Читать книгу Alternative Models of Sports Development in America. Solutions to a Crisis in Education and Public Health онлайн

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While sports competitiveness is important in almost any culture, it is often amplified in the United States because sports within the education system form a separate social sphere in which competition and rivalry are more accepted (Pot and Van Hilvoorde 2013; Curry and Weiss 1989). The social network that interscholastic and intercollegiate sports can provide in the United States is present instead in the European club system, and is perhaps even farther-ranging. In Europe, the desire for competitiveness and socialization is mainly fulfilled in the sports club system, while what rudimentary forms of interscholastic competition as exist are characterized by a focus on physical wellness. Taks (2011) notes that community-based sports clubs are primarily voluntary, led by boards of directors and requiring cooperation among all of the stakeholders. Sports clubs in Europe were further solidified by the Sports for All movement, which began in 1966 and was designed to promote participation in sporting and fitness activities by children, teens, and adults. The Sports for All movement opened the doors for greater development of the sports club system as national, regional, and local governments started to provide direct and indirect support to the voluntary infrastructure and keep the physical activity and social aspects of the clubs going (Pot and van Hilvoorde 2013; Curry and Weiss 1989; Taks 2011). This European sports-for-all ideology is partly related to the nonselective nature of interscholastic school sports that initially existed in America, but which has mostly given way to an emphasis on competitive excellence rather than non-elite participation and wellness.