UNIT 1: RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

- Recreation refers to all those activities that people choose to do to refresh their bodies and
minds and make their leisure time more interesting and enjoyable.
- Examples of recreation activities are walking, swimming, meditation, reading, playing games and
dancing.

LEISURE ACTIVITY

- Leisure refers to the free time that people can spend away from their everyday responsibilities
(e.g. work and domestic tasks) to rest, relax and enjoy life. It is during leisure time that people
participate in recreation and sporting activities.

SPORTS

- Sport refers to any type of organized physical activity, e.g. soccer, rugby, football, basketball and
athletics.

The Importance and Impact of Recreational Activities in the Educational Curriculum

Physical Health:

 Recreational activities, especially outdoor ones improve one’s health like maintaining lower
body fat percentages, lowering blood and cholesterol levels, increasing muscular strength,
flexibility, muscular endurance, body composition and cardiovascular endurance. Overall it
increases one’s stamina and energy level resulting in more focus for academic activities besides
also having an impact on one’s class attendance and attention thus leading to more learning.
And as we all know “health is wealth”.

Mental Health:

 Mental health is essential for overall physical health. Recreational activities help manage stress.
It provides a chance to nurture oneself and provides a sense of balance and self-esteem, which
can directly reduce anxiety and depression.

Improved Quality of Life:

 People who make recreation a priority are more likely to feel satisfied with their lives overall,
according to an American Recreation Coalition Study, 2000. Recreational activities help create a
balance between academic pressures with physical and mental well-being. The effects of
recreation are multifold. It enriches self-expression, self-fulfillment ability, interpersonal skills,
techniques and methods of using leisure, physical strength, creative expression, and aesthetic
sense.
Classification of Recreational Activities

1. Physical activities- These include games, sports, physical exercises, drill, marching, gymnastics,
acrobatics etc.

2. Mental and intellectual activities- These include discussion groups, study circles, debates, recitation,
reading, writing, painting, modeling, chess, cards, etc.

3. Self-defense and self-discipline activities- These include CAT, ROTC, Territorial Army, home guards,
Arnis, Wushu,Yaw-yan, Girl Guide and scouting, etc.

4. Cultural and social activities- These include drama, music, variety program, dancing, community
service, first aid and celebration of religious, social and national festivals etc. For rural people, Sarsuwela
(folk plays) Carinyosa (folk songs), and rural games like basketball, volleyball and wrestling, etc. are best
recreational activities, besides the T. V. & Radio programs.

5. Art and craft activities- These include drawing, painting, carpentry, modeling, spinning and weaving,
gardening tailoring, doll making, needle-work, embroidery, paper machine, leatherwork, etc.

6. Outdoor activities- These include outing, sight-seeing, visits, excursions, camping, hiking,
mountaineering, etc.

7. Hobbies- These include stamp collecting, newspaper cutting, photography, picture collecting, album
making, picnics, specimen collecting, etc.

Types of Recreation

Active Recreation

- Active recreation refers to a structured individual or team activity that requires the use of
special facilities, courses, fields, or equipment. It can provide communities with opportunities to
participate in individual sports like golf and skiing and team sports like soccer and baseball.
Active recreational opportunities offer economic and social benefits that include local economic
development and improved physical, mental, and social health.

Passive Recreation

- Passive recreation refers to recreational activities that do not require prepared facilities like
sports fields or pavilions. Passive recreational activities place minimal stress on a site’s
resources; as a result, they can provide ecosystem service benefits and are highly compatible
with natural resource protection. It can provide communities with opportunities like camping,
trail running, and cross-country skiing. While passive and active recreation provide some shared
benefits, like local economic development and improved community health, passive recreational
opportunities may also offer some unique benefits, like the protection of natural resources and
the restoration of ecosystem services.
Two Groups of Recreation

Indoor Activities

Indoor activities are also a part of the recreation program. Indoor recreation activities are
undertaken on the comfort of one’s home or more specifically indoor and they are to recreate the mind
and soul. For such indoor recreation activities there are well-established clubs or recreation centers
offer a varied program of activities throughout the year. Activities on offer include basketball, swimming,
volleyball, chess, table tennis, bowling, singing, reading, listening to music, watching movies and more of
the same. For example, basketball is the most popular indoor sport and second most popular team sport
after soccer. Basketball has many health benefits as it demands lot of physical work. There is a quote
saying “Basketball does not build character. It reveals it.”

