Extreme sport

Under extreme sport is defined as the approach to athletic limits. Extreme Sports is a special technical, logistical, physical or psychological challenge for the athlete and is often associated with high risk. Extreme sports, is sometimes carried out individually or in small groups, sometimes far away from the public with great media coverage, and in some forms also illegal.

Classification of extreme sports

The assessment of sport as " extreme sports " is often subjective and considerably from individual viewer and his access to the sport dependent. To outsiders tend much faster to classify a dangerous to them appearing sport as extremely as the active athletes themselves almost all popular sports such as swimming, walking, running, climbing, downhill skiing, gymnastics, diving, paragliding can also excessive or high-risk as " extreme Sports " are operated. The specialized spectacular image documentation extreme athlete Heinz Zak has an impressive picture book visually noted that even the practicable on each meadow between two trees Slackline can be too high demanding tasks increased in the high mountains. Some sports such as bungee jumping act on outsiders as extreme, though there is hardly a real risk, high needs or difficulties. Even professional sports or technical logistically challenging sports activities are sometimes referred to as an extreme sport.

Examples of sports, which is often the label " extreme sport " or "Risk Sport" attached to the public, are parachuting, flying wingsuit, acro paragliding, base jumping, cliff diving, free solo climbing, free-diving or technical diving, whitewater kayaking and wild water swimming.

Motivation for extreme athletes

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Goal of most extreme sports is to grope their personal, physical and / or mental performance limit or to do something that has never been done so. In general, extreme athletes are no daredevil daredevil, but top athletes with ambition and a strong motivation. They reduce the risk of their projects and expeditions through good preparation (equipment, team, nutrition, sports medicine, weather, terrain, navigation, emergency management, rescue equipment, and others).

Problematic it can be for the athlete when in these border areas of an exaggerated ambition to overconfidence leads when the reflection on the health hazard potential is not working properly (example Zugspitze skiing) or competition for a desirable goal ( first ascents, records, etc.) in proper preparations Things. driving The release of endorphins can cause sensations of happiness, but also lead to the disregard of warning signals that can cause accidents. Endorphins can be addictive also in the pathological sense.

Sport addiction

→ Main article: Sports Addiction

"Sport as an addiction " is the obsessive preoccupation with sports action as a substitute for a lack of interpersonal contact, security, recognition, affection, etc. It is often observed in combination with an eating disorder. Intention is to keep the body weight stable. Sports addiction is pathological and often has additional diseases in the aftermath. However, sports addiction should not be confused with the fascination of a sport and the corresponding high motivation that urges the athletes to always repeat the highly satisfactory luck Experience anew and increase if possible.

Thrill and value orientation

Extreme sports such as Reinhold Messner, Alexander Huber Or Iris Hadbawnik flirt in their book titles so that, in their sport, " at the limit " " and to move beyond." The justifications remain very substantially in the need for acting out of power and urge the outer finding of fact. It is also about the demonstration of the " Force of Will " and her triumph over the danger.

Extreme sports can also be operated with very different value systems. The print and visual media vary in their response to the publicity issue between admiring a spectacular display of excellence ( stratospheric jump from Felix Baumgartner ) and the rather negative attitude towards a supposedly impoverished to "real" values ​​of society. So try some sociologists Horst W. Opaschowski and Karl -Heinrich Bette the increasing urge to a sporting exercise in extreme forms classified as a contemporary phenomenon of a solidified in security thinking, bored, under demanding in their adventure need civil society.

However, according to the research results of experimental psychologists Siegbert A. Warwitz these estimates fall short: His representative surveys of several thousand extreme athletes from numerous sports fields revealed a highly differentiated picture of the daring scenes, ranging from pathological to psychological, educational and socio- politically significant action approaches and behavioral patterns. In distinction between the aligned to the mere sensation seeking " thrill seekers " and a value orientation following " searcher for meaning " he comes to the conclusion that less their particular sport as the personal value horizon of each athlete, the consequence of its capacity building and his sense of responsibility (including to their own health ) come as a crucial criteria in the assessment in question. Even the athletes expected risk potential depends on the research of Warwitz from less by the objective realities of the individual sport than on the subjective level of competence and responsibility ability of each athlete, who must bring the claim to the task with his skill in a reasonable balance.