If someone asked you “what is sport?”, what would you answer?
Have you ever stopped to think about what sports have you experienced at your school?
Well, these are some points we want you to think about.
The term sport refers to any type of practice that is linked to Federations and Confederations, whose role is to regulate the rules of this practice. This means that the rules of a sport are fixed and can never be changed during a championship. By the way, this is another objective of the federations: to organize championships, whose champions always have the prize in mind, which can be money, medals or trophies, for example. From this explanation we can extract four characteristics that are fundamental to say whether a given practice is a sport: 1) having fixed rules; 2) the subordination of this practice to some official body; 3) it is a competitive activity; 4) the athlete is always looking for a type of reward greater than the pleasure of playing the sport: he is a professional who wins life (or intends to earn, in the case of amateur athletes) through sport, either with sponsorship or with the prizes given in the competitions.
It is easy to understand, then, why formula 1 or chess are considered types of sport, alongside volleyball or swimming. Generally, we associate the idea of sport with any physical activity practice, which is not true. The fact that you play paddleball on the beach, or that your mother walks every day in the morning, does not make you or your mother athletes. You are, yes, practitioners of physical activity. By now, you should have understood that physical activity is any type of activity with the body aimed at well-being and/or health. It is necessary to remember that for a physical activity to have the purpose of maintaining health, it must be practiced moderately and regularly, at least 3 times a week.
From this idea about what sport is, you might be asking yourself: “so, isn't the basketball that I play at school a sport?”. This is an interesting question, because the practice of sports within the school is nothing new. Many schools, especially private ones, maintain training teams, whose athletes are theirs and some of their students. These teams are formed to compete in interscholastic championships, whose purpose is to win a trophy for the school. In addition to this more explicit practice of sport, there is also a sporting experience in Physical Education classes.
Sport is one of the many contents that the teacher must work on in Physical Education classes, as shown in the National Curriculum Parameters for Physical Education. However, there is a discussion among specialists in this area, who claim that the sport must be worked in an adapted way at school. This means that you students can change the rules of the game when all participants in the activity agree; it also means that when sport is presented at school, it does not necessarily have to be competitive; and more than that: in Physical Education classes there is no medal! What matters is learning and having fun! It is for these reasons that Valter Bracht, in his book “Social Learning and Physical Education”, calls this practice "school sport", since the goal is for the student to experience sports practices aiming at pleasure and not competition. That's why basketball in your class is a sport, but it's an appropriate sport to be pursued according to educational goals.
Another important thing is that it is the teacher's role to also propose less common sports as the content of their classes. So, if your teacher proposes a different class like fencing, capoeira or artistic gymnastics, instead of football or volleyball as usual, don't complain! Keep in mind that Physical Education class is the time to try new things. Good class!
By Paula Rondinelli
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Physical Education from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
Master in Motricity Sciences from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
Doctoral Student in Integration of Latin America at the University of São Paulo - USP
sports - Physical education - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/educacao-fisica/voce-sabe-que-esporte.htm
