In American Football, for example, specialisation by position has been taken almost to the extreme with separate offensive and defensive units and over fifty differentiated playing-positions.
A shift towards increased equality of opportunity has also been observed. This includes increased regulation as well as a move away from exclusion on grounds of position in various social-strata. Folk games involved large numbers of participants which more often than not would result in uneven numbers and generally, as Malcolmson (1973) highlights, the rules governing them gave the players a great deal of discretion with regard to levels of violence. Furthermore, women generally were not involved, as Malcolmson (1973) notes, games involved significant proportions of the able-bodied males in a town or parish.
Today efforts are made to ensure equality of opportunity and, in modern soccer for example, rules governing violent conduct exist to ensure meritocracy on grounds of skill-level. Thus, smaller players such as Michael Owen are able to demonstrate their truly unique skills. Weight categories have been implemented in sports such as boxing and attempts are made to prevent the use of ergogenic aids deemed unfair' or unethical. Also, legislation such as Title IX (1972) in the US and the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) in the UK has been implemented to prevent discrimination on gender grounds. With regard to the disabled, increasingly competitions and leagues are developing, the most focal being the Paralympics founded in 1952.
Prior to the industrial revolution no real attempts were made to rationalise or academicise performance enhancement. Contrast this to the situation in contemporary sport where sports-science support and research in fields such as physiology and biomechanics is common place, with the field also being incorporated into education at all levels. This rationalisation can also be associated with an increased level of civility and a decreased level of violence within sport.
