Extreme sports

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Under extreme sport means the approach to extreme sporting limits. For the athlete ( extreme athlete ) this means an extraordinary technical, logistical, physical or psychological challenge, which is usually associated with high risks. It is therefore often practiced individually or in small groups far away from the public. On the other hand, because of the spectacular achievements, he can also count on a high level of public attention and a correspondingly large media presence.

Classification of extreme sports

There is no scientifically precise definition of where normal sport ends and extreme or risk sport begins. Extreme sports are often sports with the goal of very high endurance performance such as ultramarathons , extreme obstacle runs , (ultra) long-distance bike races and long-distance swimming ( open water / canal swimming ) under special (e.g. climatic) conditions.

Risk sport

The risk sports in which the risk of accidents cannot be reduced to a reasonable level can be described as a subgroup of extreme sports. Often such sports are not or only partially insured by accident insurance.

Examples of risk sports:

Motivation for extreme athletes

Most extreme athletes aim to approach their personal physical and / or psychological performance limits or to do something that no one has done before. As a rule, extreme athletes are not daring daredevils , but top athletes with ambition and a strong will to perform. You reduce the risk of your projects and expeditions through good preparation in terms of training, equipment, team composition, nutrition, medical equipment, weather and terrain exploration, navigation technology, emergency management, rescue arrangements and other things.

It can be problematic for the athlete if excessive ambition leads to self-overestimation in these border areas, if the reflection on the health hazard potential does not work properly (e.g. Zugspitzlauf ) or competition for a worthwhile goal (first ascents, records, etc.) in poorly prepared activities float. The release of endorphins can induce feelings of happiness , but it can also lead to disregard of warning signals, which can cause accidents. Endorphins can also be addictive in a pathological sense.

Sports addiction

“Sport as an addiction” is the compulsive preoccupation with sport . It can arise as a substitute action from a lack of interpersonal contact, security, recognition, affection and is often observed in combination with an eating disorder . The intention is to keep the body weight stable. Sports addiction is pathological and often leads to additional illnesses. However, sports addiction should not be confused with the fascination with a sport and the corresponding high level of motivation, which urges top athletes to repeat over and over again the highly satisfying experience of happiness that sport can offer and, if possible, to increase it.

Thrill and value orientation

Extreme athletes like Reinhold Messner , Alexander Huber or Iris Hadbawnik flirt in their book titles with moving "at the limit" "and beyond" in their sport. The justifications remain largely in the perceived as legal need to act out the urge to perform and the establishment of factual records. It is also about the demonstration of the “power of will” and the triumph over danger, which is experienced as a happy one.

Extreme sports can, however, be practiced with very different value orientations. The print and image media fluctuate in their response to the high-profile topic between an admiring display of spectacular top performances (stratospheric jump by Felix Baumgartner ) and the rather negative attitude towards a society that is supposedly impoverished in “real” values. For example, the sociologists Horst W. Opaschowski and Karl-Heinrich Bette attempt to classify the increasing urge to exercise in extreme forms as a temporal phenomenon of a civil society that is bored with security thinking and under-challenged in its need for adventure.

According to the research results of the experimental psychologist Siegbert A. Warwitz , however, these assessments fall short: his representative surveys of several thousand extreme athletes from numerous sports areas gave a highly differentiated picture of the venture scenes, ranging from pathological to psychologically, educationally and socio-politically highly significant approaches and behavioral patterns as found in the flow theory of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi or the theory of the security instinct by Felix v. Represent cube . Differentiating between the “thrill seeker” who is focused on the mere stimulus search and the “meaning seeker” following a value orientation, he comes to the conclusion that it is less the respective sport than the very personal value horizon of the individual athlete, the consequence of his competence building and his sense of responsibility (also towards own health) can be considered as decisive criteria in the assessment. According to Warwitz's research, the potential risk that the athlete can expect depends less on the objective conditions of the individual sport than on the subjective level of competence and the level of responsibility of the individual athlete, who has to balance the demands of the task with his or her ability.

See also

literature

  • Karl-Heinrich Bette: X-treme. On the sociology of adventure and risk sports , transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 978-3-89942-204-7 .
  • Norman Books: Extreme. The power of will . Goldegg Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-902729-18-7 .
  • Iris Hadbawnik: To the Limit and Beyond, Fascination Extreme Sports , Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89533-765-9 .
  • Alexander Huber: The mountain in me. Climbing to the limit. Malik . Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-89029-337-0 .
  • Reinhold Messner, Thomas Hüetlin: My life at the limit . Malik, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-89029-285-2 .
  • Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtrem. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a temporal phenomenon , Germa-Press Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-924865-33-7 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd expanded edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Hrsg.) Berg 2006. Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen. Pages 96-111. ISBN 3-937530-10-X .
  • Heinz Zak: Slackline at the limit . BLV, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-8354-0797-X .

Web links

Wiktionary: Extreme sport  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Extreme sports and risk sports: which extreme sports are there? Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection : Gesundheit.gv.at. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ Dangerous sports - dares : SUVA
  3. ↑ Coordination Switzerland: Social security and coordination law
  4. ↑ The risk must be worth it . Interview in the magazine "bergundstieg", Innsbruck October 2011
  5. ↑ Reinhold Messner, Thomas Hüetlin: My life at the limit . Malik, Munich 2004
  6. ↑ Alexander Huber: The mountain in me. Climbing to the limit. Malik . Munich 2007
  7. ↑ Iris Hadbawnik: To the Limit and Beyond, Fascination Extreme Sports, Verlag die Werkstatt
  8. ↑ Norman Books: Extreme. The power of will . Goldegg publishing house 2011
  9. ↑ Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtreme. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a time phenomenon , Germa-Press Verlag, 2000
  10. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bette: X-treme. On the sociology of adventure and risk sports , transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2004
  11. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Explanatory attempts for the pursuit of risk . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd ext. Ed., Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 , pp. 98-295
  12. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Ed.): Berg 2006 . Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen. Pp. 96-111