Current issues Assessment
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Current Issues Assessment
Sport is one of the major activities that most people engage in for various reasons. Many people have taken part in different forms of sport for passion, others for leisure or to keep fit. Different types of sports have been discovered, and in most cases, they vary from how they are played. Almost all countries in the world have shown support to different types of sports that have been identified through providing resources. An example of countries in the world that is associated with various sports is England. According to Williams (2017), one of the major sport that is common in England in footballs. Many football clubs have been established in English to promote this sport. Many people who have joined this sport have the desire to perform well. Football has been embraced mainly in England but there various issues that can have a specific influence on sports performance.
Education and Sports in Schools
One of the issues that can influence sports performance is education and sports in school (Hills, Dengel & Lubans, 2015). Apart from learning, students are expected to take part in co-curricular activities in schools. These activities will help the students to gain skills on how to excel in different areas such as sports. Students have to be trained on how to participate in physical activities as it will ensure that they also success in their academics. Most teachers during the PE session in schools tend to talk too much and forget to engage the students on the physical activities (Hills, Dengel & Lubans, 2015). Therefore, most of the students will lack specialist training. This matter explains why in England there are few schools that participant in competitive football at a high level. When students in school are taught how to play football and take through all the necessary training, they will develop good skills (Hills, Dengel & Lubans, 2015). These skills will ensure that they exhibit a better performance when they are playing football at a competitive level.
Racism
According to Cleland and Cashmore (2016), racism is the second issue that can influence individual performance on the sport. The cases of racism have been on the rise over the past few years. Many people are discriminated because of their color. The most affected group of people are African America. This issue has affected many football players in England. Racial discrimination results in various effects on an individual. One of the effects is that when a person is racially discriminated, his or her self-esteem will be lowered (Cleland & Cashmore, 2016). Also, racism can make a person to feel unappreciated or hated. Therefore, this person will have low confidence when he or she is playing in the field. When a footballer has low confidence while on the field, he or she will not play well. Therefore, it is evident that racism can make an individual perform poorly in this sport.
Commercialization
Commercialization is the other factor that has a significant influence on sports performance. Commercialization refers to taking part in sports for the aim of gaining financial benefit (Houlihan & Malcolm, 2015). Their clubs are paying most football players a good amount of money. However, the payment that one gets varies on the level of performance that he or she exhibits. This issue has driven up the desire of many people to start playing football. As these individuals begin playing, they will accept to be paid a lower amount first. When they continue playing, they will work hard so that their performance can increase. After their performance has increased to a high level, these individuals will then demand a high salary. The other issue that is related to commercializing is that various companies use most of the players for marketing their products (Houlihan & Malcolm, 2015). These companies rely on players to marketing their products because they have a huge fan base who might be attracted to buy it. Most players who are selected for marketing products are paid a huge sum of money. This issue has influenced most of the players to work hard and perform well in this sport so that they can be picked for marketing and be paid a huge amount of money. Therefore, it is evident that commercialization increases sports performance because many players want their performance to be high so that they can land deals that will help them to earn huge sums of money.
Religion and Culture
Religion and culture is the fourth issue that can affect the performance of sports. The world is diverse, and as a result, it has many people who belong to different religion and culture. Each of these religion and culture have a set of ways that the people associated with it are expected to live. These issue of culture and religion has become a factor of concern in sports. There are religion and culture which do not advocate their followers to play football because they believe that it is associated with some issues that are against their values. For example, there are some religions which believe that playing football is related to the spirit of hatred which brings about enmity (Watson & Parker, 2012). As a result of this issue, people who belong to this religion will not consider playing football. In the event some of them manage to play, they might be victimized by other individuals who belong to that religion. This issue might affect the self-esteem of a person. This person will then have low confidence and will exhibit poor performance while on the pitch. Also, some cultures have wrong views on football. In most cultures, many of them believe that it is men who are associated with football. As a result of this issue, men who belong to this culture will be the only ones participating in football. Females from this culture will not be allowed to play football (Parker & Watson, 2014). However, few females might manage to play. These individuals might be mocked by their fellow members who belong to the same culture. This issue makes these females not to have high self-esteem on the pitch which makes them perform badly. Therefore, it evident that the restrictions in religion and culture can cause players to perform poorly.
Conclusion
Concluding, it is true that football is one of the major sports that is being practiced in England, but various issues can affect the performance of the players. This sport has attracted a lot of people from different walks of life who play for leisure, passion or to keep it. Many issues were discovered to affect the performance of the players in this sport. This paper identified that education and sports in schools was one of the issues that can affect the performance of this sport. Students in schools have to be taken through practical training to develop the skills that they can employ while playing football. These practical skills will increase their sports performance when they start playing at a higher level. Another issue that can influence the performance of sports is racism where there are individuals who are discriminated based on their color. Racism affects people as their morale is lowered down as well as their confidence and they will not perform well when they are playing football. Commercialization is the other issue that the paper identified to have a certain influence on football performance. Commercialization has been identified as a means whereby individuals earn money from playing football either through salaries or promotional activities. This issue motivates the players to play well which in turn increases their performance on the sport. The last issue that was identified to affect sports performance religion and culture. There are different religion and cultures which have been identified, and they have rules that have to be bided by its people. Some of these rules restrict people from engaging in football. These restrictions will make the individuals from this religion and are playing football to show poor performance because they are being despised by their colleagues from the religion or culture that they belong to together. Therefore, it is recommended that proper approaches should be taken to deal with these issues that may affect sports performance among different individuals.
References
Williams, J. (2017). ‘Rangers is a black club’: ‘Race,’ identity and local football in England. In Games without Frontiers (pp. 153-183). New York: Routledge.
Hills, A. P., Dengel, D. R., & Lubans, D. R. (2015). Supporting public health priorities: recommendations for physical education and physical activity promotion in schools. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 57(4), 368-374. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003306201400142X
Cleland, J., & Cashmore, E. (2016). Football fans’ views of racism in British football. International Review for Sociology of Sport, 51(1), 27-43. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1012690213506585
Houlihan, B., & Malcolm, D. (Eds.). (2015). Sport and society: a student introduction. 2(1), 41-46. New York: Sage.
Watson, N. J., & Parker, A. (Eds.). (2012). Sports and Christianity: Historical and contemporary perspectives. London: Routledge.
Parker, A., & Watson, N. J. (2014). Sport and religion: culture, history, and ideology. Movement & Sport Sciences-Science & Motricité, (86), 71-79. Retrieved from: https://www.movsportsciences.org/articles/sm/abs/2014/04/sm130063/sm130063.html