The philosophy of sport / by P. McBride.

  • Peter McBride
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The philosophy of sport / by P. McBride. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be many whose only pleasure lies in seeing others striving. We suspect that it is these last who are responsible for the introduction of so much of the professionalism and commercialism which have crept into sport. The writer has noticed at professional boxing contests a curious, and from the psychological side, interesting phenomenon. It often happens that one of the supporters at the ring side goes through a series of movements representative of hitting and parrying. This can hardly be done with the idea of showing his protege what he is to do, because it would make him take his eye off his opponent with disastrous results to himself. We can therefore only assume that the move- ments are the result of intense concentration, and in- voluntary. We do not know whether football fans have similar tendencies, which, if they existed, might be awkward, especially if they happened where spectators were crowded together. Some behaviourists seem to hold that consciousness is closely allied to, if not actually due to, muscular movement, the muscles involved being those of speech, and what we have described as occurring in some boxing enthusiasts seems to illustrate a similar connection between thought and movement without vocalisation. We have stated that the crowds who frequent sporting gatherings are influenced by a diver- sity of motives. Kircher, a German writer who has devoted a volume to a study of our sports and games, believes that crowds of our proletariat go to certain events because it is the fashion to do so. Writing of the University boat race we find the following : “ Both banks of the Thames along the course during the boat race are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people who quite obviously belong to the poorer classes.
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