Sports: Cement of Team Spirit - Essay Example

Sports – Cement of Team Spirit On the psychological and social benefits of playing sports, Vince Lombardi, the American football coach observes that, “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society” (cited in True Sport, 31). Many a research on this subject has revealed the link between sports and strong team work and the strength of strong team spirit impacting positively over other walks of life. In this essay I shall briefly state that sports has the inherent quality promote kinship and is a wonderful tool in team-building among members of youth, with examples from my experience as a Rugby player, and how it helped me improve my capabilities in my workplace. Sports – Physical and Mental Activity Sports and athletics have been favored leisure activities since the time of Roman and Grecian civilizations, and we have instances competitions and athletic meets taking place in Athens and Sparta. In fact, the Penn museum website explains that, the very origin of ‘athlete’ is itself from an ancient Greek word meaning -one who competes for a prize; similar words existed in Greek too, indicating that sports were a popular way of life even from ancient times. Was this popularity due to the fact that sports helped promote human cooperation while also helping people relax in an active way? Now, you may wonder, relax in an active way? Is that possible? It sounds like an oxymoron, isn’t it? Actually, sports and relaxation complement each other. You play a game when you want to relax, and relax even while watching others play. Doesn’t that explain why there are so many sports lovers? Playing a game means adhering to a known and accepted set of rules and trying to explore ways of gaining advantages for oneself or one’s team to win the game. This requires complete alertness and awareness at the field as well as prior knowledge of how the game is played. Since the game can be won or lost in a fraction of a second, the players must be fully alert to the movements taking place from moment to moment, in order to perceive the changes and respond to the movements immediately and ward off attacks or defeat the opponent to be victorious. Not only does sports activities make you mentally alert, the force you to flex and stretch your muscles physically too. What are sports if there is no movement of limbs and the body, involving physical activities like throwing, running, kicking, pulling and pushing? Even a game of chess, which is called the ‘brain game’, involves moving the pawns and the coins on the chess board. In essence, sport is explained as an activity that involves physical exertion and skill, with individuals or teams competing against others for entertainment (Oxford Dictionary website). Sporting Traits and Teamwork Most sports involve group work; for example, rugby, cricket, football/soccer, baseball, hockey, basket ball, volley ball are just a few examples of games that are played in teams or groups, while tennis and badminton are examples of games that are played one-on-one as well as in pairs. Whether it is in pairs or in groups, working as a team and understanding between team-mates is important to win any game. Even though sport in general is known to have many positive effects and benefits for human beings, in my opinion, team sports particularly, enhances the effects of the five ‘C’s - “competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring” that are imperative to progressive development of youth (Lerner, Fisher & Weinberg, pp. 11-20). Furthermore, studies also prove that there are other positive dimensions of sports like, “a) the discipline of training, b) learning teamwork, following the leadership of coaches and captains, and most importantly, c) learning to lose” (USADA, pp. 31-2). All these lessons, when applied to arenas beyond sports, for example, in factory settings or a work-place, has great potential to cement bonds and promote kinship between workers while simultaneously improving productivity and efficiency. Lacking any of the five traits can be disastrous even for an individual player; but, for a group or a team, the five traits play the most important role. Deficiency of any one of the traits even in one member of the group/team-mate is enough to pull the entire team down and ruin the efforts of the whole team. For example, if in a football game, if one of the players in Team A, say the goal-keeper is not competent to defend the goal effectively, then, Team B will quickly spot the weakness and rightfully take advantage of the situation and try to win the game, by repeatedly exposing the incompetence of the goal-keeper. Thus, the incompetency of one player may become the cause of defeat, despite all the other players playing well. Rugby and Building Teamwork However, more crucial to the above is building the ‘team spirit’ or ‘team-work’. This is developing a feeling of unity between the players that will help them understand each other as a part of a single unit. This is easier said than done. Graham Cooke, a seasoned Australian, rugby coach observes that “team-building exercise is complex, often requiring sophisticated people-management skills, and usually done under quite severe time restraints” (p. 1). Identity, Motivation, Structure, Goals (Martin Rugby Coaching Archive 1) are salient features of team building and it is vital that every team member understands these features. Rather than lay down rules like a law-book, it is better to illustrate how team-building can be achieved through an example. I would like to share my twenty-five years of rugby playing experience with you to show how this sport can be a great tool to build team-spirit and improve team-work. Rugby Playing and Team Building Rugby is one of the best sports that builds’ strong team-work and cooperation. I have played the game for more than two decades and a feel great sense of pride to declare that I am a part of a team that played in the American National Rugby League for the 2011 season. Our coach was an excellent man and had committed himself to make our team compete with the best players of the year in the USA. He would take no