English and Russian National Sport Games

I’d like to present you my research work ‘National Russian and English sports and games”

I’ve chosen this topic because I’m fond of sport myself and play football for our Lyceum team.

It is known that people choose sport depending on the place they live, climate and sometimes, which is, to my mind, the most correct- to their liking.

Any sport or game has its roots in this or that country, but if people like it, it becomes world wide known and can be included in the programme of the Olympic Games. For example, football, curling and so on.

I’m going to tell you about history, popularity of some of them, their influence on the world sport, amusing things connected with national games and moving quotations and proverbs about sport.

We should understand the difference between the proffesional sport and national popular. The last one is for big groups of people, for popularization not high results and records.

Let’s start with. GORODKI which IS considered to be "RUSSIAN SPORT" in the rest of the world.

Gorodki) is an ancient Russian folk sport whose popularity has spread to Karelia, Finland, Sweden, Ingria, Lithuania, and Estonia. Similar in concept to bowling and also somewhat to horseshoes, the aim of the game is to knock out groups of skittles arranged in various patterns by throwing a bat at them. The skittles, or pins, are called gorodki (literally little cities or townlets), and the square zone in which they are arranged is called the gorod (city).

The game is mentioned in the Old Russian Chronicles and was known in a form that is quite close to the modern one at least from the 17th century, since one of the famous gorodki players was young Peter I of Russia.

The game consists of throwing a bat from a predetermined distance at the gorodki, which are arranged in one of 15 configurations: cannon ( pushka), fork (vilka), star (zvezda), arrow (strela), well (kolodets), crankshaft ( kolenchatyy val), artillery( artilleriya), raquet (raketka), machine gun installation ( pulemyotnoe gnezdo), lobster (rak), watchmen ( chasovye), sickle (serp), shooting gallery ( tir), airplane ( samolet), and letter( pis'mo).

So far, we have tried to play gorodki in summer with boys. The most difficult of course, to learn throwing a bat. correctly. You should train a lot, as its weight is about 2 kg. While playing and training a player throws a bat about a hundred of times. So, your hands should be strong enough.

Although traditionally Gorodki is a folk game, it was played by such Russian historical figures as emperor Peter I, Generalissimus Alexander Suvorov, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin, as well as cultural luminaries like Ivan Pavlov, Leo Tolstoy, Maksim Gorky, Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky, and others.

The game as it existed prior to 1923 had no rules. It was organized into a legitimate sport and its rules codified in 1923, when the first All-Soviet-Union competition was held, and it became an event at the first All-Union Olympiad in 1928.

The game was also shown in an episode of the Soviet animated series Nu, pogodi!, which commemorated the 1980 Olympic Games. ( an episode…)

Russian people can be proud that our Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his compatriots from “The Unified Russia” play gorodki.

This game is popular in Perm and Perm krai on the whole. Annual competitions are held in Perm,Lysva,Osa,Berezniki,Kungur.

A sharp eye,a strong hand and a little passion is neccesary for a GORODKI player. People of Kungur, can be really proud that thanks to a group of people from the Machine Building Plant there are annual GORODKI competitions between plant’s departments and they are incluted in the town’s spartakiada. There are individual and team competitions. Every year among the winners are Evgeniy Dmitrievich Ustyuzhaninov (a nickname «MITRICH») and Yuri Pavlovich Sergeev.

Quite recently, while studying topic “WHY Sport?” we invited E.D. Ustyuzhaninov to our English lesson. Though, he is not young (70 years), his passion for the game hasn’t disapeared yet. As it is not easy for him to play now, he has found another hobby – painting. Pupils were really astonished by his pictures. So was I!!!

AS for me, I have tried to play gorodki in summer with boys. The most difficult of course, to learn throwing a bat correctly. You should train a lot, as its weight is about 2 kg. While playing and training a player throws a bat about a hundred of times. So, your hands should be strong enough.

In summer in many small and big yards, at the outskirts boys enjoy playing “Banki, Palki” , that means in English “ Cans and Sticks.” Have you ever seen it or played?

Many of lyceum students know the rules and played this game.

Another trully Russian is LAPTA.

Lapta is a Russian bat and ball game first known to be played in the 14th century. Mentions of lapta have been found in medieval manuscripts, and balls and bats were found in the 14th-century layers during excavations in Novgorod. It is similar to cricket, brännboll, Rounders, baseball, oină and pesäpallo.

Rules

The game is played outside on a field the size of half an association football pitch 20 x 25 sazhens (about 140 x 175 feet). There are 5 people on the field from the defending team, as well as pitcher/server. This pitcher server stands near the batter of the opposing team and hits a ball in the direction of the batter. The team that bats contains six people. Each hitter gets 2 chances to hit the ball over a 10m line. If they succeed at that, the runners can go to an endline at the other end of the pitch. If a player manages to run between the two endpoints, the get 2 points. Games last an hour, split into two equal halves.

The edges of the field were marked with parallel lines, called salo.

The goal of the game is to hit the ball, served by a player of the opposite team, with the bat and send the ball as far as possible, then run across the field to the kon line, and if possible to run back to the gorod line.

The running player should try to avoid being hit with the ball, which is thrown by the opposing team members. For successful runs, the team earns points. A team wins by either getting more points during the scheduled time or by having all its players complete runs.

A description of lapta is given by Aleksandr Kuprin:

This folk game is one of the most interesting and useful games. Lapta requires resourcefulness, deep breathing, faithfulness to your group, attention, dexterity, fast running, good aiming and marksmanship, strong striking hands, and firm eternal confidence that you cannot be defeated. The lazy and cowardly have no place in this game.

According to Russian magazines Little Light and Izvestia, baseball was developed from lapta by 18th century Russian Americans.

The best lapta player at lyceum is Lashova Anastasiya.

This national game is included in the physical training curriculum for pupils 4 -11 classes. .The best LAPTA players in Kungur are pupils of school # 13.

Lapta is included in many corparative competitions. For example, Sberbank olympic games – SBERBANKIADA which were held in September 2010 in Sochi.

We cann’t but boast that, in 2010 the winners were the bankirs from Perm krai.

On the programme of our autumn Lyceum hiking there were Lapta competitions among girls .

The winners were the girls of 10a, 11g, 9a, 8b, 7a, 7b classes.

“Lapta Russian Federation” was set up on the 3^rd of September 2007. The chairman is …(site Ramenskoe)

Lapta can be played indoors, outdoors, mini-lapta on a beach, on ice, snow, water and grass.

The British are known to be great sports-lovers, so when they are neither playing, nor watching games, they like to talk about them.

Many of the games we play now have come from Britain.

Many of the world's famous sports began in Britain, including cricket, football, lawn tennis, golf and rugby

Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture, and many people make an emotional investment in their favourite spectator sports.

The most popular sport is association football, except in Northern Ireland, where Gaelic games are the most popular sports, and Wales, where rugby union is generally perceived from outside as being the national sport, although there are more registered football clubs than rugby clubs.

 Cricket is popular in England and Wales, but is less popular in the other home nations.

Rugby union and rugby league are the other major team sports, with union generally more popular in the south of England and league traditionally associated with the north.

Major individual sports include athletics, golf, motorsport, and horseracing. 

Tennis is the highest profile sport for the two weeks of the Wimbledon Championships, but otherwise struggles to hold its own in the country of its birth. Many other sports are also played and followed to a lesser degree.

The United Kingdom has given birth to a range of major international sports including:

Associated foofball,

 rugby (union and league), cricket, golf, tennis, badminton, squash,

 rounders, hockey, boxing, snooker, billiards and curling.

One of the most British games is cricket. It is often played in schools, colleges, universities, and by club teams all over the country. Summer isn’t summer without cricket. To many Englishmen cricket is both a game and the way of life.

The game of cricket has given a u

All play and no work makes Jack a mere boy.

And maybe try and try until you succeed.

6) In sports and journers men are known.

English proverb

7) It’s not cricket!

English sayingseful phrase to the English language.If a man says that something is “not cricket”, he means it’s unfair, unsporting and un-English. For example:

“It’s not cricket” to run off with your best friend’s girl. It’s not cricket to kick a man when he is already down.

Today, the expression is used mostly by older generation or jokingly.

With everyone talking about foofball these days, it would be interesting to have a look at the language that football supporters use to discuss their favourite game. Footie fans have their unique slang – a very colouful and ever-changing idiom withits own grammer and vocabulary, its own set of imagery, its own poetry and literature. As a part of my academic research, I have put together some of the words used by supporters in their conversations. Here are a few that I found the most interesting or the most humorous.

Every true football fan should know these!

Footy,Footie – Diminutive of football.

Scabby goal – A lucky goal.

Psycho – Dirty player who plays the game to injure people.

Man between the sticks – Goalkeeper.

Bowls is a very, very old game. There is a famous bowling green in Southampton in England – it is over 700 years old. In the UK, bowls is very popular with old people. They often play it. So, how do they do it?

It’s very easy. There are two teams with one or two people in each team. A player rolls the jack to the other end of the green. Each player rolls their bowl towards the jack. The team with the bowl or bowls closest to the jack is the winner.

(Show an episode from the film “Cucumber sandwiches.”)

Darts is an old game too. It was played by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 when they sailed from England to the New World.

It has become a popular game in many countries including Russia.

It is a standard dartboard with numbers marked on it to indicate score.

Curling is thought to have been invented in medieval Scotland.

A curling match at Eglinton, Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1860. The Curling House is located to the left of the picture.

It is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls.

Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game, points being scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

The game is included in the Winter Olympic Games.

In 2010 in Vanquver the Champions became sportsmen of Canada (men, Gold medals); Sweden (women); Norway and Canada (silver); Switzerland and China (bronze). The teams of Russia and Great Britain were only the 6^th.

Conclusion

At the session of the State Duma in January 2011 – the deputy and 3 times Olympic Champion IRINA RODNINA highly praised the development of popular children’s and youth sport in PERM KRAI. She gave an “excellent ”mark to it and gave a master- class for young figure skaters in Perm on the 14 th of January at the stadium ‘’ORLYONOK” in Perm.

She added that Perm KRAI is the only region in Russia where hundreds of children go in for sport free of charge thanks to “The school sport certificates.”

In our krai are annual competitions in 115 kinds of sport; there are 102 sport federations.

In Perm krai pupils of Orda, Lobanovo, Kultaevo, Krasnokamsk, Il‘ínskiy, Perm, Kudymkar, Alexandrovsk, Kungur’s district have them. The local authorities promise that up to 2015 according to our KRAI PROJECT “The SCHOOL of CHAMPIONS”, which was introduced on the innitiative of our GOVERNER Oleg Chirkunov all pupils will have them.

Taking into consideration all the above mentioned, we can come to the conclusion that sport unites people, gives them a lot of new emotions, mutial respect, makes disciplined, healther. BECAUSE sport is:

S – success (sometimes!)

P – patience

O – optimism

R - respect

T – tolerance

Do you remember the film about elderly women playing bowls? People who care about sport can go in for it at any age.

My project helped me understand that sport is really an e… Take, for example, DARTS. It is an English pub game, which is played everywhere, including our annual lyceum tourist hiking. Or Russian game LAPTA was improved by Russian emigrants in America and became – BASEBALL.

I’ve got a lot of useful information how to play many national games.

So, join me and let’s popularize our national games and sports and be proud that thousands of people remember and play them.

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

Moving quotations and proverbs about sport.

1) A good friend of mine used to say:” This is a very simple game. You throw the ball. You catch the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while”.

Tim Robbins.

2) Do you know what my favourite part of the game is? – The opportunity to play. Let’s do it together.

3) If you don’t feel it, forget it.

Walon Jennings

4) The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

Peggy Flemming

5) All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.