Fitness: Activity in History part 6

Sport evolved in various ways during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It became more organized. Associations sprang up for various sports from archery to swimming and everything in between. There was a need for overseeing bodies to organize to agree on rules and organize matches and meets. These associations also helped some sports became commercially viable. A prime example of this is the game of Football in Britain. Those amateur pub teams were the beginning of many of today's teams. 

With the growth in leisure time, more of the population was able to participate in sports. At least this was true for the male population. It took a while longer for females to over come the idea that exercise was injurious to their fertility. The change in attitude can perhaps be best illustrated by the dress worn by women engaged in sport. The woman tennis player of the 1880s would be decked out in a dress with bustle and, of course, a hat. The sport minded woman of the 1890s could wear bloomers with a tailored jacket, a look more in keeping with the power some women were then seeking through the suffrage movement. 

As sport evolved its commercial possibilities were realized, not solely by professional teams, but also by other companies; those manufacturers and outfitters who saw the profits to be made in making and selling the equipment and clothing needed for these new activities. And, with profits to be made, the growth and promotion of sporting activities was a given.

Sources

Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain. Harper Perennial, London, 2007

Huggins, Mike. The Victorians and Sport. Hambledon and London, London, 2004

 

 

Fitness: Activity in History part 5

In the Victorian era, the type of sporting activity enjoyed depended on a person’s (usually a man’s) social class. As in our own era, golf was played by the well off due to membership fees which excluded the masses. The working class faced similar barriers to the sport of cricket, riding to hounds or participating in horse racing. They could, however, follow the races as spectators. Amateur rowing was also the purview of the upper and middle classes partly because of expense but also because day time practice was needed; something which the working classes only had in short supply.

It was not only money but the availability of time, which allowed the upper and middle classes to enter into different sports. Leisure time for the working man also increased during the Victorian era so that he was able to participate in sports as well. One of the first activities which welcomed the working man was football. 

Other sports which became popular in the Victorian era were croquet and lawn tennis. These activities could even include that other part of the population that the growth in sport had so far all but ignored; women and girls. Women in America adopted the game of croquet with gusto as it allowed them to, as Strengass is quoted as saying, “jettison their passive role and dominate if not humiliate men.”*

Another sport introduced in the era was a game changer for many. The first bicycles only attracted a few enthusiasts as the equipment was challenging to use. As bicycles evolved their popularity increased and cycling clubs sprang up. Touring by bicycle became so popular that roads had to be improved, and cycling clubs made arrangements with train companies to take cycling enthusiasts further afield. As the bicycles had improved women adopted this new activity with enthusiasm. The bicycle brought a new sense of freedom to the members of both sexes. 

Sources

Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain. Harper Perennial, London, 2007

Huggins, Mike. The Victorians and Sport. Hambledon and London, London, 2004

Wiggins, David K. Sport in America: From Colonial Leisure to Celebrity Figures and Globalization. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Il. 2010. P 42*