Do you practice any sport? Sports physical activity is common throughout the world, but there are sports that are more popular than others, or sports that are only practiced in some countries and not all. For example, do you know what are the most popular sports in England?
Sport is not a game, sport implies competition, rules, training ... and the truth is that many sports are practiced in England and some you won't even see them on ESPN. Let's see what they are.
Sport in England
First, it must be said that the UK has a long tradition in sports and tremendously popular sports were born here. We talk about tennis, the billiards, the boxing, the football, the golf, hockey, Rugby...
Islands so small and with such restless people, right? If we have to do a bit of history then we can go back to the seventeenth century and the political movements that existed on the islands at that time.
You sure heard about the puritansQuite strange people, not lovers of pleasures, precisely. Well, the Puritans banned quite a few things, including theaters and certain physical and group activities that actually had to do with gambling. For example, horse racing and boxing. With the fall of the Puritans these activities returned in force.
By the XNUMXth century cricket was already well established among the English upper class and in the public schools the football. With the urbanization of the XNUMXth century, many of the rural games began to move to the city, hand in hand with the workers, and then the middle and upper class made their adaptations. The institutions and their regulated life did the rest and thus the sports that we all know were shaped.
Popular sports in England
As we said at the beginning, sports are important in England and the country is the cradle of many of the best known worldwide. That makes the UK always a player to be feared in international competitions.
The passion for sports has traveled with the colonizers so today former colonies like Australia, New Zealand or India are competitors. For example, in cricket or rugby.
Rugby
In England there is a National Rugby League and there is also the Rugby union. This sport adopts its rules at the beginning of the XNUMXth century and it becomes very popular in schools, to later go global.
Rugby here is professional and recreational. Yes you have to know that they are different rugby, the Rugby Union and the Rugby League. They have different rules, number of players, ways of advancing on the ball.
The Rugby It is much more popular in Yorkshire, North West England and Cumbria.. The biggest games are held here.
Badminton
This sport it is even more popular than tennis in the country, and it is because it is much more accessibleeven if you are a beginner. Although it is good English, badminton was born in india as a variant of a traditional English game played with rackets.
There is then the Badminton Association of England, founded in 1893, which regulates sports in the nation and supports the other 41 nations where this sport is practiced.
Cricket
The origins of this sport are still debated but without a doubt it was born in the English islands and since then it has been part of the national idiosyncrasy. The history dates back to the XNUMXth century or a little earlier, since the name of the sport is mentioned in documents of that time. Sure, it might even be played much earlier, as a kind of children's game.
Today there are 18 professional cricket clubs in England and each has historical county names. Each summer each of these clubs participates in the First Class Country Championship, a two-league tournament played over four days.
Cricket is a game that use bat and ball, with two teams facing each other on a field in the middle of which there is a mound with a sticks where they have to pass the balls.
Horse race
Is second most watched sport in the UK and the longest standing. It generates a lot of money and its two main events are the Royal Ascot (the one where royalty goes with huge and very rare hats), and the CheltenhamFestival.
Horse races take place on the islands since roman times, so many of its rules originated here. The Jockey Club dates from 1750 and is the one determines absolutely everything in sport.
There are two types of races: the flat race with fixed distances on unobstructed tracks, and the National Hunting Racing which is longer and in which the horses often have to jump.
There are around of 60 racetracks licensed in the UK, with two more in Northern Ireland. The oldest is that of Chester, from the XNUMXth century.
Tennis
Tennis has background and they seem to date back to the twelfth century in France, in whose court the passing of a ball was played by hitting it with the palm of the hand. It seems that Luis X did not like to play outdoors and so he inaugurated the indoor courts, a custom that spread to the royal palaces of Europe.
Rackets appeared on the scene in the XNUMXth century and it was then that the sport was called tennis, a word that comes from French, hold, hold or take, something that was shouted between the opponents. Thus, it became very popular in France and England. Henry VIII was a super fan of tennis.
Modern tennis dates back to the 30s of the XNUMXth century and from then on they began to establish the rules and codes of the sport. Today, the tournament Wimbledon It is the most popular in England and one of the grand slam of the ATP Tour. It has been played since 1877.
Remo
This sport was born in Ancient Egypt and today is synonymous with English universities and schools. In fact, the sport as we know it was born at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the regattas that were held on the River Thames, in London, where different unions and companies competed. By the eighteenth century, "boat clubs" were born in public schools such as Eton College or Durham School and in the better known universities such as Cambridge or Oxford.
La International Rowing Federation was founded in 1892 and is the one that regulates the sport that actually, it has 150 member countries. The row it is an olympic sport and he's been in the games since 1896. The men have been competing ever since, but women only since 1976.
Golf
The golf it was invented in scotland but it is very popular in England. He was born on the east coast of Scotland, near Edinburgh, and then players would throw pebbles on the sand dunes. The Scots were so enthusiastic that they even neglected military training in the XNUMXth century, so King James I decided to ban it.
Nobody paid much attention to it, and golf then became a royally supported game in the XNUMXth century, under the approval of King James IV. From Scotland to England and from England to the world. It became official in England with the founding of the Gentlemen Golfers in Leith, the first golf club, in 1744. The first 18-hole golf course was built at St. Andrews in 1764, laying the standard for the game.
The golf it spread from the hand of the British Empire in the XNUMXth century, to India, Ireland, Australia, Canada, the United States and Hong Kong. The Industrial Revolution brought many changes and the train made golf clubs leave the cities towards the countryside, gaining followers and players. The manufacture of balls and clubs also changed. The British Open was born in 1860.
The English dominance over golf ended when appeared on the scene in the United States, in 1894. Your association established the final rules of the game and formed many clubs. Today, while golf courses in the United States are beautiful and look manicured, those in England are more rugged and untidy.
In any case, honoring its birthplace, some of the most famous golf courses in the world are still in Scotland today: Gleneagles, Carnoustie, Saint Andrews, Royal Troon ...
Soccer
Soccer has a long history here and in fact there are documents that speak of soccer in 1314. Also, the world's first competition took place here and the first professional league was founded here as well.
There are more than a hundred football clubs and the most popular league is known as Premier League. This league has 20 teams across the UK and among the most popular are Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United.
Football is controlled here by the Football Association, one of the oldest entities in the world. It was born to regulate the different variants of football that were played at that time in the public schools of the country. We can say that these rules are derived from the Cambridge Rules, established by said university in 1848.
Hand in hand with the English who traveled with companies throughout the world sport crossed borders. Today it is one of the most played sports in the world, both professionally and recreationally. The World Cup organized by FIFA is without a doubt a crowd-pleaser and lots of money.
So far, some of the most famous sports in England. We can add to the list the swimming, track and field, field and ice hockey, and volleyball.