A new page, About, has been added to my Sports notebook for My Idea Outlet. The contents can be found below.
We keep hearing about the obesity crisis in America. I keep joking about how to address obesity. Part of the problem is that people don't live physically active lifestyles. If only we could find a way to turn physical activity into a game. Obviously, we already have physical activities played as games. They are known as sports.
When you look at sports in America, it becomes obvious why more people don't play. We view sports as an elitist pursuit. We watch millionaire athletes on television trying to prove that they are the best. We pour resources into the Olympic Games because we can use success to argue that our country is the best. Even in school, sports are more about school pride and proving that they are the best at that level.
Winning can certainly have value in sports. A desire to win can motivate individuals to push themselves. This is a good thing. The problem is that too much emphasis on winning can be detrimental to the entertainment value of playing sports. In sports, we should strive for victory while still enjoying the experience when we lose. By putting success over recreational value, we alienate individuals who could love playing sports. In some cases, these might be legitimately less capable athletes who just want to have fun. In other cases, you might have highly capable athletes who simply have not been properly informed of what they are supposed to be doing.
I have decided to embrace a broad brainstorming project related to sports. The idea here will be to imagine what I could do if I had total control over the sports world. As a whole, this project will be highly unrealistic. Hopefully, this approach will lead me to ideas that are a bit more realistic and can be adapted to the real world. Many ideas will reflect my belief that sports should be more about recreation than elitism.
No comments:
Post a Comment