Childrens outdoor games

Children have always had great imagination, and almost any surrounding, be it a forest, park, parking lot, concrete building block spaces or even a wasteland, have the ability to serve as a playground, an imaginary landscape for any play or game. Even plane surroundings turn into a castle, pirate ship or a cave of a dinosaur when children let their imagination fly and fantasy flow.

Besides the free flowing and spontaneous play and games, children have played organized games through the ages. Actually, the gaming wasn´t restricted for children's only activity in human mental chart until quite recently, and adults were included into the games not so long time ago. The oldest games and sports like Mancala, Cuju and polo date back in history into the times before the christian era. Modern day games include the traditional sports like football and Finnish baseball and traditional games like ten sticks on the board or blind man´s buff.

For example jump rope games or ball games are popular around the world. They are the kind or games, which can be played almost anywhere, and don´t need special equipment or special field or area to be carried out. But nowadays games and plays have also special environments to stimulate the storytelling and imaginary of the children and their games. Almost every school and apartment building yard has a playground area, which is equipped with swings and building towers, sandboxes and slides.

Playground environments are built to support children's motor, social and cognitive development and they offer suitable challenges and tasks in between the game and play for all ages. Many research show that children who have been actively taken part into physical action in their early age and have had physical outdoor exercise (in Finnish: ulkoliikunta) through play and games have better self-esteem. Playground areas serve also as a social meeting point and connects this way different people and different generations.

Lappset Parkour opens in Westminster Academy, London

L.E.A.P. or London Experience of Art du Deplacment & Parkour was opened in September in London´s Westminster Academy in the grounds´of the Academy Sport. The site, in which the equipment is supplied by Lappset Playworld, is the worlds´ biggest spot dedicated to Parkour and freerun.

The equipment, made from galvanized steel, is designed by Stephane Vigroux from Parkour Generations. The facility is designed as an urban surroundings with the features and traits of a modern city spaces. Lappset Parkour products are designed in collaboration with Parkour and freerun professionals. Managing Director of Lappset Playworld Chris Jones stated that the company is pleased to be involved with L.E.A.P. and hope that the project would encourage people who may not be interested in traditional sports to go out and participate in Parkour.

Parkour is taking off on UK and it is estimated that some 40 000 people take part in the activity regularly. Parkour UK is targeting to train 500 new Parkour coaches by the end of 2012. There is however only few sites or areas in the whole country dedicated to this rapidly growing sport. Westminster Council´s Deputy Cabinet Member for Sport and Leisure Steve Summer stated that the Parkour site in Westminster Academy enables youth to express themselves with freedom, discipline and self-awareness in a safe environment.

Eugene Minogue, Chief Executive of Parkour UK told, that the site is a result of many years work and dedication and will provide the sport a platform to develop further. Lappset is based in Rovaniemi, Finland and exports playground equipments to over 40 different countries.

Keeping the joints healthy through the old age

By the aging the human bones and limbs loose slowly their density and flexibility. While getting older, most people experience increasing joint discomfort and older we get the worse it gets. The process of aging of joints can´t be turned around, but we can slow it down and prevent and even repair damages and injuries which makes joints and bones even more fragile.

Diet is one of the key factors when keeping up with the health of the joints and bones. Bones and joints need a necessary amount of calcium to regenerate. For example milk products and sesame seeds are good sources for regular calcium intake. Your joints can benefit also from having regularly omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids which can be found in most of the oils and some nuts.

Regular exercise and doing sports will extend the correct functioning of joints when getting older. Building up muscle health is essential for joints as well, since the muscles around the joints and bones keeps them on their proper places. However, for exercise and senior fitness (in Finnish: senioriliikunta)most extreme or even some very common sports are not that attractive, since the risk for the bone and joint injuries increases with the age. Fitness is anyhow noted to have positive effects on joint and bone health. Regular exercise is essential to keep your body healthy.

In mid 2000s Lappset carried out a study on everyday life of children and elderly people. The project resulted on Senior Sport Concept, in which the mission is to get people outside to play and exercise. The Senior Sport Concept equipment are designed to improve the capacity of elderly people to cope in everyday life and to keep joint, muscles and bones healthy and moving. The simple routines and movements are intended to keep mobility and coordination. Senior Sport features outdoor fitness and and fitness installations to do the simple exercise outdoors while enjoying fresh air at the same time.

Back to playful society

Recently I stumbled upon an interesting notion while wandering around the internet’s vast plateaus of information: According to anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, communities of hunter-gatherers spent around four hours a day on work. The remainder was dedicated to playing and games.

Sahlins tells us that hunter-gatherers of the Pacific area, which he has studied extensively, have few possessions and are the lowest energy consumers. Yet they are the original affluent society with material needs easily met in a few short hours a week.

Another anthropologist, Richard Lee had a similar keen eye on African Bushmen and he studied their efficiency on feeding the tribe by gathering food. In Lee’s report a “day’s work” was approximately six hours. And the tribesmen work week could be calculated to be 15 hours – and average of 2 hours and 9 minutes daily. This means that most of the day, they did something else than worked – most of the day was their leisure time.

