This updated study of sports and recreation utilizes the most current research, introducing the latest innovations and analyses in new chapters while revising and expanding chapters from the previous edition. Presenting diverse methodological and conceptual approaches, this anthology reflects the current view of sports as a "natural laboratory" for ecologically valid research. This collection contains literature reviews, innovative theories and methods, and essays on various psychological and social aspects of sports, games, and organized play.

Sports and games help kids grow strong in mind and body. And they teach kids about life—about competitive pressure, the time crunch for families, and the risks of computer and internet games to consider. Share this book with the kids you care about, so that the games they play will be fun, fair, and life-giving. 32 pages.

From the untimely deaths of young athletes to chronic disease among retired players, roiling debates over tackle football have profound implications for more than one million American boys—some as young as five years old—who play the sport every year. In this book, Kathleen Bachynski offers the first history of youth tackle football and debates over its safety. In the postwar United States, high school football was celebrated as a "moral" sport for young boys, one that promised and celebrated the creation of the honorable male citizen. Even so, Bachynski shows that throughout the twentieth century, coaches, sports equipment manufacturers, and even doctors were more concerned with "saving the game" than young boys' safety—even though injuries ranged from concussions and broken bones to paralysis and death. By exploring sport, masculinity, and citizenship, Bachynski uncovers the cultural priorities other than child health that made a collision sport the most popular high school game for American boys. These deep-rooted beliefs continue to shape the safety debate and the possible future of youth tackle football.

In this era of big media franchises, sports branding has crossed platforms, so that the sport, its television broadcast, and its replication in an electronic game are packaged and promoted as part of the same fan experience. Editors Robert Alan Brookey and Thomas P. Oates trace this development back to the unexpected success of Atari's Pong in the 1970s, which provoked a flood of sport simulation games that have had an impact on every sector of the electronic game market. From golf to football, basketball to step aerobics, electronic sports games are as familiar in the American household as the televised sporting events they simulate. This book explores the points of convergence at which gaming and sports culture merge.

Who needs cooperative games? -- Games for children ages 3 through 7 -- Games for children ages 8 through 12 -- Games for preschoolers -- Remaking adult games -- Cooperative games from other cultures -- Creating your own games and evaluating your success -- A new beginning : turning ideas into positive action.

The sports psychologist offers advice on overcoming the obstacles faced by female athletes, describing how to manage the stress of competition, improve performance, and maximize self-esteem.

"Looking at the athletic strengths, feats, and shortcomings of our presidents, John Sayle Watterson explores not only their health, physical attributes, personalities, and sports IQs, but also the increasing trend of Americans in the past century to equate sporting achievements with courage, manliness, and political competence."--Dust jacket [p. 2].