Despite of the short American history as a nation, sports in the United States are a great source of pride and stories of superation. Sports as a part of culture have so much influence in people; in sportpeople as well as in the public.
The four major team sports in the United States are American footbal (whose major league is the NFL), basketball (with its league NBA), baseball (in the MLB) and ice hockey (NHL league). They are considered as the greatest exponent of the respective sport over the world what makes them even more important. Sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports. College sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture. In many cases college athletics are more popular than professional sports, with the major sanctioning body being the NCAA.
However, these are not the unique sport tendencies since the individual sports such as swimming, athletics or motorsport have great importance in The United States, especially in the Olympic Games where they were the major winners of medals with 104 metals.
As we have already seen, The United States is a world power when referring to sports. However, the most widespread sport in the world is not the same in this country: football or how is known in USA, soccer. Soccer is not a leading professional sport, but it is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. A recent addition as an American pastime, it gained popularity in the later half of the 20th century. The creation of professional leagues such as MLS, and the success of US national teams has fueled its growth to sport, that is now widely played throughout all age groups, even though it is not very famous around the world. On the other hand, basketball matches of the NBA are retransmitted over the world for their quality and brilliant way of playing and they are followed by million of people every day.
Here, the official websites of the four major national leagues where you can enjoy of the videos, news, scores and so on:
www.nfl.com
www.nba.com
www.mlb.com
www.nhl.com
Sources: www.wikipedia.com
By: Estefanía Benítez Sánchez
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Language in sports
Sports have an important role in American Culture. The most important and widespread sports in the United States are basketball, American football, ice hockey and baseball. American history is relatively short, so most of population feels proud of their sportmen and takes very seriously the competitions and matches.
In team sports, it is very important the use of language, spoken language as well as body language. Coaches need to create and invent tactics of game, models of actuation depending on the weather, capacities of the players and techniques of the rival, that is why language is a very useful tool in order to create tactics. When players are in the middle of the game it is very productive marking every move with a particular name, previously practiced in the trainings and memorized by the players. This could be considered as a CODE LANGUAGE in sports, which are very used for example in sports such as basketball or handball, where the tactics are very important.
However, there are other team sports where certain tactics are not required but where language is a tool for encouraging sportmen to do the best they can, for example with phrases or statements which both coaches and players share and which have a special meaning for them. Examples of these sports may be tennis, athletics, swimming and other individual sports. Some of these statements sometimes are made a slogan of sport brands like 'Adidas' and its acknown slogan "Imposible is nothing" or 'Nike' "Just do it". Other times, for example, language has a function much more irrelevant at first sight, but that however, later, we realize that it has marked an important role in the life of many players. It is then when we notice that 'Magic Johnson' might be a normal nickname for someone, but however it has been, is and will be the name of Earvin Effay Johnson, Jr. (which surely no-one knows as such), who made of his spectacular technique in basketball a myth for everyone who loves this sport. Another known legend of American sport, in this case baseball's player, was Denton True Young or perhaps more known as 'Cy the Cyclone', a nickname which lasts even more than fifty years after his death, and which is due to he was the first baseball's player in doing a complete game, avoiding to any player to reach a base. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young)
And the point is that even though we don't notice, language in a way or in another has a significant meaning in the world of sports from simple names for tactics between teammates to special players whose nicknames (from a special association of their real names and some words) will 'survive' forever and with them, their legend.
Example of "Maradona" move. This is a great example of how professionals name certain moves with particular names in order to everybody knows them.
In team sports, it is very important the use of language, spoken language as well as body language. Coaches need to create and invent tactics of game, models of actuation depending on the weather, capacities of the players and techniques of the rival, that is why language is a very useful tool in order to create tactics. When players are in the middle of the game it is very productive marking every move with a particular name, previously practiced in the trainings and memorized by the players. This could be considered as a CODE LANGUAGE in sports, which are very used for example in sports such as basketball or handball, where the tactics are very important.
However, there are other team sports where certain tactics are not required but where language is a tool for encouraging sportmen to do the best they can, for example with phrases or statements which both coaches and players share and which have a special meaning for them. Examples of these sports may be tennis, athletics, swimming and other individual sports. Some of these statements sometimes are made a slogan of sport brands like 'Adidas' and its acknown slogan "Imposible is nothing" or 'Nike' "Just do it". Other times, for example, language has a function much more irrelevant at first sight, but that however, later, we realize that it has marked an important role in the life of many players. It is then when we notice that 'Magic Johnson' might be a normal nickname for someone, but however it has been, is and will be the name of Earvin Effay Johnson, Jr. (which surely no-one knows as such), who made of his spectacular technique in basketball a myth for everyone who loves this sport. Another known legend of American sport, in this case baseball's player, was Denton True Young or perhaps more known as 'Cy the Cyclone', a nickname which lasts even more than fifty years after his death, and which is due to he was the first baseball's player in doing a complete game, avoiding to any player to reach a base. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young)
And the point is that even though we don't notice, language in a way or in another has a significant meaning in the world of sports from simple names for tactics between teammates to special players whose nicknames (from a special association of their real names and some words) will 'survive' forever and with them, their legend.
Example of "Maradona" move. This is a great example of how professionals name certain moves with particular names in order to everybody knows them.
By: Estefanía Benítez Sánchez
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