Week 12 - A Final Reflection!

It has almost come the time to say goodbye to my classes in Australia, and I must say that I’ve learned a lot in this Sport and Cultures class. This course truly showed me the differences between Australian sport and the American sports that I’ve grown up with, as well as how different people are torn apart and brought together through sports and games.

For one thing, I’ve learned that Australians happen to be amazing at sports, and that playing and participating in sports is huge part of Australian culture. Whether it be swimming, surfing, rugby, soccer, netball, or cricket, almost every Australian that I have met is involved in sports through their school, community, or other venue. There is a huge emphasis placed on participating in sports and excelling. While sports are important in America, I just don’t think there is as much participation and enthusiasm as there is here in Australia. For instance, a lot of people played sports in my high school, but I never did. I played one year each of soccer, basketball, and softball, and I took tennis lessons for several years, but I never competed or felt the pressure to excel; I mostly did it for fun. Australians play sports for leisure too, but the prevalence of athletes everywhere I go is extremely noticeable. Walking on campus throughout the day, I’d see rugby clubs running drills, the tennis courts were always packed, and there would be inter-collegiate games occurring on a weekly basis. I also especially noticed how the community and schools support youth sport and competition. With mandatory swimming lessons in every school and a strong community-organized Nippers program in almost every beach town, it’s amazing to see how much sports are involved in Australian youth lives. The programs here are way better than the dodgeball tournaments I had to endure growing up, which were about as sporty as our school got in physical education classes.

In a broad sense, I’ve also noticed how much more of an influence England has on ways of life in Australia as opposed to the amount of influence (or lack of influence) in the United States. While both countries descended from England, they differ immensely because Australia is still a commonwealth of England whereas America is not. The influences run deep into sports life in Australia. The big sports here are rugby, cricket, and soccer, while in America they are basketball, baseball, and American football. People in America barely follow rugby, cricket, and soccer, yet there are diehard fans here in Australia. I’ll be willing to bet that if you were to drop an Australian into the crowd at the Superbowl, they would be scratching their heads and wondering what was going on. The same is how I felt when I went to my first rugby game, and to be honest, I’m still really confused about how the game is played.

Another big overall theme in sports here, both professional and community-based, is how people are treated according to race. For instance, the Wallabies in the mid 1960’s refused to play against the South African Springboks because of the country’s poor treatment towards Blacks. However, I find that kind of interesting when Aboriginal men and women are constantly being scrutinized and discriminated against in everyday life and in the world of sport. In fact, Aboriginal rights and livelihoods were a constant battle in Australian sports history, with crowds shouting racial slurs at Aboriginal players in ruby games. We even went on a field trip to watch an “Aboriginal” rugby league, which turned out to be mixed with different races anyway.  What I never understood is why Aboriginal people needed their own separate rugby league in the first place. In fact, a lot of Aboriginal rugby players happen to be better than white Australian players and bring a lot of excitement to the game, so it’s sad that they would be discriminated against.

The last important thing I noticed concerns Australian youth sports.  Healthy competition is emphasized and encouraged, but sometimes youth sports can be scarily violent as opposed to American youth sports. The Nippers are a classic example of healthy competition in Australian youth sport, and American parents and communities can definitely learn a thing or two from this program. The entire club is organized and planned by the community, and is completely run by parent volunteers. Those parents who don’t volunteer will most likely show up and cheer their children on, supporting them through every drill. I’ve never seen parents more friendly towards each other and others’ kids, and it really was a friendly sporting atmosphere. I feel as if every child could learn a lot by running races and competitive drills while being surrounded by community members and family friends in a supportive environment. However, at the youth rugby game, I was almost scared to watch the children play. They were aggressive towards each other and I was shocked that the league allowed tackling. In American youth sports, coaches are VERY careful about how the children play and interact with each other, because it becomes a huge deal if a kid gets hurt while in a game. In Australia, I almost feel as though they encourage the children to not hold back, and in a way this might help with anger issues and emotional problems off the pitch.

