SHULAMITE SPORT WEEK PREPARATION

The sport week is an annually held event in the 10th week first term of every academic session. The sport is usually organised and coordinated by the sport master in the person of Mr. Oladipo Kunle.
Various sport & game are held as different class compete with each other. Below are lists of games and sports held in the sport week.

FOOTBALL

Football, also called association football or soccer, game in which two teams of 11 players, using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to maneuver the ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is permitted to handle the ball and may do so only within the penalty area surrounding the goal. The team that scores more goals wins.

Football is the world’s most popular ball game in numbers of participants and spectators. Simple in its principal rules and essential equipment, the sport can be played almost anywhere, from official football playing fields (pitches) to gymnasiums, streets, school playgrounds, parks, or beaches. Football’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), estimated that at the turn of the 21st century there were approximately 250 million football players and over 1.3 billion people “interested” in football; in 2010 a combined television audience of more than 26 billion watched football’s premier tournament, the quadrennial month-long World Cup finals.

HANDBALL

One of the oldest of ball games, handball has been traced back to the baths of Rome. Played later as a bare-handed game called pelota in Spain and France, it was the forerunner of modern jai alai. Handball was adapted in the British Isles during the 16th century and called fives.

The immediate forerunner of the modern game was developed in Ireland, where handball was played about 1,000 years ago. In the 1850s, Irish town and county championships were regularly played, using a hard leather-covered ball on courts that were about 80 feet (24 m) long and 40 feet wide. Irish emigrants took the game to the United States in the 1880s, and Phil Casey built the first American walled court in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1886. Kicking was permitted, and some players developed unusual skill in returning low balls with their feet.

The first international match was played in 1887 between the Irish champion, John Lawlor, and the American champion, Casey. Begun in Ireland on August 4, the match ended on Casey’s American court on November 29. Casey won, 11 games to 6, and then retained his title against all challengers until his retirement in 1900.

BASKETBALL

Basketball, game played between two teams of five players each on a rectangular court, usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the ball through the opponent’s goal, an elevated horizontal hoop and net called a basket.

The only major sport strictly of U.S. origin, basketball was invented by James Naismith (1861–1939) on or about December 1, 1891, at the International Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Training School (now Springfield College), Springfield, Massachusetts, where Naismith was an instructor in physical education.

For that first game of basketball in 1891, Naismith used as goals two half-bushel peach baskets, which gave the sport its name. The students were enthusiastic. After much running and shooting, William R. Chase made a midcourt shot—the only score in that historic contest. Word spread about the newly invented game, and numerous associations wrote Naismith for a copy of the rules, which were published in the January 15, 1892, issue of the Triangle, the YMCA Training School’s campus paper.

James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment.

James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment.

UPI/Bettmann Archive

While basketball is competitively a winter sport, it is played on a 12-month basis—on summer playgrounds, in municipal, industrial, and church halls, in school yards and family driveways, and in summer camps—often on an informal basis between two or more contestants. Many grammar schools, youth groups, municipal recreation centres, churches, and other organizations conduct basketball programs for youngsters of less than high school age. Jay Archer, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, introduced “biddy” basketball in 1950 for boys and girls under 12 years of age, the court and equipment being adjusted for size.

VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball, game played by two teams, usually of six players on a side, in which the players use their hands to bat a ball back and forth over a high net, trying to make the ball touch the court within the opponents’ playing area before it can be returned. To prevent this a player on the opposing team bats the ball up and toward a teammate before it touches the court surface—that teammate may then volley it back across the net or bat it to a third teammate who volleys it across the net. A team is allowed only three touches of the ball before it must be returned over the net.

BADMINTON

Badminton, court or lawn game played with lightweight rackets and a shuttlecock. Historically, the shuttlecock (also known as a “bird” or “birdie”) was a small cork hemisphere with 16 goose feathers attached and weighing about 0.17 ounce (5 grams). These types of shuttles may still be used in modern play, but shuttles made from synthetic materials are also allowed by the Badminton World Federation. The game is named for Badminton, the country estate of the dukes of Beaufort in Gloucestershire, England, where it was first played about 1873. The roots of the sport can be traced to ancient Greece, China, and India, and it is closely related to the old children’s game battledore and shuttlecock. Badminton is derived directly from poona, which was played by British army officers stationed in India in the 1860s. The first unofficial all-England badminton championships for men were held in 1899, and the first badminton tournament for women was arranged the next year.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF; originally the International Badminton Federation), the world governing body of the sport, was formed in 1934. Badminton is also popular in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Denmark. The BWF’s first world championships were held in 1977. A number of regional, national, and zonal badminton tournaments are held in several countries. The best-known of these is the All-England Championships. Other well-known international tournaments include the Thomas Cup (donated 1939) for men’s team competition and the Uber Cup (donated 1956) for women’s team competition.

