sports

According to the 2010 Census, the most widely practiced participatory athletic activity in the United States is walking; other popular options include swimming (third most practiced), camping (fourth), bicycling (sixth) and fishing (seventh). All exercise has a wide range of benefits — it improves health, is a great way to socialize, and can reduce stress.

Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, known as “Title Nine,” requires funding equity for boys’ and girls’ athletic programs in institutions that receive federal funding. To comply with the act, by 1978 U.S. high schools increased their female sports participation significantly, from 4% in 1972 to 25% four years later. Boys’ participation was stable during this period at about 50%, indicating that female athletic opportunities did not come at the expense of male opportunities in this early period.

Two professional soccer players run side by side, fighting for control of the ball. One kicks and the other falls to the ground, face contorted in pain. Is the seeming injury real or feigned? According to a study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, one way to get an idea is to look at the gender of the players.

The NBA draft is just three months after March Madness every year, and NBA executives have to decide how a player’s performance over the games in March — a maximum of six, from the tournament’s first round to the championship game — should affect their draft decision. Is it possible that a player who can sustain a high level of performance in a few must-win games has demonstrated that he has what it takes to succeed on the highest stage?

The issue of concussions in sports has attracted considerable media coverage in recent years. Understandably, the early focus was on professional football, a game built around high-speed, full contact between heavy, powerful players, but the scope of reporting and research has expanded widely to include sports at every level.

Over the past decade, funding for and participation in after-school programs has grown substantially. To ensure that their promise is effectively delivered, evaluating their relative benefits and required factors for success is critical.

Research has suggested that an increase in unemployment rates tends to bring about a rise in recreational exercise, leaving open the possibility that a period of persistent joblessness may actually have health benefits across the population. But as a paper from scholars at Pace University and Bentley University notes, any such overall assessment of physical activity levels must also take into account the lost physical labor that is normally expended at many jobs.