In the end, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Australia and it’s wonderful world of sports. I was constantly impressed on every field trip by the athletic prowess and skill that everyone displayed, including the children, and it helped me learn more about my own country in regards to sports on a professional, community, and school level. While I myself am not the best athlete, I still love being a spectator, and it was extremely interesting to learn about a sport culture that is so different from what I am used to. I love everything about Australian sports, from how the girls have a huge sporting network that they can have pretty much to themselves (netball) to how diehard some fans get at rugby games, which is a sport that was especially unfamiliar to me. When I go back to America, I’m definitely going to try to keep up with Australian sports and teach my friends all about it. 

Thank you so much for a great semester!

Week 11- AFL

Today we went to see the Sydney Swans battle the Hawthorn Hawks, and wow, was it messy. The Hawks pummeled the Swans and by the time we left, the score was something like 105-47 (or something like that). Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing.
Despite the fact, I have to say that Aussie Rules football might be the most enjoyable version of football for me to watch. I think because I understood the scoring a lot more than in Rugby Union or Rugby League, I was able to follow the game more closely. I also felt as though this game moved faster than the others and had more action.
Since it was a Sunday afternoon, I noticed that there was more of a family atmosphere at this game than others that I have attended and there was less of a presence of obnoxious drunks. This reminded me greatly of baseball games at home, for some odd reason.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed today’s game, despite the fact that the Swans put up an embarrassingly unsuccessful fight against the Hawks. Aussie Rules was very entertaining and very fun to watch, and hopefully I’ll get to squeeze in another game before I leave Sydney.

Week 10 - Cricket!

Finally I have come to learn about the amazing sport anomaly that is Cricket. Cricket is huge in countries like England and several nations in the Middle East, but it’s something that people generally scoff at in America. Normally, when one thinks of cricket, they think of whacking a ball through a little gate in the ground with a mallet-type instrument, but thanks to the book “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson (a book about traveling through Australia and a great read), I know that it’s similar to my favorite sport to play and watch – baseball.

            Although in the book, Bryson exaggerates the game to be extremely long and excruciatingly boring, I know that it’s extremely popular around the world and probably for a reason. I was really hoping that we’d get to go to a cricket game, but I think we got here way too late in the summer for that to be possible. I settled for a little batting and bowling practice in class though, and it was pretty fun. Although I felt a little embarrassed playing the T-ball version in front of a bunch of Australians playing rugby, I still had a good time and will look more into watching and learning more about cricket next summer. 

Week 9 - Youth Rugby

After being a lifeguard at a day camp for four years, I’ve become very paranoid when watching kids roughhouse or run across pavement or just do something reckless. Watching ten-year-old children play Rugby Union that included tackling gave me horrible anxiety and brought me close to cardiac arrest. I could barely watch as the children dragged each other down while their parents screamed from the sidelines with words of encouragement. The whole ordeal seemed borderline barbaric.

            However, a scene like this is normal for any given Saturday morning in Australia. While Maroubra does have a specifically violent past, this type of violence seen up and down the coast is completely normal and encouraged. While the children were on the sidelines waiting to be put in the game, they were running drills, which also prepared them for the tackles. This just seemed crazy to me. Something like this would never be found in an American recreational youth soccer or basketball game.

            The closest youth sport we have to youth rugby in my town is something called Pop Warner football, which is made up of kids from ages 5-13 playing touch-American football. Tackling is not tolerated in this contact sport and any injuries that do occur would surely result in a parent suing the township. It’s differences like these that make youth sport in Australia more intense than youth sport in America. 

Week 8 - Extreme Sports

            Last week was our Easter break and for my friends and me, that basically meant a week off in beautiful Cairns, the adventure capital of Australia. When they say “adventure,” they seriously mean it. We were up almost every day before seven to get picked up by some tour company to go on a serious extreme adventure for the day, including scuba diving, skydiving, white water rafting, and bungee jumping. On top of these activities, there were advertisements for other adrenaline-racing activities, like sitting in the passenger seat of a stunt fighter jet (no thank you!).

            This made me wonder what it was about Australian culture that drew people into pushing themselves to the limits. It’s true, Australians do seem to be more courageous and brave and less worried about what can hurt them, and more concerned on living life to the fullest. I have to say, Americans are lacking in this state of mind.

            Whatever it is that makes these extreme sports so popular in Australia, I’m not surprised of its existence. Australians seem to have this X-factor built into them that Americans seem to be lacking, and while I’m here, I might as well hop on the bandwagon and throw myself out of a plane. If you can’t beat them, join them!

