The diffusion of sport in our culture is not only linked to the passions aroused by the great competitive challenges of soccer championships, Olympic gold medals or America’s Cup regattas, but is also based on certain ideas that are now an integral part of people’s beliefs. The first refers to the idea that sport is wellness and the second that sport is education for life. Therefore, if we move to feel good, each individual has the fundamental right to be able to be put in a position to make movement and/or do sport and it is precisely to meet this need that sport for all was born and has spread, to the point of becoming an activity that involves millions of people.
So, what are the needs to which sport for all provides an answer?
- The need for movement - We live in a society that forces us to lead sedentary lives, walking to work or playing in the street are almost unthinkable activities and we must make up for this reduction in spontaneous movement by institutionalizing moments of the day to be devoted exclusively to physical activity / sports. It is now possible for millions of citizens to spend a day without even having walked 1 km.
- The need to educate one’s own body - The best example of educating one’s own body through movement is provided by children in the first years of life. One need only observe them to understand how much effort they put into learning to walk and run, or into acquiring those processes of self-regulation that allow them to learn while reducing the risk of harming themselves (the pleasure they take in climbing and jumping). Even for adults, the search for well-being can be satisfied through a better perception of their body or through the discovery that their mood can improve through moderate motor practice. For many individuals it is the discovery that they can actively and positively act on the reactions of their body and how these are inseparably linked to their psychological condition, in a relationship of mutual influence.
- The need for self-realization - In sports for all, there are very different needs for self-realization and certainly not all of them are positive. One of the forms of intelligence is kinesthetic intelligence and athletes derive a sense of personal development from the acquisition of a high level of mastery in the performance of their activities. Another mode of self-realization related, however, to sport for all is to maintain a satisfactory state of physical and mental well-being. On the other hand, those who use substances harmful to health or abuse drugs to improve their physical appearance or their sporting performance are not acceptable as forms of positive self-actualization.
- The need to belong - For many sportsmen and women, the search for social contact through motor/sports practice is one of the main motivations. Sport becomes synonymous with activities carried out in a group. One activity above all: running; running is an individual sport that takes place in a group, because the need to be with friends or to make new ones and to share with them one’s own personal sporting experience is a fundamental psychological dimension.
- The need for play and adventure - Sport for all means sport for everyone, in which the subjectivity and the needs of the individual prevail over the rules of the traditional competitive model. This is because sport for all is practiced for personal pleasure and the rules of the game are established by the participants. The prize is not the victory or the achievement of absolute performance, but the satisfaction of one’s own desire. The adventure is not only the absolute one of Messner or Soldini, but also the one of the sedentary person who decides for the first time in his life to overcome his resistance linked to his bad perception of his body or to the desire to lose weight and to follow a program of physical activity in the gym.
- The need to live in a natural environment - The need to do physical activity immersed in nature is increasingly felt, whether it be in a city park or at the seaside, in the mountains or in the countryside. The search for a suitable environmental context does not arise only from the pleasure of breathing cleaner air or smelling scents that we are no longer used to in the city. Even more profoundly, however, it is part of a physically active lifestyle, in which nature becomes the place par excellence in which to move, even if only to walk and chat with friends.
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