Norms of Participation in Sport within Australia-Free-Samples

Question: Discuss about the "norms of participation in sport within Australia". Answer: Introduction The Australian colonies were self styled settlers from Britain, who were not at all equal in wealth, status and power. This paper is going to elaborate on the difference in the professional and amateur version of sports, exiting in the late Victorian England; Schools and gender issues and class prevailing at those times. Discussion Professional v/s amateur It was thought that both amateur and professional sports in Australia were completely different domains. The sports in their earliest form were played with amateur statuses. No financial rewards were given to the players for their participation. Hence, only the rich people used to play sports as they had enough time to spare. Hence, amateur sport ensured that the issue to class distinction is prevailing between the sportsmen and this has also led to the exclusiveness of sports clubs. The 19th century was the beginning of the professional sports and these players were paid a handsome amount of money for their participation. Schools within Australia The schools in Australia were regarded as the nurseries for Rugby League, cricket, Rugby Union, netball and foot ball. In the 19th century the denominational schools used to put effort to instill muscular Christianity in the pupils and within that amateurism was of a key value (Coppinger, 2013). There were two educational system prevailing- the state-subsidized private schools and the stat-funded secular schools. The GPS schools in Sydney used to be a traditional nursery for the recruitment into the New South Wales Rugby Union clubs. Girls too had their place in school sport but as a secondary place. Gender Issues Gender identities were regarded as the keys to investigate sports in the Australian history (Connell, 2014). It is to be noted that for most of the boys at those times, sports have been an important ritual of passage into the manhood. However, for the young women, it was the reverse. Until late 20th century females used to get very less opportunity for participating in sports. Until then, they used to get encouraged only to undertake the then considered female appropriate activities and sports like netball. Nevertheless, according to scholars like Gluck (2013), women have been much more active in the sports activities than many historians has bothered to pay attention. Class Only the working class Australian colonies (males) and the upper and middle class people used to take out time for their sports activities in the early Australian period (Veal, Darcy Lynch, 2015). In terms of female sports engagement, the women belong from the upper class or middleclass used to get the opportunities to get involved in sports activities. The women belonging from the working-class group used to get far fewer opportunities for participating in sports than the others. Conclusion In this paper the difference in the professional and amateur type of sports has been briefly examined and it can be concluded that in the early Australian period, there were gender identity issues and class distinction in the competitive sports in great terms. With the same, the schools during that period used to play a great role in encouraging students to join in sports, recruiting them to several sports club. References Connell, R. W. (2014).Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. John Wiley Sons. Coppinger, J. H. (2013). Secularization by Americanization: RV Borleske, Whitman College, and Muscular Christianity (1882-1947). Gluck, S. B., Patai, D. (Eds.). (2013).Women's words: The feminist practice of oral history. Veal, A. J., Darcy, S., Lynch, R. (2015).Australian leisure. Pearson Higher Education AU.