Sports and physical education: what is more useful for the people?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On physical education and sports: they are not the same thing, they have different effects on people, on the life of society and its prospects.

“Happy is he who does not know boredom, who is completely unfamiliar with wine, cards, tobacco, all sorts of corrupting entertainment and SPORT” - PF Lesgaft - the one after whom the National State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Health is named.

Let's start with the fact that in 1979, at the graduation course of the university, before going to military training, before receiving officer ranks through the military department, we passed a medical examination. Several people could not pass a medical examination and receive permission to pass military training camps, and in the group not admitted by doctors, members of the institute's national teams in various sports stood out most clearly.

Then I came across a publication in the media that the average life expectancy of outstanding athletes is 10 or more years less than the average life expectancy of fans, and this despite the fact that a fair share of fans lead an unhealthy lifestyle, preferring a “sports bar” to a gym. pool, walks in nature.

Sport of high achievements these days is: we take a young child, whom the parents are not sorry for, and starting from the age of 5 - 6 we "train" him, loading him with 6 or more hours of daily workouts throughout childhood and adolescence, leaving no time for anything else that is necessary in order for a human cub to grow up as a real Human. Those who have not broken down or whose parents have not grown wiser becomes a champion by the age of 15 - 22 (depending on the type of sport); by the age of 25 - 35 (depending on the type of sport), a sports career ends, after which a person is invited to live according to his ability, for which in most cases he is not ready: there is no professional knowledge, and the intellect and outlook are not developed enough to enter in any profession not related to sports.

In addition, the body is worn out even if there were no injuries in a sports career that left behind any serious consequences. If "biochemistry" is added to training, then by the age of 35, medical problems caused by "biochemistry" are added to the deterioration of the body. The question of how sports "biochemistry" affects the psyche is rarely of interest, although there are publications whose authors argue that drugs in "sports biochemistry" can cause unmotivated aggressiveness and antisocial behavior.

The transition from the lifestyle of an athlete of high achievements to the lifestyle of an ordinary person is not always possible due to the irreversibility of structural changes in the body and the impossibility of restructuring physiology in adulthood.

All this together leads to the fact that if we evaluate the health statistics of representatives of high-performance sports, then professional high-performance sports can be described in words - the industry of production of disabled people, even if we exclude from consideration those who became disabled as a result of severe injuries in training or competitions.

But the sport of high achievements is not only a perverted meaning of life imposed on athletes by the culture of society, parents and coaches, but also a social phenomenon that affects in one way or another all members of society. In this social phenomenon, the so-called "honor of the country" is brought to the public:

• our athlete on the podium, the national flag under the ceiling of the gym or on the flagpole of the stadium, the national anthem is played - fans are in tears of delight;

• fans of losers - in tears of the experience of defeat;

• ambulances rush to those who could not painlessly endure delight or disappointment.

But questions arise: has the victorious country started to live better, has the losing country started to live worse?

The answer to both of these questions is negative: the emotions associated with a sporting event are significant for the psyche of the overwhelming majority of fans for no more than two weeks from the moment of the event. But neither the economy, nor science, nor the education and health care systems in any of the countries are getting any better or worse as a result of the victory of athletes, as well as defeat in sports.

But the schedule of competitions covers the whole year, and, accordingly, the presence of professional sports of high achievements should be considered as a constantly acting social factor that has a constant impact on the life of society. And this impact is multifaceted:

Financial and economic aspect - big sport, having become a kind of show business, pays off. But this does not mean that it is useful for the development of the economy, since the sale of drugs (including tobacco and alcohol) and the porn business also pays off - and with much less investment than is the case in sports. The sources of self-sufficiency in a number of cases are not even income from the sale of tickets to sporting events to spectators, but the money of sponsor advertisers who invest in advertising the products of their companies among fans of the corresponding sport, suggesting that they compensate for the costs of sports that will never pay off directly - indirectly: by increasing the sales of its products among spectators and, in particular, viewers of sporting events. But sports can also directly damage society. An example of this is the "football war" between El Salvador and Honduras from 06/14 to 1969-20-06, the reason for which was the defeat of the Honduran national team of the El Salvador national team at the qualifying stage of the World Cup, which claimed several thousand lives; and the rampage of fans that has become commonplace. Accordingly, there is no need to talk about the benefits of investment in professional sports for solving the problems of society: all these "investments" could bring real benefits to society if they were directly invested in solving socially significant problems.

