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- minimally engaged in sports activities
- engaged in hunting, wrestling, swimming, dancing THE CHINESE
- physical activity was connected to religion and military
- archery, boxing, wrestling THE INDIANS
- minimally engaged in physical activities because their
religions deemphasized the activities
- exercises: meditation, yoga and regulated breathing THE GREEKS
- produced rich heritage in sport activites: The Greek Ideal
- 4 eras: Homeric, Sparta, early and late Athens -
- The Illiad and the Odyssey- the earliest records of athletic competitions
- chariot races, boxing, wrestling, footrace, throwing the discus
- "arete"= physical excellence
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- boys trained physically in "palaestra", wrestling school (wrestling, boxing, jumping, dancing, swimming)
- in gymnasiums: for upper class who had money ( aged 20+) : became places for pleasure
- "paidotribes"- the first PE teachers
- girls remained at home under the care of their mothers
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- honored the gods(Zeus), only for males
- Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean Games
- Olympic Games: every 4 years, lasted 5 days in August at Olympia, wars stopped at that period : eligibility: male, Greek born, free(not slave), train for 10 months before the games : oath of fair play, victors(a wreath of olive branches) : disciplines: stade race, two-stade race, pentathlon, boxing, pencratium, the race in armor, chariot race : Milo of Kroton
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- military activities: running, jumping, swimming, hunting, wrestling...
- "pancratium"= a combination of wrestling and boxing
- Spartans- won more Olympic victories than any other citizens
- "agoge"= an educational system that ensured the singular goal of serving the city-state
- girls participated in gymnastics in addition to wrestling, swimming, and horseback riding
- boys were conscripted by the state at 7 years of age and remained in military service until death
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- boys: military camps to prepare for war(archery, fencing, riding, wrestling etc.) : citizen-soldiers
- daughters: educated to assume a vital role in raising children
: were expected to instill in their sons the importance of fighting, and even dying, for Rome - preferred to watch others compete.
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- chariot races at the Circus Maximus(7 lap races, 4 horses)
- gladiatorial contests: in the Colosseum, 90,000 spectators : Christians were forced to combat lions, tigers, and panthers
- most other Romans lost interest in developing their bodies because they were no longer expected to serve as soldiers
- spent time in thermae, health gymnastics or ball play
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- "squires"(at the age of 14) started learning archery, climbing, dancing, fencing, riding, swimming, wrestling etc.
- knights: jousting - primary event of the tournament, conditions similar to war in the grand tourney, or melee : vassal landowners, valued physical training
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- humanistic education(modelled on the Greek Ideal): emphasized unity of physical and intellectual development
- most of the Protestant sects deemphasized physical development(Puritans)
- Realism: emphasized the importance of understanding the Greek classics and educating for life
- the development of health (through exercise and play) and scientific thinking became critical educational outcomes for the realists
- education was valued for boys, seldom for girls
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- Age of Enlightment(1700s): John Locke, Jean-Jacque Rousseau
- provided additional insights into how to educate a child
- naturalism laid the foundations for European gymnastic programmes
- Schnepfenthal Educational Institute: 3-4h daily program that included: natural activites(jumping), Greek athletics(throwing), military exercises(fencing), knightly activities(climbing), manual labor(gardening)
- few books published: described the programs
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- German gymnastics: "turnplatz"(outdoor exercise area where boys trained), Turners
- book "German Gymnastics"
- Danish gymnastics: book "Manual of Gymnastics"- provided the curicullum for the school : military and schools: command-response exercises, rigid drill
- Sweden: Royal Gymnastics Central Institute for military training: Per Henrik Ling(founder) : stall bars, booms, vaulting boxes, oblique ropes
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- John Locke - his body concept resembled the Greek Ideal
- their ideal - the British Amateur Sport Ideal - "playing the game for the game`s sake"
- upper-class sports: cricket, rugby
- Oxford and Cambridge: rowing, soccer, field hockey
- Muscular Christianity: emphasized vigorous masculinity, such as achieved through sports, in combination with development of character