The most popular sports played in America are Football,
Basketball, Baseball, Rugby, Ice Hockey. You can watch the video below
to see some pictures for the sports.
Football
American football,
referred to as football in the United States and Canada, and also known
as "gridiron football" or simply "gridiron", is a sport played by two
teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each
end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped football,
attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball,
while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop
their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense
must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they
turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are
given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing
the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking
the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team
with the most points at the end of a game wins.
Basketball
Basketball is a limited
contact sport played on a rectangular court. While most often played as
a team sport with five players on each side, three-on-three,
two-on-two, and one-on-one competitions are also common. The objective
is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10
feet (3.048 m) high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the
court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith. A team can
score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being
defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal
scores three points for the shooting team if the player shoots from
behind the three-point line, and two points if shot from in front of
the line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one
point, after the other team is assessed with certain fouls. The team
with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time
(overtime) is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation.
The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate, or
by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling). It is a violation
to lift, or drag, one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry
it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game
has many individual techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling,
shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking, and rebounding.
Basketball teams generally have player positions, the tallest and
strongest members of a team are called a center or power forward, while
slightly shorter and more agile players are called small forward, and
the shortest players or those who possess the best ball handling skills
are called a point guard or shooting guard. The point guard directs the
on court action of the team, implementing the coach's game plan, and
managing the execution of offensive and defensive plays (player
positioning)
Baseball
Baseball is a
bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who
take turns batting and fielding. The batting team attempts to score
runs by hitting a ball (that is thrown by the opposing team's pitcher)
with a bat swung by the batter, and then running counter-clockwise
around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate. A
run is scored when a player advances around the bases and returns to
home plate. Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the
pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting
hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team who
reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases
during teammates' turns batting, such as on a hit or by other means.
The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding
team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning
with the visiting team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of
nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end
of the game wins. If scores are tied at the end of nine innings, extra
innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, although most
games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball
games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This
game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern
version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely
recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is
currently popular in North America and parts of Central and South
America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South
Korea, and Taiwan.
Rugby
Rugby union, commonly
known in most of the world as rugby, is a contact team sport which
originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of
the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball
in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15
players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped
goalposts on each try line. Rugby union is a popular sport around the
world, played by male and female players of all ages. In 2014 there
were more than 6 million people playing worldwide, of whom 2.36 million
were registered players. World Rugby, previously called the
International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) and the International Rugby
Board (IRB), has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886,
and currently has 101 countries as full members and 18 associate
members. In 1845, the first football laws were written by Rugby School
pupils; other significant events in the early development of rugby
include the Blackheath Club's decision to leave the Football
Association in 1863 and the split between rugby union and rugby league
in 1895. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on
payments to players were removed, making the game openly professional
at the highest level for the first time. Rugby union spread from the
Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, and was absorbed by many of
the countries associated with the British Empire. Early exponents of
the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France.
Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national
sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga
and Wales.
Ice Hockey
Ice hockey is a contact
team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of
skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their
opponent's net to score points. The sport is known to be fast-paced and
physical, with teams usually consisting of six players each: one
goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to
take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Ice hockey is
most popular in Canada, central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and
the United States. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of
Canada, and enjoys immense popularity; alongside Canada, ice hockey
is the most popular winter sport in Belarus, Croatia, the Czech
Republic, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In North America, the National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level
for men's ice hockey and the most popular. The Kontinental Hockey
League (KHL) is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern
Europe. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the formal
governing body for international ice hockey, with the IIHF managing
international tournaments and maintaining the IIHF World Ranking.
Worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 76 countries.
When
a team makes a basket, they score two points and the ball goes to the
other team. If a basket, or field goal, is made outside of the
three-point arc, then that basket is worth three points. A free throw
is worth one point. Free throws are awarded to a team according to some
formats involving the number of fouls committed in a half and/or the
type of foul committed. Fouling a shooter always results in two or
three free throws being awarded the shooter, depending upon where he
was when he shot. If he was beyond the three-point line, then he gets
three shots.
During
offensive play, all players act as batters, taking turns trying to hit
the ball. The batter must try to predict whether the ball will be
hittable. They can decide whether to swing and attempt to hit the ball,
or to not swing, and allow the catcher behind them to catch it. If a
legal hit is not made, the umpire will make one of three calls – a
strike, a ball, or a foul ball.
The
game begins with a kickoff which is taken from the center of the field.
The team with the ball makes every effort to score a try once the ball
is in play. A try is scored when a player touches the ball to the
ground in the opponent's in-goal. The team is then awarded five points.
After a try is scored, the team is given the opportunity to score a
goal by kicking the ball over the opponents cross-bar and in between
the goal posts, scoring an additional two points, also known as
conversion points. The ball must be kicked from a line perpendicular to
where the ball was touched down. If the opposing team commits a penalty
at any time, the offended team can attempt a penalty kick for three
points, either at the goal or a drop kick at the goal from anywhere in
the field of play.
The
quarterback normally hands the ball off to a teammate (typically a
running back) to execute a running play, but he can also choose to run
the ball himself. Being able to think quickly and assess the situation
as it changes is a vital skill for a quarterback to help him decide
when to run the ball on his own.
Each
period starts after the face-off. A face-off is when two teams are in
position around the face-off circle. Then, the referee drops the puck
between the players who play center. There are 6 different positions:
center, right wing, left wing, right defense, left defense and goalie.
The play is over after a whistle of any referee. After a whistle-blow,
the time stops running. Each team can have a maximum of 20 players,
including two goaltenders who have a zone to defend. Each team has one
captain and two or three assistant captains. The ice is separated into
three zones. Each zone is marked by lines. The center zone is between
two blue lines and team zones are between one blue line and the end of
the ice. The lineman can whistle for two reasons: icing and offside. An
icing is when a player throws the puck into the zone before he crosses
the red line (center line) and an offside is when a player enters the
zone before the one who has the puck enters with it.
I created a table and wrote XXXX on the left side, chose the XXXX and in split mode I copied and pasted the code from Forms and Text Boxes in web pages page changing the options making suitable for my purposes
