LAUSR

In many countries, sedentary lifestyle has led to a number of epidemic health problems, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and associated comorbidities. Countries have performed self-evaluations of the fitness status of their people: children, young adults, and the elderly. Policies for increased school-based physical education, and financial encouragement for extracurricular sports participation have been made, for example in Canada where registration fees for children’s organized sport activities can be deducted from taxable income. Individuals fight sedentary behavior with sports such as running, cycling, walking, or regular attendance of a fitness gym. However, team-based recreational sports have received much less attention than individual sports in their capacity to foster fitness and health. In this special issue of the Journal of Sport and Health Science (JSHS), we provide information on studies aimed at investigating the fitness, health, motivational, and social benefits arising from team sports. Three studies from groups at the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Copenhagen are introduced: one dealing with small sided team handball for women, another focusing on full-court and half-court basketball, and the last one centred on European football (soccer) and its possible benefits across a lifetime. The general conclusions across these studies are similar and can be summarized as “team sports offer a social and motivational way for improving fitness and health”. Needless to say, the different sports provide different benefits. One of the clever aspects of these studies is that the scientists chose “popular” sports. For example, the study on team handball was performed with young women. Hardly known as a sport in North America, team handball is a highly valued sport in Europe, and Denmark has been ranked among the top women’s handball teams for many years. Aside from improved endurance and bone mineral density compared to a sedentary control group, the handball playing women also had high motivational and social scores, emphasizing the psychological benefits arising from a team-based sport. Another unexpected finding came out of the football study. Here, bone mineral density in elderly and young players were compared to age-matched non-active controls. Not only did the elderly players have significantly greater bone mineral