Mostly, sequels do not come near the level of the first part. Second is never better than first. Just like in sports. Although I will try to equal the first blog ‘What is sport?’ Therefore I will address some issues about What sport is two… euhm too.
First I never imagined that a changing room could be so complicated. As Sassatelli (1999) describes ‘changing rooms are indeed organized to facilitate an institutional passage, marshalling symbols to support a switch to exercise as the activity which defines the gym’. She talks about rituals, enter and exit the world of training, liminoid spaces, meant to strip individuals of their external identities. She must be a sociologist.
Second, I got somewhat irritated by Evers’ article on surfing (Evers, 2006). Especially when he argues that ‘the way bodies learn is through affects’. This is so far away from my personal opinion about the body. To me the body is nothing without the mind. It’s just a piece of flesh filled with water. So I reject his argument that bodies can learn. The mind can learn and constructs feelings, emotions, pain, behaviour based on your experience, norms and values, attitudes and beliefs, meta-programmes, memories, previous decisions made. If the body feels ‘stoke’, this ‘stoke’ is constructed in your mind and this message is given back to your body through your nerves to feel this certain sensation.
Third my view of disabled athletes, especially physical disabled athletes, has somewhat changed. When I worked for the National Fund for Disability Sports (Fonds Gehandicaptensport) we put emphasis on the positive effects of participating in sports, but we used the help of disabled elite athletes to do this. For me there is no question about the positive effects participating in sports has for people with physical disabilities, but the image we presented to them by using an elite sports(wo)man, can also discourage people with a disability to participate in sport, because they might think they could never achieve the same or being seen as ‘the same’ in modern society. The bar could be to high in disabled peoples minds. The supercrip critique was indeed new to me (Berger, 2008).
Fourth my idea of the genetic advantage coloured people (in general) have in sports, is somewhat modified. I still believe that for certain sports or for certain positions in team sports (like the wing players in American Football), the biological part plays an important role. Looking at a highly task-specialized, task-oriented sport like American football, as a coach I want certain players in a certain position in the team where they can excel in their task. For wing players that is running (explosiveness, accelleration, starting speed, maximum speed) and being able to catch the ball while running. As coloured sportsmen in general have more fast twich muscles they do have an advantage. But the article and lecture of Jacco van Sterkenburg (2012) showed that cultural and societal issues can have a major effect on the chances a sportsmen gets to sport at an elite level. The nature-nurture discussion was very interesting and certainly widened my view on this topic.
And last but not least. What did I learn from Bourdieu (1978)? Well that French sociologists tend to write as complex as they supposedly see the world.
In my first ‘What is sport?’ blog I tried to define sports by a single definition. I succeeded somewhat, well not defined it, but described it in the best possible way. Do I alter this descriptive definition? No. Do I think sport is more than just a descriptive definition? Yes. This course showed that sport is far more complex than one can imagine. And the place and role of sport in society can be seen from different perspectives. There is a lot to talk about, to discuss about and to think about sport. But never forget, just do it!
References
Berger, R.J. (2008) Disability and the Dedicated Wheelchair Athlete: Beyond the ‘Supercrip’ Critique, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 37(6): 647-678
Bourdieu, P. (1978) Sport and Social Class. Social Science Information 17(6): 819-840
Evers, C. (2006) How to Surf. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 30(3): 229-243
Sassatelli, R. (1999) Interaction Order and Beyond: A Field Analysis of Body Culture within Fitness Gyms. Body & Society 5(2–3): 227–248
Sterkenburg, J. van and Annelies Knoppers (2012) Sport as a Contested Racial/Ethnic Discourse: Processes of Racialization in Dutch Sport Media and Sport Policy. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 7(2): 119-136
Note: this blog was written for the course ‘Sport, Culture and Society‘ which I attended at the University of Amsterdam in autumn 2015.
Sport en Maatschappij 