Sport is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “a round of physical exercise especially for the advantage of man”. A physical activity involving skill and physical exertion as the main focus of the activity, where competitive aspects are usually governed by patterns and formal rules of behavior and where the activity is generally accepted as a sport when it takes place formally through organised teams and organized competitions where the competitors compete as a member of an entourage, under the guidance of a leader. In Britain, soccer, American football, Australian rules soccer, and American football are the most common types of sport. Professional sport in the United States has grown in popularity since professional sport leagues such as the NFL and Major League Baseball began; these professional sport leagues have formed the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Sport, like body building and weight training, evolved from the desire to improve physical fitness and to increase a person’s performance in his chosen physical activity. Early cavemen used the suns light to cook food and created the first fire so that they could cook better. People began collecting sticks and other tools to use in walking and running, later inventing running shoes and stick-on shields to protect their bodies from injury. Later in history, people began building dungarees (clothes) to wear to protect themselves from the cold.
As mentioned above, humans are the only animals that engaged in structured sport over the course of history. These sport activities involved skill, physical exertion, and social competition. Today, these skills and physical exertion are still important to our survival as a species, but our lives are often more sedentary and our interaction with our friends and family members has largely been replaced by the use of electronic media such as TV and computer games. Sport, therefore, has lost some of its importance to modern society. Sport can, however, be used as a form of social interaction, and people can learn to participate in sport in a fun way.
One of the earliest sport activities that people began participating in was dart throwing. Although dart throwing is not a sport in the same sense as playing a sport, it is a useful addition to many sports. A darts thrower needs to have excellent upper body strength, great accuracy, excellent wrist strength, good hand-eye coordination, and the ability to accurately hit the dart. All of these skills can be developed through exercise and other forms of sport and fitness work.
Another ancient sport that helped to define modern sport activities was hand to eye battle. Individuals who engaged in this physical activity needed to be highly skilled at using their eyes to identify and distinguish patterns, shapes, and other visual features of their opponent. This is especially true for hunters and warriors, and today eye-eye coordination is still one of the most important skills required for successful combat. Another sport that developed out of hand to eye combat was fencing. Fencing, like dart throwing, involved being highly accurate with one’s weapon and having a solid grip. The first recorded fencing matches were between soldiers in medieval times.
Today, there are a wide variety of games that can be considered sports, including contact sports like boxing, softball, wrestling, basketball, skiing, surfing, and table tennis. Each of these has developed its own particular characteristics that separate it from the rest. In the last several decades, many games that were categorized as games have undergone major changes. Video games, for example, have become extremely popular, and the younger generations seem to play more games that involve physical activity than they did before. This has led to a broadening of the range of games that can be considered sportswear.