Sport, Health and Physical Education: A Reconsideration

Abstract

This paper seeks to: (i) outline and critically evaluate the widely accepted idea that exercise and sport are beneficial for health; (ii) examine the different patterns of social relations associated with exercise and sport; (iii) examine some of the health consequences of these social differences; and (iv) explore the implications of this analysis for physical education. No simple generalisations can adequately encapsulate the complexity of the relationships between physical education, sport and health. In terms of their social relations and their consequences for health, we need to differentiate (i) between exercise and sport and (ii) between types and levels of sport, with the distinctions between contact and non-contact sport and between mass and elite sport being particularly important. In the case of rhythmic, non-competitive exercise, health benefits substantially outweigh health 'costs'. However, as we move from non-competitive exercise to competitive sport, and as we move from non-contact to contact sport, so health 'costs', in the form of injuries, begin to mount. Similarly, as we move from mass sport to elite sport, the constraints to train more intensively and to continue competing through pain and injury increase, with a concomitant increase in the health risks. The physical activities prioritised in the revised National Curriculum for Physical Education in England and Wales enforced by recent official and semi-official statements, are precisely those competitive and contact sports in which the health 'costs' are greatest while those activities which are marginalised within the physical education curriculum offer substantial health benefits with fewer health 'costs'. To the extent that they are successful, recent policy initiatives in relation to physical education are likely to work against the promotion of those forms of exercise which are most beneficial to health and thus hinder the promotion of health-related exercise in physical education.