Enriching sports experiences

The driving force of the human personality is to fulfill his potential, or to become self­actualised — Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), psychologist.

The novelist and social critic, Susan Sontag, observed that a novel worth reading is an “education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what happens in the world”.

Clearly, this is an expansive view of the novel. Most readers make a more conventional assessment of the novel. Their only expectation is that it should be entertaining. But Sontag expects more from the experience of reading a novel. Similarly, is it possible to have more expansive expectations of how sports participation can impact parents, athletes, coaches and administrators? Can sports experiences help educate the heart and enlarge our sense of possibility?

I believe it can, if we invest in understanding the potential of sport and develop tools that will allow us to transport our hearts, minds and souls beyond the playing field. Our experiences of team communities can inspire us to discover ways to get added value from investment of time, money and effort in sports, if we think of sport as a source of inner enrichment rather than simply as a means of determining winners and losers.

But who would want to realise these lofty expect-ations? Most parents, athletes and coaches are locked into the conventional rather than expansive view of sport. They tend to focus on tangible returns on their investment — offering children wholesome activities to keep them out of trouble. On the other hand, an expansive view of sports encourages sportspersons to regard sports activity as a source of enrichment that can nurture the heart, mind and soul, and provide respite from trials and tribulations and pressures of everyday life. In short, most parents, athletes, coaches and administrators in school and youth sports are guided by the practical benefits of participation in sports and are unfamiliar with the full-range of growth and development opportunities sports experiences offer.

The challenge before sports educationists and visionaries — those who believe that sports experiences add richness to the intellectual, emotional and social development of all who participate (parents, athletes and coaches) — is to inspire education leaders and youth to engage in expansive programmes that add value. A starting point could be a debate about “sports worth doing”. Millions of educators, parents and youth need to be invited to debate whether the time and effort they are investing in sports is really paying off, for children, families, schools and communities. The plain truth is that they are not close to realising the full potential sports offers.

I must warn you — those who may be interested in traveling the road to good sports experiences — that the journey is not for the hurried, tired or timid. The past 30 years have taught me that it takes a great deal of effort and patience, and not a little courage to buck the current trends in my country (America). This is, indeed, an ‘era of impatience’, in which quick fixes are sought for every challenge. We are drawn to US Today rather than The New York Times, CNN Headline News rather than The News Hour with Jim Leher. In search of entertainment rather than comprehension we watch hot and contentious cable news rather than programmes which challenge. Some of the biggest sellers in bookstores are volumes in watered down dummies series. We have allowed our days to be so full of rapid fire stimulation because we have concluded we don’t have time to delve deeply into any subject, let alone commit to equipping ourselves with skills and knowledge that can enrich our lives.

In developing my philosophy of sports education for parents, athletes or coaches, I have discovered that the challenge to ‘sell’ a more expansive vision of education to moms and dads, athletes, coaches and sports administrators is not unlike the challenge before promoters of classical music trying to ‘sell’ the public virtues of this musical form. While most people are unprepared to declare classical music irrelevant, they are not yet ready to invest in developing a taste for it. Therefore the posers before sports educators pushing to take sports to a higher level are: Is this a waste of time? Is all the work required to develop a more textured, sophisticated and demanding perspective on sports worth the effort? Clearly the odds are stacked against those of us who want to bring about attitudinal change in the world of sport. But if we give up, a valuable opportunity for enriching the lives of our children, families, schools and communities will be lost.

I am convinced there is little chance we will be able to challenge the mainstream culture of sports without leaders — parents, athletes, coaches and administrators — who are willing to become involved, informed and well-equipped citizens of children’s sports communities. There is little argument that today’s sports culture needs to move in a new and refreshing direction. Without courage and hard work, sports education will continue to fail far too many children, families and communities. But sports educa-tion is too valuable not to be taken to its highest level.

(Dr. George Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to EduSports, Bangalore)