tingilinde

live sports and life satisfaction

Being physically part of an emotional event with other people can have a positive influence on your life.

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The study, published in Frontiers in Public Health, looked at data from a survey of 7,209 16- to 85-year-old people living in England. The survey asked participants questions about their lives and well-being, and included questions about whether they attended sporting events.

The analysis showed that attending a live sporting event made for higher self-reported scores on life satisfaction and lower scores on loneliness. Participants who had attended a live sporting event within the past year were more likely to report that their lives were worthwhile — adding a live game into the mix predicted higher self-reported life satisfaction than some demographic factors, such as age or employment, that can indicate how worthwhile someone finds their life.

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Again, caveats of social research apply, but this is something many have experienced.  Here's the paper. in Frontiers of Public Health 

 

Attending live sporting events predicts subjective wellbeing and reduces loneliness

 

Helen Keyes*, Sarah Gradidge, Nicola Gibson, Annelie Harvey, Shyanne Roeloffs, Magdalena Zawisza and Suzanna Forwood

Introduction: This study explored whether attending live sporting events (LSEs) improved subjective wellbeing and loneliness, above and beyond demographic predictors.

Methods: Secondary data from 7,249 adults from the Taking Part 2019–20 survey (UK household survey of participation in culture and sport) were analyzed. Multiple linear regressions captured the effect of attending LSEs (yes/no) on wellbeing variables (happiness, anxiety, a sense that life is worthwhile and life satisfaction) and loneliness, with gender, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), age group, health and employment as covariates.

Results: For life satisfaction, a sense that life is worthwhile, and loneliness, inclusion of LSE attendance in the model improved model fit significantly, although ΔR2 values were small (ΔR2 = 0.001–0.003). For happiness and anxiety, the inclusion of LSE attendance did not alter model fit. LSE attendance was associated with increased life satisfaction (b = 0.171, p < 0.001), a greater sense of life being worthwhile (b = 0.230, p < 0.001), and reduced loneliness (b = −0.083, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: LSE attendance has positive associations with some aspects of subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction and a sense of life being worthwhile) and loneliness, above and beyond demographic predictors. Whilst the variance explained is small, it is comparable to demographic predictors (e.g., being in employment). As even small-sized differences in SWB can have meaningful outcomes (e.g., for mortality), we conclude that LSE attendance may still offer a scalable, accessible and effective means of improving the public's wellbeing and reducing loneliness.

 

 

 

 

 

prioritizing fairness

World Athletics has made a decision on transgendered athletes. Essentially going for the safety, fairness, inclusivity ordering.

a tip of the hat to Greg

The IOC and NCAA are muddy on the issue.

 

 

unfair and just plain anti-female

There's a difference between biological sex and gender. I'm supportive of trans-rights when gender is the only criteria.  That isn't true in sport - there's a reason for age divisions, weight divisions, and the male-female sex division.  There's overriding evidence for a male advantage that takes place during puberty. Depending on the sport a biological male performing in the middle of male performance can outperform a biological female world champion. Testosterone reduction therapies only don't change the equation much.  Trans-women are removing opportunity from biological female athletes.  Some federations are going with biological female and open divisions, most are waiting and watching, and some - like this one - are prioritizing inclusitivioty over fairness to biological females. 

There's a big worry over lawsuits by trans-women.  I suspect we'll have to see serious lawsuits and boycotts from biological women to make a point.  Trans-woman can still compete - properly in an open category that includes biological men who happen to be biologically similar. 

 

 

 

what the nba can learn from f1

Ben Thompson on two sports and what they mean given the Internet.

 

 

 

baseball becomes more interesting?

For those who like the game..  I'm afraid I'm not a fan, but these sound like very useful changes.

 

 

50 km

Every day without a break she's on day 115 now.

It turns out she's an accomplished runner.

a tip of the hat to Magi

 

 

korfball

I had never heard about it .. male and female teams and popular in the Netherlands.

 

the power of pickleball

It's been growing explosively in multiple age groups .. and so fashion follows.

 

 

the sodfather

I'm not a football fan, but this piece on George Toma reveals a perfectionist. 

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He is 94 now, but among groundskeepers he is immortal: The God of Sod, they call him, or the Sodfather, or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Man. Toma — who is planted so deeply in the N.F.L.’s root system that he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — has never missed a Super Bowl. He has worked in outdoor stadiums from Miami to San Diego and domes in Detroit, New Orleans and beyond. He has persevered through torrential downpours, droughts and, most vexingly, increasingly elaborate halftime shows that befoul his beloved turf.

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a class act

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on LeBron James breaking his scoring record

 

Why I’m Thrilled That LeBron Broke the Record

Whenever a sports record is broken—including mine—it’s a time for celebration. It means someone has pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible to a whole new level. And when one person climbs higher than the last person, we all feel like we are capable of being more.

For me, the inspirational power of sports is best explained in a scene in the 1985 film Vision Quest. In it, Elmo, an aging fry cook at a hotel, explains:

I was in the room here one day, watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pelé. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball on his feet.

Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in—upside down and backwards. The goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pelé gets excited. He rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium wav­ing it around over his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. [Pause.] Yeah, that’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I hap­pen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute . . . Let me tell ya, kid—it was pretty goddamned glorious.

That is the magic of sports. To see something seemingly impossi­ble, reminding us that if one person can do it, then we all somehow share in that achievement. It is what sends children onto playgrounds to duplicate a LeBron layup or a Steph Curry three-pointer. Or Mia Hamm inspiring a whole generation of girls to come off the bleachers and onto the field. Millions of children across the country pushing themselves toward excellence because they saw an athlete do something spectacular and they want to do it too. Or at least try. That same kind of drive is behind many of humankind’s greatest achievements.

And it’s all exceptionally glorious.