Sports and games

Sports can be generally divided into indoor and outdoor sports. Gymnastics is a typical indoor sport which includes apparatus training on uneven bars, horizontal bar, balance beam, mat, spring-board or rings. Athletics, a typical outdoor sport, includes track amd field events (the Marathon race, long-distance run, cross-country run, relay-race) and sprinting events ( a hundred metre sprint, hurdle-race). Jumping (high jjump, long jump, triple jump, pole jump) and throwing (hammer, discus, javelin, shot put) are also athletic sports. Indoor sports can be practised all the year round but many of outdoor sports such as cycling race, mountainering and most of aquatic sports like sailing, yachting, regatta, water-skiing, diving, wind-surfing, wave-gliding and others, depend on weather and therefore can be practise mostly in summer. Swimming is also a typical summer sport but it is possible to practise it all the year round in indoor pools. Swimming includes breaststroke, backstroke, crawl and butterfly. In winter sportsmen go in for winter sports, such as skiing, skating, snow-boarding and tobogganing. Skiers can practise giant slalom, downhill race or ski jumps in ski resorts where there are good snow conditions. Skating includes figure skating and speed skating which are practised on skating-rinks.

Games are those sports in which ate least two players are involved. The most popular games are football, rugby, hockey, tennis, golf, cricket, basketball, volleyball, handball and many others.

The British are sport-loving people. Every Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman and Welshman is said to be interested in at least one sport ar game. Some of the games such as football, rugby, golf, tennis originated in Britain and spread all over the world from there.

Cricket is considered to be the most typically English. This game has its roots in England and has never become popular beyond the British Commonwealth. It is a difficult game for foreigners to understand. The British love this typical summer game.

The most popular game is football or soccer, as the Britih call it. Football in Britain is a winter game. All the British football fans celebrated the 140th anniverssary of football in 2003. The Cup Final is the most important football match of the year in England. It is played at Wembley Stadium near London, which has seats for 100 000 spectators. Rugby is an old game. It started in the 18th century at Rugby Scool, the famous English Public School.

Rugby is played with an oval ball, and hands and feet can be used.

Besides team games, such as football and rugby, the popular individual game is tennis. It`s popularity has increased very much recently. Tennis can be played on a grass court ar a hard court. The best champions or the world play at Wimbledon every year. The championships are watched by thousands of spectators and TV viewers all over the world.

Golf, which comes from scotland, is a very popular game with the people of all ages. Britain has many beautiful golf-courses. Golf is played by two, three or more persons. The player tries to hit the ball with a club into each hole in as few strokes as possible. The winner is the player who can go round the golf-course in the lowest number of strokes.

The Americans also pay much attention to sports and games. The most popular game are baseball, basketball, tennis, boxing, wrestling and ice-hockey. There is an increasing interest in football, too.

Baseball was invented in the middle of the 18th century and since that time the rules of this game remained nearly unchanged. Baseball is played at large stadiums. There is no time limit, and may be it is one of the reasons of its popularity. High schools and colleges have their own baseball teams. Most of the cities have at least one professional baseball team.

There are many beautiful winter sport centres in the USA. The typical winter sports, such as skiing, skating and, more recently, snow-boarding are very popular.

Tennis and squash are leading summer sports in the USA. Squash is a game for two players played in a four-walled court with a special racket and a soft ball. There is also a great number of specific water sports, such as yachting, wind-surfing, wave-gliding which are loved by many young people.