Landscapes For Sport

Landscapes for Sport explores the intersection of place, body cultures, and politics. With a focus on outdoor spaces designed and used for exercise and sports since the early modern period, this volume uncovers the relevance and meanings of the overlooked landscapes that often constitute significant areas of open space in and outside our cities.

Nature and culture are embodied in the landscapes of modern sport. This is the first book to explore the distinctive character of those landscapes. Not only does sport play a central role as a modern cultural phenomenon, the landscapes in which sport takes place have a distinctive and pervasive form which impact considerably on quality of life, in both positive and negative ways.

In recent years, there has been an increased engagement throughout the social sciences with the study of extreme places and practices. Dangerous games and adventure tours have shifted from being marginal, exotic or mad to being more than merely acceptable. They are now exemplary, mainstream even: there are a variety of new types, increasing numbers of people are doing them and they are being appropriated and have infiltrated more and more contexts. This book argues that hazardous sports and adventure tourism have become rather paradoxical. As a set of activities where players and holidaymakers are closer to death or danger than they would otherwise be, they are the complete opposite of normal games or vacations. Adventure sports and tours reverse the general definition of a holiday as being an escape from the seriousness of everyday life, as in most cases, they are innately serious, requiring as they do 'life or death' decision-making. Beginning with the rise in colonial explorations and moving on to consider the Dangerous Sports Club of Oxford, this book examines the increasing phenomena of adventure sports such as bungy jumping, cliff jumping or 'tomb-stoning', surfing and parkour within a framework of positive risk. It explores how certain assumptions about knowledge, agency, the body and nature are beginning to coalesce around newly developing spheres of social relations. Additionally, extreme games have become activities that are germane to the dawning of green social thought and so the book also addresses issues that deal with the intimate connections that exist between pleasure and the moral responsibility towards the environment.

In recent years, there has been an increased engagement throughout the social sciences with the study of extreme places and practices. Dangerous games and adventure tours have shifted from being marginal, exotic or mad to being more than merely acceptable. They are now exemplary, mainstream even: there are a variety of new types, increasing numbers of people are doing them and they are being appropriated and have infiltrated more and more contexts. This book argues that hazardous sports and adventure tourism have become rather paradoxical. As a set of activities where players and holidaymakers are closer to death or danger than they would otherwise be, they are the complete opposite of normal games or vacations. Adventure sports and tours reverse the general definition of a holiday as being an escape from the seriousness of everyday life, as in most cases, they are innately serious, requiring as they do 'life or death' decision-making. Beginning with the rise in colonial explorations and moving on to consider the Dangerous Sports Club of Oxford, this book examines the increasing phenomena of adventure sports such as bungy jumping, cliff jumping or 'tomb-stoning', surfing and parkour within a framework of positive risk. It explores how certain assumptions about knowledge, agency, the body and nature are beginning to coalesce around newly developing spheres of social relations. Additionally, extreme games have become activities that are germane to the dawning of green social thought and so the book also addresses issues that deal with the intimate connections that exist between pleasure and the moral responsibility towards the environment.

In this fully revised and updated edition of his classic, discipline-defining text, John Bale comprehensively explores the relationships between sport, place, location and landscape.

"Some artists use canvas to create a work of art. David Mellor uses a baseball field. His patterns are so precise and imaginative, I call him the Rembrandt of groundskeeping."--Bob Uecker, Milwaukee Brewers Broadcaster. Now you can transform your sports field or clubhouse lawn into an envy-grabbing work of optic art. In this book, David Mellor, currently the director of grounds for the Boston Red Sox Baseball Club, shares the turf mowing and maintenance secrets that have made him one of the leading creators of elaborate patterns used on athletic turf nationwide. He gives you the benefit of his years of experience along with simple-to-use techniques for creating playing fields that are a cut above the rest.--From publisher description.

Landscape science tells fascinating stories, whether in fiction or a role-playing game. Earth's varied terrain provides many examples of scene-specific challenges and resources for story characters, with distinctive land features, compelling locations, and intriguing traits. Landslides, floods, coastal erosion, glacier movement, and volcanism can deliver fresh plot points and alter the social character of an imagined region. Characters traveling different river types encounter very different puzzles, opportunities, and combat environments and the same variety awaits within other classic settings, such as caves, mountains, deserts, shorelines, and volcanic zones. Atypical landscapes such as tundra, karst, and vast glacier surfaces can breathe fresh air into any stories. This handbook is a reference source for creative writing and game world building. It delves deeply into many landscape characteristics that help set the tone, shape character behavior, and drive the plot. Chapters are divided into diverse geographic environments, from rivers and shorelines to caves and volcanoes, and show how knowledge of the terrain can deliver plot points, add veracity, pose key problems, establish conflict, and lead into the next scene. Discover how authors and game masters effectively weave land and terrain into their stories.

An accessible and fully cross-referenced A-Z guide, this book has been written specifically for students of sport studies and physical education, introducing basic terms and concepts. Entries cover such diverse subjects as coaching, drug testing, hooliganism, cultural imperialism, economics, gay games, amateurism, extreme sports, exercise physiology and Olympism. This revised second edition, including fully updated further reading and web references, places a greater emphasis on sports science, with new entries on subjects such as: aerobic and anaerobic respiration blood pressure body composition cardiac output metabolism physical capacity. A complete guide to the disciplines, themes, topics and concerns current in contemporary sport, this book is an invaluable resource for students at every level studying Sport and Physical Education.