Course Reflection

Reflection 

In this course I went through a lot of different things about this subject overall, it was a good experience with an interesting subject that our instructor helped us with. Moreover, in the beginning when I first heard of IOC MOOC website I really wanted to know what it was about due to the fact it had an interesting name to it, later we learned about how it works and everything it is useful for. However, the most interesting thing I found was nutrition which is something I am extremely passionate about, Furthermore, the presentation we did, it was tremendously pleasant to hear about the sports and the different countries my friend presented in his presentation. I am already planning to go and visit the Turkish island that my friend presented about the pictures were incredible it would be a great opportunity for me to visit. Also, we did the case study in which we faced many problems or maybe you can call it bad luck in this assignment, but I believe due to the efforts and hard work also time management of our team we were able to get it done perfectly and in a professional manner.  Finally, when we did the individual interview, regarding the paper I wrote about sports in the past, it was a great chance for me and my father to bond and talk for several hours. Because of this course I was able to experience and learn several things not just educationally but personally as well.

Portfolio helped me a lot regarding time management and organizing our assignments. Also, in the blog provided by the professor when I needed or missed something I just checked the blog and it was a great aide when needed. Overall, I can say that this course was very helpful and educational but most importantly it was fun. I would recommend to other students if they are struggling with time management also I would recommend it with this professor particularly.  

Final Report

Final report

To begin with, as an interviewer it took me by surprise how many things I did not know about my country in terms of sports that was played back in the day. So I spoke to my father who happened to be apart of the change of sport evolution and whom also practiced one of the most famous sports back in the day which was camel racing. Moreover, so I asked for his permission to interview him which he seemed hesitant about in the beginning due to him maybe not remembering most of the events but he ended up agreeing and things just went from there.  So the question is how is sport and leisure changed today and how was sports and leisure different in the past?

            There were several sports that were extremely popular in the UAE during the 90s like, falconry that was basically the oldest traditional sport in the UAE how it worked is it was done during the day and It was done as a sport to hunt houbara and hares. This particular sport requires a lot of patience and courage to be able to train the falcon. How they did it is they used a tracker under the falcon’s skin with different identification numbers, which also helps in preserving this exceptional breed. This is sport nowadays is not widely popular like football or basketball but it is still practiced in several areas in the UAE.

            Furthermore, there is one very essential sport in the UAE history, which is camel racing it was first placed in informal settings like weddings or special events but now there is many tracks that were built throughout the country where the races are held during the winter. Usually camels that race feed on dates, honey, milk and seeds. And I believe they were not allowed to drink before the race and prevented eating anything within 11-12 hours before the race. Nowadays, camel races is still significantly practiced and a huge sport in the UAE. I personally in my early 20s was into camel racing and I won several awards for it. It was extremely enjoyable it was also a source of fun for me, as we did not have so many leisure and sport places like today.

            Currently, you can find several clubs or places that provides a variety of different sports options like swimming, football, and basketball also gym. Which is tremendously unlike back in the day as the sources of leisure and sport clubs were very limited and we had to go out and play and even sometimes make up a game that could be fun and you also had to make so many friends to keep yourself entertained and not bored as a kid. However, now you see kids who do not feel the need to go outside and play, they would rather stay home on the ipad or the iphone for continuous hours also with social networking sites now you can talk with your friends online without having the need to see them.