Week 7 - Aboriginal Rugby

I knew this game was going to be rough from the first two minutes, when a man roughly the size of Montana was sitting in the medic’s chair in front of me, blood gushing all over his face and flowing down to the grass. This game clearly isn’t for the faint of heart or the dainty, but at the same time it was riveting and I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the field.

            In a way, this adult rugby game reminded me a lot of the Roman Gladiators, where huge crowds would gather just to watch two men rip each other’s heads off. I never understood why violence was so interesting and captivating, but for some reason, there’s something about the human mind that just loves it. I’ll never understand it, but I was definitely caught up in the drama.

            Not only is this game crazy, but it also has a ton of history, especially surrounding aboriginal/Black civil rights from the 1960’s. It was interesting that this league was specifically called “aboriginal,” because I would honestly speculate that there were about an equal number of black and white people playing on the field. The entire game was completely integrated and I didn’t understand why it was considered to be “aboriginal” at all.

            That being said, it was pretty cool to see grown men playing a serious sport together. I feel that a concept like this isn’t very accepted in America, where most of the men the rugby player’s age would be too busy with full-time jobs or just not in shape enough at all to play contact sports. The most involvement they seem to get in the states is by watching a sport on TV, not actually rolling around in the mud playing, breathing, and living it like these men do. 

Week 6 - Netball

It was a pretty weird and funny coincidence that the day we learned about netball in lecture, there was a huge inter-collegiate netball tournament happening on campus. As I was sitting in my room, I heard extremely loud cheering coming from the direction of the rugby fields across the street. I had no idea what was going on but my friend who lives on my floor heard the cheering too, and we decided to head onto campus to check it out.
Little did we know, we stumbled right into a Wesley College vs. Women’s College netball game, and it seemed to be a big one. Both teams were being largely supported by students in their colleges, all decked out in the same shirts. I noticed two things about the spectator audience that kind of took me by surprise: it was a coed group and the guys seemed to be more into it than the girls. The set up of the match was reminiscent of an intramural sporting event at home, except the crowd here was larger and way more excited.
As for the actual sport of netball, it was pretty interesting to watch! It reminds me of playing basketball with a volleyball and a smaller hoop, and the girls that were playing happened to be really athletic and talented. It also made me proud that so many people were there supporting a woman’s sporting event, because back in the states, I feel that they aren’t that popular or appreciated at all. Basically I felt a surge of girl power, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game!

Week 5 - Kayaking

           This past weekend, I was unable to attend the lawn bowling field trip because I was in Byron Bay. However, my weekend getaway did not stop me from participating in a very important Australian sport – kayaking. According to the official Australian canoeing and kayaking website, kayaking boomed in popularity in the 1970s as better materials were introduced to make more advanced boats. Australians excelled in canoeing and kayak races in Olympic games throughout the eighties and official canoeing clubs sprouted up in every state of Australia.

            Canoeing and kayaking are probably such popular sports in Australia because they take place in the water, which is where the majority of the Australian population resides. The sports make for great leisure activities and are another excellent way to get in touch with the ocean as well. In Byron Bay, there were two major kayaking companies who offered two trips daily, and both trips were pretty booked.

            On our trip out, we paddled over reefs and along with the dolphins. Taking in my surroundings, I was surprised to see how far I paddled out. I’ve never been so far out to sea in such a small boat by myself before. It was pretty challenging trying to overcome the waves and the currents, but the entire experience itself was very empowering. I felt meek sitting in a small boat in an enormous ocean, yet I also felt very adventurous and free. These emotions definitely made me realize that kayaking and canoeing precisely capture the Australian spirit, as every good Australian likes to feel bold and limitless. 

History. (n.d.). Australian Canoeing. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://www.canoe.org.au/?Page=1512&MenuID=AC_Information/93/0/,Who_is_Australian_Canoeing%3F/68/1513/0,Australian_Canoeing_History/69/0/

Week 4 - Surfing

            I was so excited to FINALLY take a surf lesson at Manly Beach this weekend! However, when I woke up on Saturday morning to the pouring rain and set off for the ferry, which happened to rock and roll more than a rockstar does, I grew extremely nervous. The surf was just as rough as the ferry ride and as a bunch of us sat in a semicircle around our instructors in our binding wet suits, I grew extremely nervous.