Badminton first appeared in the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport in 1972 and as an exhibition sport in 1988. At the 1992 Games it became a full-medal Olympic sport, with competition for men’s and women’s singles (one against one) and doubles (two against two). Mixed doubles was introduced at the 1996 Games.

Competitive badminton is usually played indoors because even light winds affect the course of the shuttlecock. (Recreational badminton, on the other hand, is a popular outdoor summertime activity.) The rectangular court is 44 feet (13.4 metres) long and 17 feet (5.2 metres) wide for singles, 20 feet (6.1 metres) wide for doubles. A net 5 feet (1.5 metres) high stretches across the width of the court at its centre. A clear space of 4 feet (1.3 metres) around the court is needed. Play consists entirely of volleying—hitting the shuttlecock back and forth across the net without letting it touch the floor or ground within the boundaries of the court.

JUMPS

Long jump, also called broad jump, sport in athletics (track-and-field) consisting of a horizontal jump for distance. It was formerly performed from both standing and running starts, as separate events, but the standing long jump is no longer included in major competitions. It was discontinued from the Olympic Games after 1912. The running long jump was an event in the Olympic Games of 708 BCE and in the modern Games from 1896.

The standard venue for the long jump includes a runway at least 40 metres (131 feet) in length with no outer limit, a takeoff board planted level with the surface at least 1 metre (3.3 feet) from the end of the runway, and a sand-filled landing area at least 2.75 metres (9 feet) and no more than 3 metres (9.8 feet) wide.

The jumper usually begins his approach run about 30 metres (100 feet) from the takeoff board and accelerates to reach maximum speed at takeoff while gauging his stride to arrive with one foot on and as near as possible to the edge of the board. If a contestant steps beyond the edge (scratch line), his jump is disallowed; if he leaps from too far behind the line, he loses valuable distance.

The most commonly used techniques in flight are the tuck, in which the knees are brought up toward the chest, and the hitch kick, which is in effect a continuation of the run in the air. The legs are brought together for landing, and, since the length of the jump is measured from the edge of the takeoff board to the nearest mark in the landing area surface made by any part of the body, the jumper attempts to fall forward.

High jump, sport in athletics (track and field) in which the athlete takes a running jump to attain height. The sport’s venue (see illustration) includes a level, semicircular runway allowing an approach run of at least 15 metres (49.21 feet) from any angle within its 180° arc. Two rigid vertical uprights support a light horizontal crossbar in such a manner that it will fall if touched by a contestant trying to jump over it. The jumper lands in a pit beyond the bar that is at least 5 by 3 metres (16.4 feet by 9.8 feet) in size and filled with cushioning material. The standing high jump was last an event in the 1912 Olympics. The running high jump, an Olympic event for men since 1896, was included in the first women’s Olympic athletics program in 1928.

The only formal requirement of the high jumper is that the takeoff of the jump be from one foot. Many styles have evolved, including the now little-used scissors, or Eastern, method, in which the jumper clears the bar in a nearly upright position; the Western roll and straddle, with the jumper’s body face-down and parallel to the bar at the height of the jump; and a more recent backward-twisting, diving style often termed the Fosbury flop, after its first prominent exponent, the 1968 American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury.

In competition the bar is raised progressively as contestants succeed in clearing it. Entrants may begin jumping at any height above a required minimum. Knocking the bar off its supports constitutes a failed attempt, and three failures at a given height disqualify the contestant from the competition. Each jumper’s best leap is credited in the final standings. In the case of ties, the winner is the one with the fewest misses at the final height, or in the whole competition, or with the fewest total jumps in the competition.

TABLE TENNIS

Table tennis, also called (trademark) Ping-Pong, ball game similar in principle to lawn tennis and played on a flat table divided into two equal courts by a net fixed across its width at the middle. The object is to hit the ball so that it goes over the net and bounces on the opponent’s half of the table in such a way that the opponent cannot reach it or return it correctly. The lightweight hollow ball is propelled back and forth across the net by small rackets (bats, or paddles) held by the players. The game is popular all over the world. In most countries it is very highly organized as a competitive sport, especially in Europe and Asia, particularly in China and Japan.

GAMES

Games included are scrabble, chess, ludo, and lot more