With our physical inactivity and obesity rates soaring, it’s easy to accuse the Maltese of lacking a sporting culture. Our children spend less time engaged in sports and physical activity and more time, apparently, eating unhealthy food.

We fare miserably on international inactivity rankings and our adults are unfortunately among the largest in Europe. Don’t worry, I’m not going to depress you with dire statistics. Instead, I whimsically ask: “Do other cultures really take sports and physical activity more seriously than we do?”

It certainly seems that in some parts of the world sports and culture are inseparable. Indeed, sports can be traced right down to our communicative routes. It can be found in language itself.

Whether working, socialising or reading the news, certain phrases and idioms borrowed directly from the world of sport tend to crop up as the best way to illustrate certain concepts, whether we are sport-oriented or not.

What fascinates me most is hearing people who are seemingly not sport-oriented say things that betray the rich sporting culture in which they live. There are plenty examples of sporting jargon in the English language. However, I would be very interested to hear from those of you with a special and intimate love of Maltese, who can challenge the notion that we are not culturally tied to sport and physical activity as some other cultures are.

So what about English? Let’s kick things off. Well it looks like I’ve stumbled across our first example right there: to kick off. Used to describe the beginning of some major phase or event, this phrase comes from football to describe the start of a match, signalled of course by a whistle blow. There’s our next example. A whistle blower is anyone who will call you up on an apparent foul just like a referee in a football match. If sport mirrors life, then the whistle blower will be the one who catches you doing something wrong.

Whether the whistle blows or not, things can sometimes get out of hand in our relationships at home or at work, and the need arises for a time-out for us to regroup, collect our thoughts, revise our strategies or simply take a breather. In basketball, coaches have a number of opportunities to call a time-out, where play is stopped and players are called in to huddle up and communicate.

Of course, we wouldn’t know about such rules unless we first familiarise ourselves with the game or learn the ropes, as they say in sailing. The ropes in this case attach to the sails themselves that must be manipulated to effectively control a boat.

If we do this right, then we might say the commitments and challenges we face soon become plain sailing.

When we eventually tire, we might suddenly face a new lease of life, which we could even refer to as a second wind: that gust of wind sailors wish for that gives the boat added and unexpected propulsion.

We can’t just wait around for a second wind, however. We need to be ready and able at all times, or as a baseball player might put it, be on the ball. A batter will only be able to effectively hit an oncoming ball pitched to him when he keeps his eye on the ball.

Being on the ball will always help you maintain the standards required to accomplish any given task, something a golfer might term as being up to par. Golfers are considered up to par when they successfully complete a round of golf within the designated amount of attempts.

Few sports can claim more catchphrases, however, than professional boxing. When we’re susceptible to the pressures of the world around us, few things are more comforting than a close friend or loved one reminding us that they are in our corner: a direct reference to the coach or cutman being on standby to assist and support a boxer resting between rounds of fighting.

Do other cultures really take sports and physical activity more seriously than we do?

And when they get back out into the ring, boxers should better avoid hitting below the belt, an infringement of the rules that is looked down upon among patrons of the sport as disdainful and dirty.

With our hurtful comments or underhand tactics in everyday life, we too can hit below the belt. When it all gets a little too much for us, we could be said to throw in the towel, just as a coach might do to protect an outclassed boxer.

The protection is, of course, from sustaining a knockout blow, an agressive action that can put an end to any endeavour in life, coming from a range of sources not necessarily wearing boxing gloves.

Mismatches and towel throwing wouldn’t be required in the first place if we played on a level playing field, a reference used in all sports to indicate that conditions and rules are fair for everyone who is participating.

If they are not fair and we feel somehow cheated or shortchanged out there in the real world, we do all we can to settle the score, or get even. As much fun as I’m having, even this article must come to an end, which means I’m ready to make an end run.

But to do that, just like a great chess player, I guess I’d need a much better end game.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt