SPORTS IN THE USA
 

 
ESSENTIAL FACTS

    Americans love sports of all kinds. Many people play sports in their free time, and many go to games or watch them on TV. Being healthy and keep oneself in a good shape - fitness - is part of general way of life. Many Americans exercise for good health or undergo some fitness programme (sometimes it is called "fitness craze").
    American sports fans are friendly but very, very noisy. At games they shout and cheer for their favorite team.

    One of the most popular sports is football. About 37 million people watch football each weekend during the fall and winter. Baseball is also very popular. It is played in winter and spring. Basketball started in the U.S.A. in the late nineteenth century. People wanted to play sports in winter, but it was too cold outside. Basketball was a game they could play inside.
At big games in the U.S.A. there is a lot of entertainment before and during the game. There are parades, bands, and cheerleaders. The cheerleaders dress in their team's colors, and they lead the crowd in cheers. You have to be in a good shape to be a cheerleader, and you have to practise for many hours.
    Professional games are fun, but so are the thousands of smaller, local games. Each school or high school has its own teams, and its own cheerleaders. The students and their families and friends come to watch games against teams from other schools nearby. Sometimes these games are just as exciting as the big games.
    Thousands of boys from 8-12 belong to "Little League" teams and play baseball on weekends. Many families and groups of friends get together on weekends too and play softball in parks, often with a picnic or a barbecue. But if you don't belong to a team, there are plenty of other sports you can do, and in the U.S.A. there is plenty of space to do them. You can go to the mountains for skiing or hiking, or you can go to the ocean for surfing or scuba-diving. But if that is too much trouble you can always stay at home and watch the big ball game on TV.

BASEBALL

  
    This game played with a bat and a ball first appeared in the first half of the 19^th century and since then it has become very popular, especially in the USA, although it is played in Australia, Japan, Cuba and China. Baseball is played by boys and young men at all schools and colleges and thousands of men play the game as professionals. In our country it appeared in the 1930s, but interest in the game didn't become significant until the 1970s.
    To play it, you need 9 players on each team, a bat (a thick wooden stick) and a baseball. This ball is very hard, so players usually wear heavy gloves. The size of this glove has increased over time, so now it both protects the hand and helps catch the ball. The catcher, who crouches (hrbit se) in a dangerous position behind home plate, also wears padded body protection. Batters now often wear helmets.
    Baseball is played on a two-part field: a diamond-shaped "infield" with four bases, and an "outfield" which fans out past the bases. While the players of the team on offense (útok) take turns batting, the players on the defending team take various positions around the field: the catcher behind home plate, the pitcher on his pitching mound in the center of the diamond, the shortstop and 1^st-3^rd basemen (the "infielders") and the left-, right- and center fielders (the "outfielders").
    The game is divided into nine "innings". Each inning is divided into two parts, the "top half" and the "bottom half". The visiting team bats in the top each inning. Anyway, in each half of each inning, the batting team plays until three of its players are "out"-more on that later. They try to score as many "runs" as possible before three of their players are out. When the third batter is out, it's the end of that half of the inning, and the batting and fielding team exchange positions.
    The umpire begins the game by shouting "Play ball!" The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher and the batter tries to hit the ball into "fair territory" (the space between the lines from home plate to 1^st and from home plate to 3^rd bases. If he swings at the ball but misses, it's called a "strike" - three strikes, and you're out! Hitting the ball into foul territory can count as a strike, but not strike 3 - the batter cannot "strike out" by hitting foul balls. If the ball is thrown in such a way that it cannot be hit (it does not pass through the "stike zone" above home plate) and the batter sees this and does not swing at it, it's called a "ball" - four balls and the batter "walks" to 1^st base for free!
    Let's say the batter hits the ball into fair territory. If a fielder catches it before it hits the ground, the batter is out! If the ball hits the ground, there is a race between the batter and the fielders. The batter tries to get to the first base before the fielders get the ball there. If the batter gets there first, he is "safe" and he has made a "hit". If the ball gets there first, he's out!. But remember, there are four bases altogether" 1^st to 3^rd and home plate. The batter (now called a "runner", because now he's running and no batting) has to make a circuit of all the bases and cross home plate to score a "run". If the batter hits the ball into the stands behind fair territory, it's called a "home run" and he and all other runners score! Now, if a runner is on first base and a batter hits the ball and statrs running, this first runner must run at least to second base. The fielders can get him out by getting the ball to second base ahead of him, or they can get the batter out at first base. Sometimes they can do both, by getting the ball to second base and then very quickly to first; this is called a "double play". Triple plays may also occur, but they are very rare.
    Tactics come into play in baseball regarding how many bases a runner should try to advance and which runner the fielders should try to get out.
    When you play this game you must think very quickly and decide what to do. To understand its rules it is best to watch it and try to play it.

BASKETBALL

    Basketball is a new sport. The so-called "Father of Basketball", James Naismith, a Canadian, invented the game in 1891 while working as a physical education teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts in the USA. The winter was coming and there were no sports that could be played inside during the winter to keep the athletes in good condition.
    So, he found two peach baskets and attached them to the wall at opposite sides of the gym. He divided his students into two groups of nine players. An old soccer ball was soon passed around among the players, eventually to be thrown into one of the baskets. However, there was a small problem; each time the ball was tossed into the basket, they had to get a ladder (řebřík), climb up, and get it down again. So, holes were cut in the bottom of the baskets. Peach baskets were substituted with metal hoops (kovovými obručemi) in 1906 and thus modern version of basketball was born.
    Basketball soon exploded in popularity. In some states in the USA, for example in Indiana, basketball fever overtook the population like no sport before. Basketball courts sprang up all over the place. In the winter, children scraped snow of the concrete courts to play until their hands were numb (znecitlivělé) from the cold.
    The first professional league, the National Basketball Association (NBA) first came into existence in 1949 in the USA. There were 11 teams in the league and three of them are still around: The Boston Celtics, New York Knickerbockers and Golden State Warriors. Today the league has 29 teams; 27 in the USA, 2 in Canada.
    Basketball has evolved (se vyvinul) from an American sport into a world one. Many players in the NBA were born in countries other than the United States.

