SPORT AND GAMES. KEEPING FIT.

• Sports are one of the most popular leisure time activities
• This mainly due to the fact that they help one to keep fit both physically and mentally.
• Sports are refreshing, can help take off some weight and makes use of ones skills and strengths
• During sports events we can meet a lot of new people and see how it feels to be a winner or a loser
• We can divide sports according to where they are practised
• Indoor sports include for example gymnastics, table tennis, boxing, wrestling etc.
• On the other hand, outdoor sports include skiing (down-hill, cross-country, slalom and ski jump), sledging, hiking, rock climbing, horse riding, golf and some aquatic sports such as rowing or windsurfing
• Non-professional cycling, or riding a bike, which is one of the most popular activities, is also enjoyed out of doors
• But most sports and almost all games can be done both indoors and outdoors
• The other division of sports and games depends on when we can do it
• Here we recognize winter sport which can be done only on snow or ice – skiing, skiing, skating and sledging
• The remaining sports and games we call summer or all-season activities
• You can practise sports and games while on vacation
• In winter you can go with your friends to the mountains to go skiing or snowboarding
• In the Czech Republic there is a problem with good ski-centres
• Our mountains aren’t large enough for it
• Good skiers would have better luck going abroad – to France or to Italy – There are big ski-centres where you can spend the whole week without being bored of one downhill course
• On the other side, the Czech mountains are very good for cross-country skiing
• There are more possibilities for sports during summer vacations
• You can ride a bike or mountain bike – in the Czech republic there are many cycle ways of various difficulty
• Or you can go canoeing on rivers, yachting or windsurfing on lakes
• In the Czech Republic there is great terrain for hiking
• In the Czech Republic we also practise sports at school
• We usually have two sport lessons a week
• At first we change our clothes in a dressing room – The best clothes for sports are a T-shirt, shorts or training suit and trainers
• Then we always do a small warm-up exercise
• What is done in the lesson depends on the weather and the teacher
• When the weather is good, we go outside to play games like football or volleyball. Sometimes we train for athletic events – running, jumping, throwing
• When it is raining or in winter we go to gym and we do gymnastics
• The most popular sports in the Czech Republic are football and ice-hockey
• In Great Britain, rowing, cricket and polo are typical
• In the USA there are four famous sports: American football, baseball, basketball and ice-hockey
• These games are turned into big shows in which the sports stars make a lot of money
• My favourite game is football – But I mean European football, which in the USA is known as soccer
• This game needs a good strategy and skilled players – They have to be able to run fast, kick the ball exactly and cooperate with others

THE OLYMPIC GAMES:

• The first Olympic Games took place in Olympia, Greece in the year 776 B.C.
• The winners were respected throughout the western world
• The father of the modern Olympic Games is Pierre Coubertin
• The first modern Olympic Games took place in Olympia in 1896