The political aspect - it is simple: the more the population is "fanatical" about this or that sport, the more time and resources of their psyche are chained to sports and the less interest people have in politics, in how the political "elite" pushes their lives around and the life of their loved ones, and to the real problems that threaten the life of society, and accordingly - the easier it is to create a policy uncontrollably in relation to society.

Moral and ethical is the question of the relationship in the life of society: 1) the contribution of each of the people to the creation of certain real (and not illusory) goods (both material and spiritual) and 2) the share of natural goods and social product that he consumes in the aggregate consumption of society. In moral and ethical issues, sport has a corrupting effect on society and, above all, on the younger generations.

 Firstly, the athletes themselves are characterized by statements such as “a person wants to play football, but he is forced to sharpen the nuts,” which express a desire to play sports for pleasure for the sake of illusory “honor of the country” or stupid self-satisfaction and at the same time live on everything ready, created by others. Those. in the aspect of creating really useful benefits, athletes of high achievements are in the last ranks (if they participate at all in this), and in the aspect of consumption and burning of life - in the forefront of the so-called "middle class". And not all of them give their debts to society, at least by becoming coaches and introducing high achievements of children to physical culture, and not to sports, not to mention showing themselves for the good of society in any other professions and fields of activity., not in sports (see photo below).

 Secondly, sport has a corrupting effect on the younger generations in the sense that it sows in their psyche the illusion of a luxurious life of professional athletes, which can be achieved much easier and easier than mastering knowledge in the process of study and personal orientation towards creative activity in the real sector of the economy. Many children, whose parents dream of championship titles for their children, no longer think about another life and consider themselves special, "elite", and thus ruin their lives.

 Thirdly, to realize their creative potential so that professional athletes live luxuriously on everything ready, like other parasitic social groups that make money, but do not do business, there is no point for workers: and this is not “social envy” of more successful, as they are trying to present money-makers, and the refusal to support the subcultures of parasitism, as well as statehood, which cultivates parasitism in society as a system-forming factor.

In addition, if we touch upon the management aspect, then:

• in Soviet times, the best honored athletes of that era, sports veterans, who worked not so much for the Olympic result as for the involvement of teenagers in the section of adolescents, came to sports committees and federations of various sports (as far as the country's economy and the State Planning Commission allowed);

• then in the post-Soviet times, either officials from sports, or generally random people (massage therapists, businessmen who are addicted to sports, etc.) come to the leadership of sports committees and federations. They come not to work for the massive involvement of children in the sections, not to work for the Olympic result, but in order to "saw" the budget and sponsors' grants. There are many options for "sawing", and one can only be surprised at the fancy of officials from sports.

Those. the facts of life oblige to conclude:

Professional sports of high achievements is a real threat to the future of society and the state.

Pyotr Frantsevich Lesgaft (1837 - 1909), whose name is essentially the university of sports, and not physical culture, in the 19th - early 20th century saw the difference between mass physical culture and sports both in the impact on the younger generations and in the impact on the life of society:

• on the one hand, he saw the usefulness of mass physical education of children (physical education), which is indispensable for the formation of a healthy organism and the formation of the personality psyche: only a fully developed organism can be a carrier of a full-fledged one in the aspect of morality and the realization of the creative potential of the personal psyche.

• on the other hand, he saw the harmfulness of sport both in relation to the athletes involved in it, and in relation to society.

And in his assessments, PF Lesgaft was essentially right, no matter what the adherents of "the honor of the country" say in high-performance sports.