Vocabulary:
šachy chess tenis tennis
volejbal volleyball hokej ice hockey
basket basketball golf golf
běhání jogging bojové sporty martial arts
lyžování skiing bruslení skating
in-line bruslení in-line skating
míč ball trampolína trampoline
tělocvična gymnasium
Sports and games
Sports are very good for active relaxation and are important for our physical and mental health. There are lots of types of sports and games. We can practise out- door or indoor sports, do sports in water or anywhere we want.
Outdoor sports and games are as follows: golf, skiing (cross - country, down - hill, slalom, ski - jump), skating, tobogganing, bobsledding, marathon - running, jogging, fishing, climbing, hiking or tourism, mountaineering, rallies, polo, cycling, in-line skating, hunting, archery, motor racing, jogging, horse riding and horse - racing.
Indoors sports and games include: table tennis, gymnastics, chess, bowling, badminton, billiard, boxing, wrestling, weight lifting, fencing and judo. Ball games, athletics, tennis, shooting, skateboarding, skating (figure skating, ice hockey, curling may be practised both outdoor and indoor).
There are also aquatic (water) sports: water skiing, swimming (we can swim free style (the crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly), diving, water polo, yachting, canoeing, rowing, and windsurfing. Ball games are popular all around the world - basketball, volleyball, association football (called soccer in America), American football, rugby football, hockey, squash, baseball, softball, netball, tennis, and handball.
There are many kinds of athletics: high, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, throwing the hammer (hammer throw), putting the weight, javelin throw, discus throw, walking races, running, sprinting, medium and long distance running, marathon running hurdle races.
Many sports have their origins in Britain that is why Britain is sometimes called the cradle of sports. Two types of rugby, modern game of hockey, cricket, darts, tennis and boxing were invented in Britain. Golf has its origins in Scotland. Very popular sports are: cricket, football, golf, cricket has never been adopted in foreign countries. It
is intensively played only in the United Kingdom, Australia and some other Commonwealth countries. The major sports events in Britain are Wimbledon (the Grand Slam Tennis Tournament), the British Open Golf Championship, The Grand National in Liverpool (it is the best known horse-race steeplechase).
Typical American sports and games are : baseball, American football, netball (it s an outdoor version of basketball), lacrosse. Baseball is the most popular professional game in the USA. Baseball has probably originated from the English cricket before the middle of the 19th century. Lacrosse is derived from an American Indian game and there are many variants in the rules. Every year there are a lot of sports events. The most important of them are summer and winter Olympic games. It is the first sport festival, which took a place in Greece on 776 B.C. The Olympics were held every four years in Olympia. During them no war was to be led. And now they are also held every four years, but their summer and winter parts are changed once every two years.
A good sportsman must be healthy (though there are also sports events for the handicapped), and non-smoker. He should do
everything to excel in his sport, listen to his coach and devote most of his/her
leisure time to it. He/she must train very hard and should have a fair character.
Lots of people take part in sports activities, millions of them like to attend matches, watch television or listen to them on the radio.
If somebody wants to be fit, it s good do some kind of sport, e.g. swimming, cycling, jogging, walking at every available opportunity, etc. It is very important to exercise regularly, at least three times a week.
Sport is a physical activity and it is one of the most popular leisure time activity. This is mainly due to the fact that they help you to keep fit both physically and mentally. Such a form of relaxation as sports is refreshing, it can help take off some weight, and improve your skills and strength. Last but not least, during sports events one can meet a lot of new people and see how it feels to be a winner or a loser.
The most popular sports are football (in Europe, and Brazil), basketball (especially in USA), rugby (in England, and in USA like American football), hockey (everywhere). One of the most popular sports is also athletics. Athletics include for example 100-metre run, 10,000 metre walk, 110 metre hurdles, 3000 steeple chase, 400 metre relay, marathon, high/long/triple/pole vault jump, discus/hammer/javelin throw, shot put, decathlon etc.
The greatest celebrations of sport are the Olympic games. The Olympics were already held in ancient Greece. At the time they put emphasis on the ideal of an all-round developed person. Pierre de Coubertin renewed the Olympics about a hundred years ago and today as well as in ancient times they take place every four years. Since 1924 there are two parts to the games - the winter part and the summer part, which alternate every two years.
A special kind of sport is ballroom dancing. Many people think that dance is only a free-time activity, and that dance is very simple but it isn't so. Dance is very nice but also very demanding, expensive and time-consuming activity. Dance is demanding because you must bust be perfect, when you want be successful on competition; expensive because the fee is high (include the salary for lector and letting of the hall or gymnasium), you must participate on the concentrations, you must have special dance shoes and when you participate on the competition, you must have special dance cloths - different for Standard dances and Latin dances, for example, clothes for standard daces costs at least about 10 000 Crowns, and you must have every year new; and time-consuming. Ballroom dancing has two parts: standard-dances which include waltz, Wiener waltz, tango, slow foxtrot and quickstep; and Latin-dances which include cha-cha, rumba, samba, jive and paso doble.
