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Playing sports is one of the favorite activities
of most of us. Apart from being a fun activity,
sports offer several health benefits, thus contributing
to one's physical and mental well-being. Sports
play a vital role in the enhancement of one's
personality by being a source of exercise and
entertainment.
Not sure how many structured
after-school activities kids should participate
in? Too much structured activity is not good
for young children, but a little planning for
playtime does have its place. What better way
to keep your kids out of the house and away
from television and computer games than enrolling
them in sports?
A brief of the most
popular sports played are given below: |
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Tennis is a sport usually played between two players
(singles) or between two teams of two players
each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that
is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered
with felt past a net into the opponent's court.
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Table Tennis is a sport in which two or four players hit a
lightweight, hollow ball back and forth with rackets.
The game takes place on a hard table divided by
a net. Except for the initial serve, players must
allow a ball played toward them only one bounce
on their side of the table and must return it
so that it bounces on the opposite side. Points
are scored when a player fails to return the ball
within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick
reactions. A skilled player can impart several
varieties of spin to the ball, altering its trajectory
and limiting an opponent's options to great advantage. |
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Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players
try to score points against one another by placing
a ball through a 10 foot (3.048 m) high hoop (the
goal) under organized rules. A regulation NBA
basketball court is 94' long by 50' wide. Basketball
is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports
in the world. Points are scored by throwing (shooting)
the ball through the basket from above. The team
with more points at the end of the game wins,
but additional time (overtime) may be issued when
the scores of both teams are the same. The ball
can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling)
or passing it between teammates. |
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Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing
players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles),
who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular
court that is divided by a net. Players score
points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet
so that it passes over the net and lands in their
opponents' half of the court. A rally ends once
the shuttlecock has struck the ground, and each
side may only strike the shuttlecock once before
it passes over the net.
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The aquatic sport
of Swimming is based on the human
act ofswimming, that is, locomotion in water by
self propulsion, usually with the goal to complete
a given distance in the smallest time. There are
also swimming competitions based on endurance
or precedence rather than speed, such as crossing
the English Channel or some other stretch of open
water. As a sport, swimming is usually distinguished
from other aquatic sports (such as diving, synchronized
swimming and water polo) that involve the act
of swimming but where the goal is neither speed
nor endurance.
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Association
football, more commonly known as Football or soccer, is a team sport played between
two teams of eleven players using a spherical
ball. The game is played on a rectangular grass
or artificial turf field, with a goal in the centre
of each of the short ends. The object of the game
is to score by driving the ball into the opposing
goal. In general play, the goalkeepers are the
only players allowed to use their hands or arms
to propel the ball; the rest of the team usually
use their feet to kick the ball into position,
occasionally using their torso or head to intercept
a ball in midair. The team that scores the most
goals by the end of the match wins. |
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Chess is a board game played between two players. It
is played on a chessboard, which is a square-checkered
board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight
grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen
pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights,
two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the
game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby
the king is under immediate attack (in "check")
and there is no way to remove or defend it from
attack on the next move.
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The Marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official
distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385
yards), that is usually run as a road race. |
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