chances and ensure that all of were psychologically, physically and strategically preparing us to become winners. When I first joined the league, there was no practice of taking the players out together as part of ice-breaking strategy; but our coach insisted on that and we went off on weekend training sessions wherein all we players ate, slept and practiced our drills together, and had fun as mates. Initially we hardly spoke to each other, but soon we became thick mates, especially when some of later became colleagues at the work place too. Each team was given a separate logo and name, and though we practiced together, every team was encouraged to form their own strategies. Soon, we knew the strengths and weaknesses of their play, of our mates, and we could anticipate moves and cover them; our team-identities were firmly established, and we were one team. Two members of our team were quite new and it took time for them to integrate themselves into the team. However, our leader’s clear communication skills and transparent approach helped and we could sort out our differences to understand each of our roles clearly, within the team, like to who the ball must be passed on at what point and so on. Since the structure of the team was clear, by and large confused moves were reduced. So, after our initial couple of defeats, our motivation as a team to defeat our opponent team increased. This was not to say that there were no set-backs. We felt challenged as a team when one of my friends’ who was also a senior player, had a bad ligament tear and was out of the game quite some time. Our team-mates, being accustomed to moves of the senior player found it difficult to accept when his substitute did not quite match up the level. But again, our coach pitched in and counseled the substitute as to what he could have done to better the game and after a couple of games he moved perfectly in time, much to the joy of all our team and awarded points for our ‘try’. This enthused us further and every time our coach would make us repeat our goals within our team, strengthening our resolve to achieve our Team goal. We did it finally, but honestly, I found that the rewards of victory far less attractive than the actual excitement of being there and playing the game. Being able to play it well, scoring a point and the thrill of the game is more rewarding than any prize money, personally. Team Building is Human Relationship What I did not realize initially was that these qualities that I acquired as a rugby athlete – the discipline, the support for team-mates, the preference for transparency, appreciating honest feed-back and so on, actually stuck to me unknowingly. I found that I automatically extended a helping hand to reach out to a junior officer in my work-place by spontaneously doing a double shift when he was not well. He soon became a good colleague and well-wisher. Similarly, when my senior officer called me to point-out a flaw in my work, I could take the feed-back constructively and improve on where I had been wrong, without taking it personally. After all, we were all one team and honest feed-backs made us better our tactics. My senior was also happy when the problems were resolved and I soon invited him to watch our team play a rugby match on a week end. The game had helped me build better human relations! Conclusion Sporting activities challenge human beings to use their energies both physically as well as mentally. As a form of leisure, sports and athletics have been popular through history; in fact, the word athletics itself has a Greek origin. The five ‘C’s important for sports are competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring; however, there are other dynamics that affect the quality of game as well as the emergence of the winner. Team building is the most important ingredient that ensures victory in group sports. It promotes understanding and honesty, trust and fair-play and improves communication skills sets in people. Building team spirit, however, takes dedicated work, care and attention to details as well patience and tolerance. Team identity, motivation, structure, goals and are fundamental to the team building process. While there are different ways to engage in the process, I enjoyed the way that my rugby coach foraged team-spirit into my team mates and myself. These qualities have stayed with me till date and I find that they have helped me enhance my human relationship skills too. Hence I conclude that team-sports are a good way to bring people together and bing about kinship in communities. List of works cited Cooke, Graham. “Mateship the key to team building” in Sports Coach (2014); 21(1): 1. Also at https://secure.ausport.gov.au/sports_coach/coaching_processes/mateship_the_key_to_te am_building Lerner RM, Fisher CB, Weinberg RA. “Toward a science for and of the people: promoting civil society through the application of developmental science”. Child.Dev. 2000; 71(1):11-20. Martin Rugby Coaching Archive. “Team Building” Online Article updated on January 1, 2014. http://www.rugbycoach.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41:intro duction-on-teambuilding&catid=7 Oxford Dictionary. “Definition of sport” (2014) Available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sport Penn Museum. “The Real Story of Ancient Olympic Games - The Athletes: Amateurs or Pros?” (undated). Available at http://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicathletes.shtml True Sport. “Psychological and Social Benefits of Playing True Sport” by United States Anti-Doping Agency publication (2012). Pp. 31-33 Available for download at http://www.truesport.org/library/documents/about/true_sport_report/True-Sport Report.pdf?__hstc=753710.e9e3ac1b085bde49dd3a01f852d3ffca.1401816356271.1401 816356271.1401816356271.1&__hssc=753710.1.1401816356272&__hsfp=3694442045 Lerner RM, Lerner JV, Almerigi JB, et al. Positive youth development, participation in community youth development programs, and community contributions of fifth-grade adolescents: findings from the first wave of the 4-H study of positive youth development. J.Early.Adolescence. 2005; 25(1):17-71. Read More