    It is a tough game usually played by very big players able to resist the brutal pounding taken in this sport. It takes a player about 60 minutes to dress for a match, wrapping on 18 pieces of equipment like shoulder pads, helmets, knee braces etc., and still the game has a high injury rate.

ICE-HOCKEY

    It is a fast and wild game. There are three twenty-minute periods. Every minute is full of action. Two groups of 6 players hit the small flat puck across the ice with their sticks. The aim of the game is to score as many goals as possible.

LACROSSE

    Lacrosse is a game of North American Indian origin. It is played between two teams of 10 to 12 players, each having a curved stick fitted with a string net to throw, catch and carry the small hard rubber ball.

    The sport of rodeo had its beginnings in the 1880s in the American West. It developed from the daily work activities done by cowboys on ranches, where cattle are raised for beef. When cowboys gathered together in the Old West, they would compete to see who was the best rider or roper. After some time, these rodeos became organized, regular competitions.
    Nowadays, a rodeo is held in an arena, and the animals are kept in pens (ohradách) called chutes. The chutes have gates which open into the arena. The spectators watch the excitement from a grandstand.
    Each rodeo features several different events. There are two types of events: bucking events (udržení se v sedle) and timed events. In a bucking event, the cowboy tries to stay on a jumping - bucking-horse or bull for a certain number of seconds. In addition to staying on, the riders in bucking events try to ride well because they are rated by judges who give them points for their riding style or form. In a timed event, the cowboy tries to complete the required task more quickly than the other contestants do.
    There are five standard rodeo events. The bucking events are bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding. The time events are steer wrestling and calf roping.
    By tradition, the first event in a rodeo is bareback bronc riding. A bronc, or bronco, is a wild horse which has not been "broken" or trained. The broncos chosen for rodeos like to buck. In this event, the rider holds with only one hand onto a "rigging" fastened around the horse's chest. The rider wears spurs (ostruhy) on the heels of his boots. As soon as the chute hate opens, he uses his spurs to encourage the bronco to buck as high and as fast as possible. The cowboy must ride and spur the bucking bronco for eight seconds, keeping his free hand high in the air. If he is bucked off before eight seconds have passed or if he touches anything with his free hand, he receives no points.
    Saddle bronc riding is similar to bareback riding, except that the cowboy sits on a saddle and holds a rope which is attached to a halter (ohlávka) on the horse's head. Because he has only the single rope to hold onto with one hand, great skill is needed for the cowboy to keep his balance for ten seconds on the angry bronco. In the past, cowboys often "broke" wild horses by saddling and riding them until they were tame (zkrocení), and so saddle bronc riding is a rodeo contest which developed directly from an everyday cowboy job.
    The most dangerous rodeo event is bull riding. A rodeo bull usually weights at least 1,000 kilograms and is very strong. Despite his size, the bull is very quick and bucks fiercely (prudce, divoce), spinning and twisting across the arena. The rider tries to stay on for ten seconds, without spurring, holding with one hand onto a rope tied loosely around the bull's belly.

    In steer's wrestling (zápasení s vykastrovaným býkem), a steer is released from a chute, and as it runs, the cowboy rides alongside it. In this part of event, the cowboy has a helper called "hazer" (náhončí), who helps keep the steer running straight. At the right moment, the cowboy slides from his horse onto the running steer, grabbing its head and horns and stopping it by digging with his boots heels. He then throws the steer over, wrestling it onto the ground. In order to do this task quickly and efficiently, the cowboy must have a very fast, intelligent, and well-trained horse.
    In calf roping, the ability of the cowboy's horse is even more important. Twirling a lasso above his head as he rides, the cowboy chases a running calf and ropes it. He then jumps off his horse, runs to the calf, throws it over, and ties three of its legs together. The horse must quickly put the cowboy in position to rope the calf, and after the calf is roped, the horse keeps backing up so that the rope is held tight and the calf cannot break free. Like saddle bronc riding, catching calves by roping them is a traditional cowboy job, one of which is still part of ranch work today.
    In addition to these five events, a rodeo may have others, such as steer and team roping, wild horse racing, and barrel racing (soutěž se sudy), which is an event for cowgirls.
    Rodeo is exciting both for the contestants and the spectators. It is a show of the cowboys' skill and bravery. Rodeo broncos and bulls are wild and unpredictable, making it a rough and dangerous sport for the contestants and sometimes for the animals. Animal right activists have protested that rodeo is cruel. But rodeo people say that the contests are a reasonable use of the animals, which are treated with care.
    The competition among the cowboys is only one attraction of the rodeo. It is also a colorful spectacle, with Western clothes, flags, parades, clowns, and music. Although rodeos have been and are held in many places in the world, it is a sport which has stayed closer than any other to its North American origins. It is the most truly American sport, displaying the customs, challenges, and spirit of the West.

    No game generates so much universal enthusiasm as does soccer. In this game individual virtuosity and skill blend with the tactics of the whole team.