Analyzing the Different Motives in Various Age Group for Tendency toward Ancient Athletics in Tehran among Zoorkhane Athletes

These days, traditional management and emphasis on absolute amateurism in Ancient Athletics
does not help the maintenance of true Iranian legends and champion thoughts. The objective of
this study was to analyze cultural, social, psychological, physical, and specific differences
channelling Tehran’s Zoorkhaneh athletes towards Ancient Athletics in varied age groups in
2010. From among 25 Zoorkhaneh athletes in Tehran (500 people), 240 people were selected
randomly and categorized in different age groups(15-30 years of age:71 people; 30-45 years of
age: 89 people; 45-60 years of age:50 people; 60> 30 people) all of whom filled and returned
the researcher-made questionnaire. This is a survey of cross sectional research in which data
were collected experimentally. As the analysis of the data was done using SPSS software(
version 18), Cronbach’s Alpha (?=0.810 was utilized to ensure the validity of the questionnaire
about tendency towards Ancient Athletics in form of 20 questions with 5 main components. A
significant difference was seen among cultural, psychological, physical, and social reasons in
different age groups (p<0.05), but there was not seen a significant difference among specific
reasons for tendency towards Ancient Athletics (p=0.213). The study revealed that cultural and
social reasons in people older than 60, physical reasons for people between 15 and 30, and
psychological reasons for people between 30 and 45 are of more significance.