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Man's interest in
games and sports
comes as natural
as is the pleasure of playing
by almost all animals.
Sports - the word itself has an inbuilt magical spell.
It flashes
on your eyes some activity or the other,
that you love so much to
enjoy.
And there are many such activities.
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Games or sports are some kinds of activities which are performed with the
spirit of a contest.
To be specific, games usually include contests involving luck, skill, or
strength. Yet, there are many games which are not contests but
require playing out parts like actors on a stage. Still others, like
dancing round the Maypole, are mere fun. For,
they involve singing and
dancing with other people.
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Sometimes games are for more
than simple enjoyment.
Frequently, they have
been ways of
training young men to be warriors.
This is specially true of
games we call 'sports'.
Sports have often been part of the play pattern of boys, including many
sports that were dangerous. Indian boys practiced spear throwing and
archery.
They raced ponies, swam, and wrestled.
Feats of strength and
bravery were prized and individuals were rewarded with ceremony. Iroquois
Indians played lacrosse, with broken bones or
bleeding heads as an usual
occurrence.
Greek boxers fought with a piece of leather studded with
metal wrapped around each fist, and Roman gladiators used spears, daggers,
and swords.
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It is from these sports
organized to demonstrate fighting strength or
skill, there developed eventually competitive sports
as we know them
today.
We play these for fun
as well as for physical development.
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