Lee witnesses that majority of the people’s time, four to five days every week, was spent in other pursuits, such as resting in camp or visiting other camps. So playtime was more important to them than work. In our society people tend to forget the playfulness and the importance of play. Our current society is thriving on performance, scoring and setting targets. In fact, playing more helps us adults relieve stress and be ourselves easier – in the way only children can.

Children are natural at expressing themselves, enjoying life and it’s little miracles without hindrance. And they do it trough playing. In Finland there’s a common phrase: Play is children’s work. It means that children are not meant to work, their only workplace is a playground and their own plays.

And what could be better than doing it outdoors in the fresh air, under a wide open sky? So next time you feel exhausted, go out and find your nearest outdoor playground (in Finnish: ulkoliikuntapaikka) and let yourself be a kid again. Or even better, take your kids with you, or borrow some from your neighbours and let them teach you. I guarantee, a little play never hurts.

Outdoor sports facilities in Finland

Outdoor fitness (In Finnish=ulkoliikunta) and exercise are good ways to keep up the good health, to keep the mind active and lively and unload stress and tension. In Finland, country famous of its´ forests and lakes, outdoor activity facilities are excellent, in the countryside as well as in the cities.

There is in surroundings of almost every bigger city several golf courses, football fields, tennis courts and skating places. For example city of Helsinki offers vast outdoor activity areas around the surrounding forest areas and the several parks are located in the heart of Helsinki. Possibilities are multiple for jogging, outdoor gymnastics, Nordic walking, orienteering, cycling and roller skating. In winter time ice skating fields are freezed for the use for skaters.

There isn´t much of beaches in Finland, the Kalajoki and Hanko being probably to most famous ones. The season for spending time at the seaside beach is quite short. Big outdoor swimming pool facilities offer an extension to swimming season with their attached sauna and shower facilities. For example in Helsinki there is at least two of these, open from quite early spring until the first days of autumn.

For hiking there are good areas even near the capital. Large green forest areas, such as Nuuksio or Luukki, are only an hour car drive away from the center of Helsinki. And the more north you go, the more you will find empty forests and uninhabited woods, since the country is large and the habitation centered mostly in to the south. National parks and the nature of Lapland offer quiet and untouched nature for a prepared wanderer even for weeks.

Regular sports prevent symptoms of ageing

Aging affects body in many ways and for example the physical capacity weakens in later years. Muscels start to loose their strength and joints feel more stiff. All kinds of symptoms of the old age can be doubled by for example diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, usually breaking out in the older age.

The weakening of the physical abilities can be however prevented and postponed by the active physical exercise and regular fitness and keeping the lifestyle generally healthy. Regular exercise can extend the days and years of good health with well functioning body and keeps the mind as well fit and active, which in return affects the bodily health. The best way would be to start regular exercise as early in the age as possible. Having the lifestyle that includes regular fitness is like a life insurance, but its´s not, however, never too late start either. Senior fitness (In Finnish=senioriliikunta) can offer a possibility to start regular exercise.

Senior age is no obstacle for starting to fill the schedule with regular sports, even if you haven't have any habit of doing regular physical exercise. Weekly classes don't take much time in the end, even two hours per week and added walks to the grocery or cycling to pay a visit for a friend instead of taking a car every now and then makes a difference and will keep your body active. The exercise doesen´t need to be exhausting one, especially if there is no previous practice of doing exercise or there has been long time since doing any sports. Even an half an hour of a brisk walk every couple of day is a good start. Outdoor fitness areas offer also a relaxed mode of diverse gymnastics

Ideology of Parkour

Parkour is a sports combining acrobatics and fast movement, aiming at moving trough urban spaces as smoothly and quickly as possible. It was developed in suburbias of city of Paris by David Belle and Sebastian Foucan. Eventually the sport was spread all over the world and was featured for example in the James Bond movie Casino Royale.

The founding fathers of Parkour emphasized the functionality of the movement and the importance to be free from the barriers of the urban surroundings. This is extended as well to concern the urban social relationships, into the breaking the social barriers between people and building relationships across economical and social boundaries. Parkour was later on developed and evolved and more acrobatic motions were incorporated. After the sport entered Great Britain, it started to be called freerun. Freerun and Parkour are similar in their outlook and ideology, freerun incorporating more features from for example breakdance.

Parkour as a sport and as a way of thinking and comprehending the urban space has a certain anarchistic tone in it. Refusing to use the routes and spaces pointed for most of us to use to move between places actually questions the authority of the official town planning and in this sense the whole system of the urban way of arranging the society. Parkour draws as well from the idea of self-improvement and self-awareness, aiming at fluidity, the ability to change and transform smoothly. Self discipline plays a big role when crossing over ones limitations and mental obstacles through physical training. Parkour is a way of having control over your body and control over your environment.