This report illustrate the differences and changes in sport
and leisure in the past. The information in this report has been collected by
interviewing my older brother (Ali Salem AlTenaiji, Age 54). he is retired police man .Couple of questions
been asked in order to compare the sports in the past and now a days, wither
the current generation still holding the previous generation’s sports or not.
In his generation at the free time they used to gather with
the friends and planning for to do some activities such as playing some games
like ( Helah Belah , Hebail Al Zabin, Saeid Al Samach and shad al Habel).
Unfortunately those games are not played now a days and some of them are
disappeared.
Helah Belah: two teams, one player have to enter the other
team’s ground and touch as many player as he can and he have to go back to his
team’s ground without being caught, and those whom got touched have to leave the
game.
Hebail Al Zabin: A player stands in the middle with many
pieces of clothes and the other players have to run around him in a circler motion and try to steal those clothes from this guy without being touched. If
the guy in the middle touched the player around him they will exchange the
roles.
Saeid Al Samach: there is no limit for players in this game,
all players should stand in the middle and there will be two players at the end
of the field throwing a ball toward those players, and who get hit by the ball
will be out of the game.
Shad Al Habel: pulling rope by two teams.
Seed Al Sqoor (Falconry): catching falcons, train then and hunt with them.there are two kinds of falcon birds used for hunting in the UAE, Saqer Falcon and the Peregrin Falcon
As he mentioned there are some activities they used to do
depending on the weather and season for example in summer they usually spend
their time in sea by fishing, diving, and swimming. During the winter they used
to go to desert and spend the time in farm, and in the farm they ride their
camels and sometimes they make a race among them also they used to hunting by
dogs and eagles. In addition, at the night time they do BBQ and drinking Arabic
coffee under the moon light. Those activities are still there in the current
generation but not as much as previous generation.as he mentioned In his days he used to visit aljeer mountains in Ras Al Khaimah which is the highest mountain range in UAE which is also coldest place also, on there he and his friends used to catch falcon which is very hard and need to be very patience and wait there for long time, after catching falcons they have to train them and use those falcons in hunting houbara. but now days this activity used as sport in events as competitions. unfortunately houbara are almost extinct in the wild of UAE.
In his point of view, he sees the new generation are more
focused on the electronics games and browsing the internet (Using their phones,
PCs, IPADs, and laptops), those games and activities are interesting to spend
the time but as a result all of them causes many health issues for instance,
eye’s sight weakness, increases in weight and isolation from external world.
And comparing to the old generation, the old generation are more active then
nowadays and more healthy. Moreover, they get to know and spent time with their
relatives.in the past they used to gather with their relatives atleast twice a week and having lunch together.
To sum up with, my brother gave some advice's to the new
generation, as he said if you want stay healthy limit the time you spend by
playing electronic games or going around the internet. In your free time you
have to do some active games and play some of sport games that have some body
interactive. Furthermore, he were upset because now a days the old generation’s
games only can be seen in some traditional events just to keep old memories a
life.
700 words