Outdoor Activities

Outdoor sports like the ones mentioned, also provide us with the means to exercise and hence
happen to be one of the best forms of recreation. Outdoor recreation sports examples include nature
walks, river rafting, cycling, camping, fishing, hiking, Adventure Park, surfing and sports. Outdoor
recreational activities can range from nature walks to river rafting. Organized recreational activities are
often planned by private clubs or government organizations. Sports, cultural activities and social
gatherings are some of the organized ones. Clubs and recreation centers offer a variety of recreational
programs for people of different ages and varied interests.

Essential Characteristics of Recreation

1. Leisure Time
- To have recreation the activity must be engaged during one’s free time. From this point of view,
one cannot leave during the working hours and engages in recreational activity.
2. Enjoyable

- The activity engaged in, must be enjoyable not boring one.

3. Satisfaction

- The activity engaged in must bring immediate and direct satisfaction to the individual.

4. Voluntary
- The individual must have chosen recreation activity of his/her own choice. There must be no
compulsion.
5. Constructive
- The recreational activity is constructive. It is not harmful to the participant physically, mentally,
emotionally, socially or in any other way. It helps one to become a better integrated individual.
6. Socially acceptable
- The recreational activity is socially acceptable and individually beneficial to the participants.
 Chess

The history of chess can be traced back around 1500 years; started in the North of India and then spread
throughout the Asian continent. Chess made its way via the expanding Islamic Arabian empire to
Europe. The rules of chess changed numerous times until the 1880’s (the romantic era of chess). The
first official World Chess Championship was hosted in 1886. The 20th century revolutionized chess with
the invention of databases and chess engines.

Chess is known the world over, played by numerous fans, but its roots and origins are not clear and are
highly debatable. There are a variety of legends, stories, and plain guesses, starting from a dispute over
where it came from and ending with when chess began.

However, most people can agree that there was not just one individual who invented the established
game because it is far too complex with all its rules and concepts for any single simple human mind to
have created.

Until Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official World Chess Champion in 1886, the game of chess was in
a steady flux. It was a game we could well have difficulty recognizing when we think about today’s chess:
from a game dominated by intuitive decision-making, to a fight between chess engines.

2.2.1 Chess History

A Famous Legend
One ancient legend that many children might even find in their mathematics books is about the
tyrannical Indian king, Shahram, and a wise man in his kingdom. The wise man wanted to convince
Shahram of the importance of each resident of his kingdom.

So, he invented a game to represent the kingdom consisting of the king himself, his queen, rooks,
bishops, knights, and pawns, all of which were important.

The king liked the game very much and understood that the game was just like real life. So, he ordered
everybody in his kingdom to play chess. Shahram offered the man all the gold and silver that he wanted,
but the wise man didn’t want any treasure.

Together with the king, he went to a chessboard and asked him to put one grain of wheat on the first
square, two on the second and to keep doubling it until the chessboard was full.

First of all, the king felt highly offended, but then he ordered his servants to fulfill the man’s wish.
Desperately, the servants conveyed that such an enormous amount of wheat did not exist!

The king understood that the wise man had given him a second lesson. Just like the pawns in chess, you
should never underestimate the small things in life!

This is one of the most popular legends about the history of chess. But for sure, there are many more…

A History of Chess
One day, a man called H. J. R. Murray was keen on getting closer to the roots of the game of chess. He
decided to share his discoveries with the world by writing a book, “A History of Chess”, in 1913. In his
book, Murray assumes that the history of chess started in the North of India, traveled to Persia, and
then spread throughout the Asian continent.

In the Eastern World, for example in India or Persia, chess became a part of the courtly education of the
nobility. In those days words like “Shāh!” – Persian for the king – or “Shāh Māt!” – the king is helpless –
were used in the games.

These words are very similar to the terms we use today with “check” and “checkmate”. The rules were
already quite similar to the chess rules we know nowadays. Murray describes the original mold of chess,
called Shatranj. Then he presents the role of medieval chess in Europe during the Middle Ages, how it
traveled from the Middle East to Russia and then to Western Europe.

Finally, in the third part of his book on chess history, the author arrives at the beginning of modern
chess in the 19th century as we know it today.

Chinese Roots
There are not only those who believe chess comes from India, but some people believe that chess was
invented in China. The legend says that chess was invented around 200 B.C. by a commander, Hán Xin,
who invented the game to represent a particular battle.

