that were ‘representative’ of experiences during competitive game situations. However, in this comment we raise some concerns with their use of the term ‘ecological validity’ to allude to aspects of ‘representative task design’. We propose that in their paper the authors confused understanding of environmental properties, performance achievement and generalisability of the test and its outcomes. Here, we argue that the tests designed by Russell and colleagues did not include critical sources of environmental information, such as the active role of opponents, which players typically use to organise their actions during performance. Static tasks which are not representative of the competitive performance environment may lead to different emerging patterns of movement organisation and performance outcomes, failing to effectively evaluate skills performance in sport.     

‘Amathe Nolimi’ (it is saliva and the tongue): contracts of joy in South African football c. 1940–761

Homo Ludens, man at play, is surely as significant a figure as man at war or at work. In human activity the invention of the ball may be said to rank with the invention of the wheel. Imagine America without baseball, Europe without soccer, England without cricket, the Italians without bocci, China without Ping-Pong, and tennis for no one.     

‘The life of crime does not pay; stop and think!’: the process of co-constructing a prototype pedagogical model of sport for working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds

Purpose: This study discusses the process of co-constructing a prototype pedagogical model for working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds.

Participants and settings: This six-month activist research project was conducted in a soccer program in a socially vulnerable area of Brazil in 2013. The study included 17 youths, 4 coaches, a pedagogic coordinator and a social worker. An expert in student-centered pedagogy and inquiry-based activism assisted as a debriefer helping in the progressive data analysis and the planning of the work sessions.

Data collection/analysis: Multiple sources of data were collected, including 38 field journal/observation and audio records of: 18 youth work sessions, 16 coaches’ work sessions, 3 combined coaches and youth work sessions, and 37 meetings between the researcher and the expert.

Findings: The process of co-construction of this prototype pedagogical model was divided into three phases. The first phase involved the youth and coaches identifying barriers to sport opportunities in their community. In the second phase, the youth, coaches and researchers imagined alternative possibilities to the barriers identified. In the final phase, we worked collaboratively to create realistic opportunities for the youth to begin to negotiate some of the barriers they identified. In this phase, the coaches and youth designed an action plan to implement (involving a Leadership Program) aimed at addressing the youths’ needs in the sport program. Five critical elements of a prototype pedagogical model were co-created through the first two processes and four learning aspirations emerged in the last phase of the project.

Implications: We suggest an activist approach of co-creating a pedagogical model of sport for working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds is beneficial. That is, creating opportunities for youth to learn to name, critique and negotiate barriers to their engagement in sport in order to create empowering possibilities.     

Is a single question of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) valid for measuring sedentary behaviour in the Chilean population?

A study was conducted to assess the validity of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) for measuring sedentary behaviour (SB) in the Chilean adult population. About 217 adults (93/124 male/female, 43.8 ± 15.75 years) who were randomly selected during National Health Survey 2009–2010 completed the protocol. The participants wore an ActiGraph GT3X (AG) for 7 consecutive days and then completed the GPAQ (single-item question for measuring time spent sitting in a usual day). Validity was examined using Spearman’s correlation, mean bias and limits of agreement (LoA), with AG (vertical axis <100 counts · min^?1) as the reference standard for estimates of SB in bouts of 1 (AG1), 5 (AG5) and 10 (AG10) min. Agreement between the GPAQ and AG for classifying data into quartiles and tertiles was assessed with kappa method. The GPAQ showed fair correlation with AG1, AG5 and AG10 (range = 0.23–0.26), with large mean biases (range = ?293.9, ?76.12 min · day^?1). Agreement between the GPAQ and AG1, AG5 and AG10 was poor for categorising time spent in SB into tertiles and quartiles. The single question from the GPAQ has shown fair validity for measuring SB and poor ability for correctly classifying individuals into tertiles or quartiles of SB in a Chilean population.     

‘They think it’s all Dover!’ Popular newspaper narratives and images about the English football team and (re)presentations of national identity during Euro 2012

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (‘Euro 2012’) – Europe’s quadrennial football bonanza was held in Poland and the Ukraine between June 8th and July 1st. Occurring between Elizabeth II’s Diamond jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic Games, the eyes of the media were fixated on the pride and joy of English football, its men’s national team. With national consciousness at an all-time high, articles in England’s tabloid, ‘red-top,’ daily national newspapers The Sun and Daily Mirror were tracked for three weeks as they lavished their attentions on the national pastime. Their coverage of the English team reflected a heightened consciousness of English national identity. Drawing on Guibernau’s strategies for creating and uniting citizens around a collective national identity, this study examined how England’s popular media presented and represented England’s national identity to reflect the real and imagined versions of Englishness during this major sporting event.¹1. Montserrat Guibernau, The Identity of Nations (Cambridge: Polity, 2007). By focusing on The Sun and Daily Mirror’s narratives about, and images of, the English team during the Euro 2012 tournament, this paper focuses on how English national identity ebbed and flowed during a time of seismic change within the country. Shaped by an inductive textual analysis, this paper shows how the press fluctuated between optimistic notions of the present and future English national identity and traditional ‘olde England’ in an almost formulaic fashion.     

Authors’ response to letter to the editor: “Bar velocities capable of optimising the muscle power in strength-power exercises” by Loturco,Pereira, Abad,Tabares, Moraes,Kobal, Kitamura & Nakamura (2017)

Our study in the Journal of Sports Sciences was originally designed to test whether the bar-velocity is a precise indicator of the power training intensity (i.e., optimum loads) in different exercises commonly included in athletes’ training programs. Furthermore, we presented secondary findings, related to the actual results obtained in our assessments. As a cross-sectional study with clear objectives, we focused on discussing issues and applications pertaining to neuromuscular training interventions, such as: (1) describing the advantages of using bar-velocities to control the power training intensity, (2) defining a range of loads capable of maximizing the power production in certain ballistic and traditional exercises, and (3) revealing the differences between these exercises and the respective implications for training. Fundamentally, we did not produce a mechanistic investigation and were very accurate and consistent in reporting our data, collected under rigorous and well-established experimental conditions. Here we provide our point-by-point comments to the concerns raised in the “Letter to the Editor”, along with some theoretical explanations about the secondary findings reported by the authors of the Letter. To better understand the nature and purposes of our experiment, we also present a series of practical examples and review previous investigations involving the “bar-power” approach.