What Makes Soccer So Special - Essay Example

Dr. Stanley ENG 101 Paper’s Soccer It is not a secret that soccer has become the most popular sport on the planet. We are free to say without any hesitation that soccer is a world’s game. With all the entourage and the game itself millions of people around the globe are passionate fans dedicating their lives to soccer and becoming part of its culture. But what exactly makes soccer so special? What is the key to its huge popularity? First of all we have to analyze what kind of people are soccer players and fans. To do so let’s put it backwards and find out what haters think about the game. Some say it’s too long and boring. Others say this is just a bunch of running fairies. One way or another you have to be totally involved to watch the game and live with it. It is a matter of fact that at least 80 percent of fans are good players. Many people consider simplicity to be the fundamental of soccer popularity, even if you see the game for the very first time you can figure out this game’s manner. But alongside with its simplicity, soccer is a game of great skill and strategy. If we take a look at the crowd, watching the game at the stadium, we would admit that regardless of the age, race or religion they become equal, wearing their teams replica’s shirts or scarves, chanting and supporting their team. The object of the game of soccer is to move the ball across the field and to drive a ball right into an opposing team’s goal and to score a point as a result. There are eleven players in each team playing on a rectangular field and apparently the team that scores the most points is a winner. It is almost impossible to list every existing aspect of the game and each country where soccer is played. Soccer has its interpretation of game culture, own kinesics as a body language of communication between the team players. As the game of contradictions soccer implies development of skill and endurance. You will hardly ever be able to play the ball and perform difficult techniques without training to do so. There are many characteristics a player should gain in order to succeed. Training of strength and endurance is essential feature. Soccer is a game of confidence, reaction and rhythm, thus developing speed, power and agility is important. You have to be flexible in order to warm up or cool down when the situation requires. Soccer game requires proper equipment to increase player’s effectiveness and safety. Shoes with spikes on the bottom are special feature that increases ability to stay on player’s feet and provide a better traction on grass. Socks are very long and sometimes a player has to buy them on his own but more often most leagues provide them along with a uniform. Shins appear to be one of the most vulnerable parts of the body so shin-guards stand for efficient protection. Soccer ball differs in sizes, each league uses particular one. No matter whether your league provides a team with a ball or not it is essential for a player to have one of his own in order to train individually. Mass media gives a chance to watch the game and to trace the life of the team and each player in particular and more and more successful soccer players become huge stars. Due to this fact kids get involved in a game at a very early age. Children soccer has a lot of benefits as it is a golden chance to develop agility skills and stamina, regular training will help a child to keep fit and healthy. As a psychological aspect the ability to work in team and interplay will play a great role in developing child’s personality and self-confidence and in order to win a match little players must learn to work together. Apart from that children stop acting egocentrically and start seeing the advantages of being socially dependent. The game helps a child to overcome some circumstances that seem to appear beyond his control such as evolution and sensory development. The health benefits also include strong bones and muscles alongside with coordination. Regular exercises reduce the risks of cardiac diseases and help a child to become more organized. Talking about thoughts of a young player we have to say that less pressure is involved in a game compared to other team spots such as baseball for example. A child is sure to understand that he would rather make everything possible to cooperate with others than perform separately in order to gain recognition and fame. This allows a kid to identify himself personally with the success of the whole team. Soccer appears to be more than just a game of fun and popular sport. It plays a great role in worldwide development by global education funding. The uniqueness of soccer is in that it erases ethnic, racial, geographical and other boundaries and gets people all over the world united, it teaches both young people and adults to rely on each other, to be able to work hard and be dedicated. As for the social role of soccer it helps to keep children off the street life, drugs and violence. At the end of the nineteenth-century Friedrich Nietzsche was worried about the fact that ethics had become a boundary which dragged people back in development rather helped them to evolve. He believed that a person should thirst for excellence through developing skills, courage, and creativity. It is my strong belief that Nietzsche’s guidance can be well-suited in sports and soccer in particular as the final aim of the game isn’t just winning, it is pursuit of excellence. Soccer is ubiquitous. It is played in any conditions whether it is a stadium or dirt and prisons. Despite the fact that soccer is considered to be spread worldwide it doesn’t seem to be rooted much in the United States culture in comparison with other sports like baseball or football. One of the causes is that Americans have well-developed fixation with sports that are traditional such as football or baseball and they have become a significant social feature and have integrated into social life and culture a lot. American’s vision of beauty depends greatly and is associated with goals and scored points, that is why the opinion that soccer is boring is common as the appreciation of beauty is missed. As for the soccer the real beauty of the game and movements can be seen exactly between the goals. What is paradoxical is that soccer involves participation of youth and many soccer players could take part in fashion shows thus making missing of beauty appreciation a bit strange. Americans’ immutable values can be described in two characteristics: to win and the more the better. Due to this some sports not implying high scores are not popular in United States. The interests and likes of the Americans depend on what mass media presents and offers. There is not much television and media coverage on soccer. One of the main cause of soccer being not so popular in United States and sports fans are uninterested is the lack of ‘star players’ to concentrate on. The media network has its idols, but its principal idol is its own style which generates an aura of winning and leaves the rest in darkness. It recognizes neither pity nor pitilessness (Berger 127). But things seem to be changing. Recently culture of soccer has been winning more and more American hearts. Although great amount of people play soccer throughout the country, the participation and fandom had been disconnected to a certain extent. The Guardian admitted that soccer is making a giant leap from participation sport to television spectacle (Gibson 16). Soccer is becoming more and more popular among women. The way women looks when she is playing is nothing like the one of men we are so used to. Years of restrictions on women’s sport participation, they have distanced females from male athletes and sport seemed to be unnatural arena. With full access to information and rising of self-consciousness women want to play soccer and they can do that with all inherent grace and beauty. Apart from that female players might enjoy soccer just because they know men are looking at them and women surely like they look. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually (Berger 40). Works Cited Moyse, Simon. 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