This Sporting Life

Changes in sport & leisure activities

A personal reflection

Fridays in Abu Dhabi 20 years ago were very different to today. There were no shopping malls and most shops, if they opened at all, did so late afternoon or early evening. Sundays in England in the 1950s, when I was a boy, were similarly quiet. Public transport operated much reduced services. Few children played outside. All shops were closed, apart from newsagents in the morning. The only sporting event I can recall on a Sunday was the annual Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe horse race in Paris. Nowadays, Fridays in A.D. & Sundays in the UK are big shopping and sporting days.

History & social conditions play a big part in how much sport & leisure feature in everyday life. I was born in 1949 & postwar austerity & rationing were features of my early childhood. Sports like football, cricket & horse-racing attracted enormous crowds in the postwar years. People longed to return to peacetime activities after the horrors and hardships of the Second World War and sports stadiums were not all-seater, as most are today, so thousands packed into football stadiums in particular. But for most people sport was a spectator rather than a participatory activity in the immediate postwar period. Whereas nowadays millions of people worldwide follow sports on TV, back then in Britain sports coverage on TV was very limited: the FA Cup Final, the annual All-England Tennis Championship at Wimbledon, the Varsity Boat Race, the 5-nation Rugby Union championship, the Rugby League Cup Final, the Open Golf Championship, test cricket matches (in 5-day tests Sunday was a rest day) and major races like the Derby & the Grand National were highlights. In the 1950s if you wanted to watch a lot of sport you had to physically attend sporting events.

Go back 40 years to the birth of the UAE: the new nation lacked infrastructure & there was a dearth of sporting & leisure facilities. Look at the Club as it was in 1962 (see the blog post The Club Abu Dhabi) and as it is now. In 1962 there were virtually no facilities and the Club existed mainly as a meeting place, a watering hole. Now it has an extensive beach, 2 pools, 4 tennis courts, 2 squash courts, a badminton hall, an outdoor general-purpose court, a diving section, a large sailing section and a well-equipped fitness centre, including gym, saunas and steam rooms. There is also a well-stocked library as well as numerous classes for dancing, aerobics, music, basket-weaving, jewelry-making, drama, language learning and so on. It now has over 4,000 members from over 80 countries. The number of food & beverage outlets, indeed the whole range of facilities, has greatly expanded since I first joined in 1992.

150 years ago, the development of railways in Britain, Europe & the USA for the first time provided fast, cheap transport for working people, many of whom could do things like visit the seaside for the first time. Henry Ford’s method of mass production of motor cars, widely copied at home and abroad, greatly cacelerated this process in the early 20^th century. Many people began to take up leisure & sporting activities which were previously very limited. Indeed the concept of leisure was, for working people, born at this time. Better working conditions, brought about by mines & factories acts, and other social legislation, meant people were fitter & better able to enjoy greater leisure time.

Nowadays leisure & sports are big business worldwide with a growing number of people seeking careers in them. Just look at all the sports & social clubs here in A.D. and the number of staff and professional coaches who man them.

On a personal note, I never flew until my mid-20s and my first jet plane journey was at the age of 30. Now I have young students who have travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, the Far East & Australasia. Even 20 years ago, few of my then students would have travelled beyond the Gulf region.

Of course, increased leisure time does not necessarily mean a more active lifestyle. Previous generations in this region were active as pearl divers, farmers, ans so on, and even ordinary travel was more physical for everyone, whether by camel, horse or on foot. Nowadays most Emiratis have sedentary jobs, comfortable cars and engage in many non-physical activities such as watching TV, playing computer games etc. This has led to high rates of obesity, diabetes and other related problems. Increased leisure offers great opportunities for leading a fit & healthy life. Encouraging more people to do so is one of the challenges of modern life.