Soon after the battle, an important battle in Chinese history, the game was forgotten and then
resurfaced in the 7th century A.D. with several new rules. The game became popular under the name
“XiangQi” which means the “elephant game”, losing its reference to the ancient battle. The elephant
game was very dissimilar to the chess game that we know today.

They had other pieces, another board, and even other rules. According to this belief, chess went from
China to India and Persia afterward, where it slowly modified into the chess game we know today with
an 8×8 square chess board and the chess pieces that we are familiar with.

Chess History: From The Romantic Era to The Digitalized Era

Until the end of the 15th century, chess changed numerous times, survived sanctions by the Christian
Church as well as complete prohibitions from time to time. Right up until the 1880’s, the game
developed into the shape of the modern chess game. This period is known as “the romantic era of
chess”.

Chess slowly gained its competitive character and concrete rules, growing in popularity among the
people. Strategical planning or long study of the theory were pretty subordinate topics. In the
foreground, there were issues like quick tactical motifs and the reliance on intuitive moves.

The first chess tournaments started to take place and even the first official World Championship was
hosted in 1886 where Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official World Chess Champion.

Until the middle of the 20th century, there were tendencies towards romantic chess play, when players
relied on tactics and extremely dynamic play. However, the 20th century revolutionized chess with the
invention of databases, chess engines and several methods for comfortable and efficient strategical
preparations. Chess websites and online games were
invented so that the romantic era was finalized and a
new technological, digitalized era began.

2.2.2 How to Play Chess

Setting up the Chessboard

Setting up your chessboard is the first step in playing a
game of chess. Take your time setting up the board,
until you’re confident that you know where everything
goes:

1. The rooks go on the corner squares.

2. Place the knights next to the rooks.

3. Put the bishops on the board next to the

knights.

4. After the bishops come the queens. The

queens always start on the square of the same
shade — the white queen starts on a light
square, and the black queen starts on a dark
square.

5. Place the kings next to the queens, which is

only fitting.

6. Add the pawns straight across the rank in front of the other pieces

Naming Ranks and Files in Chess

The chessboard is divided into ranks (numbers) and files (letters). This is used as an identifier for when
the players move their chess pieces. There are eight of each, and each is comprised of eight squares of
equal size:

Ranks are rows that go from side to side across the chessboard and are referred to by numbers. Each
chessboard has eight ranks, which are numbered from the bottom of the board (where the white pieces
start) on up.

Files are columns that go up and down the chessboard, and each board has eight of them. Because
numbers indicate ranks, letters indicate files, which are labeled from left to right.

The naming conventions for ranks and files allows you to give an identifier to every square by using what
chess people call the file-first method. For example, the lower right-hand square is called h1. This name
is shorthand for h-file, first rank.
Knowing the Moves that Chess Pieces Can Make
Before you can play a game of chess, you need to know how to move the pieces (legally). A chess piece’s
power is tied to its mobility. The more mobile a piece is, the more powerful it is:

Pawns: Pawns can only move forward. On their first move, they can move one or two squares.
Afterwards, they can move only one square at a time. They can capture an enemy piece by moving one
square forward diagonally.

Bishops: Bishops can move any number of squares diagonally.

Knights: Knights can move only in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one
down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction.

Rooks: Rooks can move any number of squares, up and down and side to side.

Queens: Queens can move any number of squares along ranks, files and diagonals.

Kings: Kings can move one square at a time in any direction.

Understanding Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate in Chess

In chess, check is an attack on an enemy king; this attack can’t be ignored. If the check can’t be
neutralized, it is checkmate and the game is over. Stalemate occurs when one player has no legal moves,
but his king isn’t in check. Here are a few additional details on check, checkmate, and stalemate in chess:

Check: An attack on a king by either an opposing piece or an opposing pawn is called check. When in
check, a player must do one of the following:

Move the king so that it’s no longer under attack.

Block the attack by interposing a piece between the king and the attacker.

Capture the attacking piece.

Checkmate: When a king is in check and can’t perform any of the preceding moves, it has been
checkmated. If your king is checkmated, you lose the game. The term checkmate is commonly shortened
to simply mate.

Stalemate: Stalemate is the relatively rare situation when a player whose king isn’t in check has no legal
move to make. Stalemate is considered a draw. Neither player wins, but the game is over.