Speedway is an adventure not only for the driver, but also for the audience. The race continues for only a few intensive minutes within which all the skills and all the knowledge have to be put into practice. This is very challenging for the driver. The audience can feel the tension. All the time there is something going to happen. Now!
The intensity of the race fills the atmosphere. Sometimes nothing special happens, sometimes a bypass takes place. The audience expects a good race. In a good race one can see all the skill of the drivers demonstrated at the track . After a good race, the drivers feel great satisfaction. And if the race has not been good, the driver feels dissatisfaction. He knows when the driving goes well and when it does not. This is immediate knowledge, comparable to Russellian knowledge by acquaintance.
Speedway demonstrates an example in which trained skill and propositional knowl-edge together constitute excellence in action. Moreover, in speedway the driver is not using his or her motorcycle, but the driver and the motorcycle is a unified totality which acts in the environment. Propositional knowledge orientates the driver. As orientating background knowledge, propositional knowledge builds a good drive.
However, if the driver starts to deliberate and to reason, then propositional knowl-edge breaks the drive and the driver make mistakes.
Speedway is not just an interesting sport, but it is a good example of a craftsman’s skills being evident. Speedway demonstrates how the human-machine relationship is deeper than a mere agent-tool relationship. All this becomes evident because all these aspects are present in speedway in a simplified manner. Speedway is a sport in which trained skill plays a central role, allowing us to understand speedway not as mere sport, but as art.
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9. A rolling stone gathers no moss!
Ilkka Väänänen
Introduction
Urbanization and inactivity are global phenomena, which show no signs of slowing down. Evolution has changed in the heritable characteristics of biological popula-tions over successive generapopula-tions. At the moment “homo ludens” is mostly “homo sedens”, who is much more sedentary than playing. Today our lifestyle is quite pas-sive (Husu et al. 2016). Although, as many as four in ten (41%) Europeans spend five and a half hours or more sitting down each day (European Union 2017), about 82% of the Finnish adult population has participated in exercising, sports, fitness or outdoor activities during the past year and the most commonly reported physical ac-tivity habits of the adult population have remained the same from one decade to the next. These include self-employed basic forms of outdoor exercise, such as walking, cycling, cross-country skiing and running. (Mäkinen 2019)
Three cultural representations of outdoor activities in nature have been identified (Simula 2012). The traditional-pragmatic representation of nature was conceptual-ized as follows: “It connects the rural-culture heritage relationship with the nature to the contemporary interpretations of outdoor activities. It reflects, on one hand, the rural change, and on the other hand, the preservation of traditional practices and meanings of outdoor activities in the nature.” For example, picking berries, hunt-ing, fishhunt-ing, acquiring commercial supplies and everyday exercise are explained in a very pragmatic way. The meanings of outdoor activities are attached to the benefits received. In addition, in part, the values of traditional moral culture determine this interpretation.
A romantic-expressive representation of outdoor activities in nature is derived from the portrayals of countryside, natural landscapes and nature experience created by the romantic movement. In this representation, these issues are positioned as
op-posites to urban and modern everyday life. They are placed outside the premises of everyday environments of activities. Nature is determined by an aesthetic mode, to which one can escape from the routines of everyday life and where one can focus on their own experiences. The meanings of outdoor activities are attached to visual, au-ditory and aromatic experiences, and release the mind from everyday thinking. The statements do not focus on characterizations of activities, but they describe, among other things, memorable nature experiences and adventures as well as clarifying one’s own thoughts. The statements form a representation of beauty and wonder of nature. Nature experiences are described to bring enrichment to life, and they be-long to a good life. (Simula 2012, 198)
The third, recreational-collective representation of outdoor activities in nature is connected with the people’s movement of nature-goers and recreational cultures.
Nature is interpreted as a recreational environment and outdoor activities in nature are seen to be a recreation cultural content of life. The statements form a description of things linked with recreational issues, such as the equipment needed, good recre-ational sites, norms of recreation, using the media products linked with recreation, communication between the enthusiasts, recreational-cultural valuations, recreation events and recreational activities of associations. Communion of the enthusiasts, outdoor activities as a lifestyle and definitions of recreational identities are also fre-quent topics. These themes complement the interpretations, for example, of scout-ing, climbscout-ing, fishing and hiking. The understanding of the importance of a certain recreation as a part of everyday life forms a frame for this interpretation. (Simula 2012, 198–199)
This article focuses on a positive interpretation of Finns’ physical outdoor activity in nature, and the potential of such health promotion projects. At the beginning, information on the physical activity of Finns and the practical possibilities of nature exercise will be presented. The second chapter provides the views expressed in the studies on the relationship between nature exercise and health. Then, in the follow-ing section, well-befollow-ing from nature projects are addressed and their results presented in more detail. Finally, some theoretical observations are concluded. The purpose of this article to lift up the positive items of outdoor activities and to introduce a num-ber of nature projects from the city of Lahti, Finland.