            What I didn’t expect was that actually getting the surf board out into the water would be so physically taxing. The waves and the currents were so strong that they would just drag my board backwards into the rips. By the time I actually reached the point to where I wanted to catch a wave, I was already exhausted.

            Despite how much it sucked in the beginning though, when I actually was able to ride a wave, it was the most exhilerating feeling in the world and made the hard labor totally worth it. Gliding over the water at full speed felt like flying and I could understand why surfing is so important to the Australian culture. There’s nothing like being so in touch with nature and although I could only manage to stand on my knees in the crazy surf, I absolutely can’t wait to try it again. I’m going to Byron Bay this weekend and I will definitely be renting a board.  

Week 3 - The Nippers

            This week we went on our first official trip with my Australian Sport and Cultures class. Early Sunday morning a huge group of us made our way down to Maroubra beach to watch the Nippers have fun in the sand. There were two interesting things that struck me as interesting about this trip. One was that Maroubra has such a crazy history and a very rich (and yet also violent) culture. Maroubra beach is home to the famous beach gang called the Bra Boys, and although it seems that their main purpose is to find solitude amongst a difficult life by riding a wave, there are still hundreds of cases of fighting, stabbing, and other crimes associated with the gang. It was interesting that a gang like this actually existed, and I haven’t even heard of anything like this in America. What was even more interesting was that on a Sunday morning, Maroubra looked so calm and peaceful, it was hard to believe that it could be home to something so rough.

          The second thing that I found really interesting about this trip was how fun the Nippers looked! I swear I wish we had something like this in America. I live pretty close to the Jersey Shore and I would have loved a group like the Nippers growing up. There was a really tight community and family feel as the little kids swam in the ocean and did drills in the sand. Most of the parents were directly involved while the rest were enthusiastically cheering the kids on from the sidelines. I find it amazing that groups like this exist all along the Australian coast, and I think it’s a great way to instill family time and promote healthy competition in young children’s minds. Not to mention the children were so well-behaved!! 

Week 2

It’s only the second week of class and I’ve already witnessed a crazy sporting event that’s sacred to Sydney: a Rugby League football match. The game was between the South Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters, and when initially bought the tickets, I thought the team names actually sounded pretty funny. But no, upon arrival at the stadium, I saw that there was nothing funny about rugby. Both sides had a really good number of fans who seemed to have come out in droves to show their support. Everywhere I looked there was a diehard fan sloshing back a beer and screaming their heads off. The closest I’ve seen to this sort of fanaticism in America is when big guys take off their shirts and paint their bodies with their team colors in freezing temperatures for an American football game, but that couldn’t quite compare to this.

            The cheering was very infectious and even though I didn’t really have a clue as to what was going on, I could tell that it was a REALLY exciting game. The Roosters were killing the Rabbitohs, then the Rabbitohs almost made an amazing comeback, but in the end the Roosters stayed on top and were victorious.

            Usually when you’re walking on the street, Australians are always super polite and talk so quietly, which is why it was so funny to see everyone absoultey screaming their heads off. It was great to see so many passionate people in one place and honestly, it was an amazing thing to watch and experience. It was definitely one of my favorite nights here thus far.

Introduction

            G’day! My name is Jennifer and I’m currently spending a semester abroad in the beautiful Sydney, Australia. Through this blog I would like to reflect on and share my experiences of Australian sport and culture. In a country that is known to have very fit and active people, I must say that there are plenty of opportunities to observe and participate in Australian sports and experience the culture surrounding them.

            I am originally from New Jersey and attend school at Penn State University, where I will graduate next year.  Growing up, I participated in a few sports, including softball and basketball, but my favorite sport to play is tennis. I also am an avid sports fan and love to watch baseball and professional and college football. My university is a Division 1 school and our sports teams are huge! Attending games with crazy Penn State fans has been a huge bonus to my college experience.

            Other than sports, my favorite activities include cooking and hiking. I also love to just hang out with friends and travel. Even though I’ve already been in Australia for about a month, I’m still very excited to keep adventuring out and explore my surroundings, as well as travel all around Australia. I am hoping to make the most of my time here and taking classes such as Australian Sports and Cultures will hopefully help me achieve that. I can’t wait to learn and soak up all that I can through this course.