The Case Studies
Athletics Through Time
The Spec Says….
• For each case study activity candidates should be
able to, with reference to the content specific to
each activity:
– analyse the activity as popular recreation
– assess the influence of 19th-century public schools on
the development of the activity
– demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the
activity as rational recreation
– demonstrate knowledge and understanding of both
participation and barriers to participation in the
activity today
Athletics as a Popular Recreation
• Games and contests were viewed as seeds from which athletics grew.
Festivals and fairs were occasions where people can together and
competed in brutal blood sports, as well as competed for employment
• Wakes: a traditional wake was a great social occasion – bringing all parts
of the community together. As well as being associated with blood sports,
they were also opportunities for men to test their strength and prove their
speed. Events such as;
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Stick Fighting
Wrestling
Running
Pig Catching
Whistling Contests
Grinning Contests
• Prizes were generally of practical uses: Shirts, Smocks, Hats, Cheese, Meat.
• Peasant women would also race (Smock races)
• How does this fit with Popular Recreation characteristics?
Athletics as a Popular Recreation
View of the Church
• The Reformed Church frowned upon traditional wakes
• By the mid-19th century fetes and tea parties were
organised as respectable alternatives – suited to the
refined times
Pedestrianism
• Seen as an ‘ancestor’ to modern athletics
• From late 17th century the gentry employed footmen as
messengers and competitive runners
• Athletic success was a way of enhancing social status.
Pedestrian races attracted wagers of up to 1000 guineas
(Guinea worth just over £1) – therefore a good living
could be earned by a professional athlete who was
promoted by a gentry patron.
Athletics as a Popular Recreation
• For the next 40 years these events grew in
popularity, therefore large venues were built
(e.g. Newmarket Racecourse)
• Gambling was a key feature. Winning for
those in poverty or hardship could mean the
difference between starvation or survival
• Largest bets were for head-to-head and one
man against the clock challenges. Novelty
races were commonplace (e.g. Walking
backwards, wheelbarrow races, gathering
potatoes)
• Trickery in pedestrianism was common.
Professionals would enter amateur races
with false names, there was a lot of matchfixing, riots in the crowd were common
Influence of the Public Schools
• Boys took the sports from
their local village and wakes
to school. They played them
to relieve the boredom of
school life
• Hares and Hounds was
played. ‘Hare’ would run and
drop paper as ‘scent’ for the
hounds to find him
Influence of the Public Schools
• Breakdown of athletics through the stages of
public school:
• Independent research: Look into the influence
of Exeter College, Oxford, on Athletics
Athletics as a Rational Recreation
• Urbanisation led to the end of
rural fairs
• Lower class took to running as a
source of income
• First purpose built tracks in last
1830’s, by 1850 most major cities
had one
• Carefully measured tracks led to
more timekeeping and the
beginning of record keeping
(Characteristics of rational recreation?)
Athletics as a Rational Recreation
• The Exclusion Clause
• Ex-university gentlemen who did not want to compete against
professionals founded the Amateur Athletics Club (AAC) in
1866
• The exclusion clause was a device that upper class
administrators used to exclude manual workers from sports
associations
• Rowing and Athletics used this clause mostly
• In 1880 the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) was
founded which recognised all areas of society
• Exclusion clause was withdrawn and a professional was
defined as someone competing for money, not someone from
the lower classes
Athletics as a Rational Recreation
Athletics Today
• We need to analyse factors that have helped
develop athletics in the UK and the impact of
these factors on contemporary participation
and performance.
• Refer to your worksheet titled Athletics Today
– Factors affecting participation
Athletics Today
Athletics Today
Athletics Today
Lets Recap….
• For each case study activity candidates should be
able to, with reference to the content specific to
each activity:
– analyse the activity as popular recreation
– assess the influence of 19th-century public schools on
the development of the activity
– demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the
activity as rational recreation
– demonstrate knowledge and understanding of both
participation and barriers to participation in the
activity today