The 10 Most Popular Sports in North America

Music, Gym and Math teachers all over the world are constantly looking for ways to make their subjects more exciting and engaging for their students. Sports are used by physical education teachers to capture their students' interest as well as to develop team spirit.

Here are the 10 most popular sports in the United States and Canada:

Ice hockey, one of the subtypes of hockey, along with field hockey, is a sport that originated in Canada. In this sport, two teams face each other on an ice rink, and use hockey sticks to drive a puck across the rink or to pass it between players. The objective of this game is to drive the puck into the goal of the opposing team. It is Canada's foremost winter sport.

Lacrosse, which is the national summer sport of Canada, has Native American origins. Using the lacrosse sticks, which have nets at the end, the team players pass, catch and carry the ball across the field. To score, the team must drive the ball into their opponent team's goal. They must also defend their goal from the opponent team's attempts to drive a ball into it.

Curling is a sport that is thought to have originated in medieval Scotland. In this sport, two teams take turns moving eight granite stones on the curling ice sheet, towards a desired target. It is also called "chess on ice". Players with broomsticks can help in altering the state of the ice by applying their brooms on it. Points are assigned to the teams based on how near the stones are to the targets at the end of the game. The team with the highest number of points wins the game.

Basketball is another team sport that is very popular in North America. In this sport, two teams of five players each try to score points by shooting a ball through each other's basketball hoops. Defensively, the goal is to prevent the team to shoot their ball through your own team's basketball hoop. There are a set of rules that must be followed. There are professional basketball leagues in both Canada and the United States. To put it mildly, many students prefer playing this sport to Music, Gym and Math.

Baseball is another major league sport in Canada and the US. It originated in England. A team of nine players hits against the pitcher of the other teams and tries to score runs by moving through all 4 bases. The baseball field is a 90-foot square or diamond.

Soccer, which is played by two opposing teams of 11 players each, has 250 million players worldwide, and is said to be the world's most popular sport. The players kick the ball into position and try to drive it through the goal of the opposing team. The goalie tries to defend the goal and is the only player in the field that is allowed to touch the ball. American football and Canadian football are treated as one in our list but do have differences.

American football teams have 11 players each; Canadian football teams have 12. In both versions, the players score by throwing the football through the goal posts, carrying it to the end zone, or tackling a player in his own end zone.

Two versions of rugby football are particularly popular in North America. In Rugby Union, the opposing teams have 15 players each. In Rugby Union, there are 15 players on each side.

Tennis is played by two opposing players or two teams with two players each. Each side tries to score points by using a racket to drive the ball across the court into their opponent's side and returning the ball whenever it is on their side.

Cricket originated in England and is also played by 11 players on each side. The teams take turns batting while the other bowls and fields. Points are scored by the batting team by completing as many runs as possible without being dismissed.

Exposing children to sports early have been shown to improve their fitness, as well as their performance in school.

Web sites All About Basic Sports

  1. Amateur Athletic Union
  2. Sport- Science at The Exploratorium