Lifelong Sport

Winning! Winning at all costs! Defeating your opponents! Never giving up and destroying anyone who dares to step onto the field against you…

Well, it is definitely the never giving up part, and winning sure is great. You should always try your hardest to win and play your best. But destroying the competition and winning at all costs…maybe not.

Despite society’s current attitude toward sport and the fixation on winning above all else sport has a very different role to play in society and it is mainly in the last few decades that we have seen a shift in our focus. Generally speaking, we have shifted our priorities away from a pastime and a thing of joy to focusing on becoming the next ‘insert great players name here’.

We are getting too caught up in winning above all else and fixating on becoming (or getting our children to become) a professional sportsperson. We are getting caught up in winning, making it to the next representative team, earning a college scholarship and making sure our child is the best in the world (because our child’s success denotes how good we are as parents).

What this is causing is to teach our youth to prioritise individualism, focusing on self and ego above the team and community. Unfortunately, this is causing our youth to care less about community, making it hard for them to know their place in society. This then leads to higher rates of mental health issues for the individuals as they are disengaged and disenfranchised and higher rates of tribalism and fragmentation in our society.

This is also driving a lot of highly inappropriate crowd behaviour, as it is becoming more and more common place to abuse officials (often volunteers and often youths themselves) as well as disrespect and abuse our competitors.

Just this month all Football matches were cancelled in Türkiye after an official was violently attacked, punched to the ground and kicked by an upset mob who disagreed with his officiating. The attack was actually initiated by the club president of one of the teams involved in the match. https://www.advocateanddemocrat.com/news/national/article_f0fc2941-75f6-57c9-8d95-6e4e8d1611a5.html

Winning is a part of sport, a great part in fact. It is not what sport is solely about. It is not the purpose of sport.

Sport is about community building.

It is about teaching our ways to the next generation so they can become the best person they can be and fulfil their role in society. It is about connecting with each other, building relationships that serve to pass on knowledge, build connections that keep people of all ages engaged and with a safe place to turn to in difficult times.

This is something that indigenous populations have known for centuries.

This is why sport as a pastime has been part of so many cultures for millennia.

It is a time for tribes to come together and reconnect, often reinforcing their peace vows and to trade.

It’s a time for older and younger members to interact and build/deepen relationships.

It’s a safe and playful way to improve critical skills and capabilities (hunting, running, tracking, throwing, teamwork, communication, determination, concentration etc). Note the playful element provides a pressure free opportunity to test and develop skills and techniques away from the pressure of a real-life scenario.

It’s a chance to reinforce and solidify culture, traditions, and identity. All which combine to strengthen the community’s fabric, ensuring that there are no disenfranchised individuals that could weaken the community to catastrophic effect in times of hardship.

These traditional games were also pivotal in maintaining an individual’s physical health and conditioning and were often followed by communal eating which again further drives the building of the community.

It’s time we returned our focus back to the origins of sport, to connect, build, teach and develop ourselves and move away from this fixation on elitism and winning above all else.

To help the individuals become the best person they can become and for our tribes to connect and build ties.

The payoff for our community is too great to lose sight of the true purpose of sport.

How do your actions as a parent, coach, administrator or official reinforce or undermine sports true purpose?