Sports Psychology-nov2004

“You ought to win if you are a professional sportsperson”, this is the attitude of most of the people in and around the sports field and of course the layman too have. This is how we judge a sportsman. Is it only for the winning purpose that we play a sport? Maybe at the professional level it may hold importance in fact a lot of importance, but if one looks at the other side of the coin one would find that the true meaning of playing a sport or the spirit of sportsmanship is lost. Today’s sports has become so competitive that everyone wants to win and nobody wants to loose , and for this purpose the athletes go down to any disgraceful level.

People in and around the sport are to blamed for it, why can’t we just enjoy the thrill of the sport, this would also result in the players enjoying it. Most of the players start off with a good passion, love and interest for the sport. They are ready to give up anything just for the sake of the sport but some of them land up unsuccessful and mere victims of pressure. Playing a sport at the professional level requires a lot of hard work and dedication and one who plays the sport only knows it. Therefore there is natural happiness when one wins and disappointment when one looses. It is here that criticism plays an important role, it is here the loosing and the winning factor comes to play and it is here that a sportsman yields under pressure, some of them use this pressure to build up their mental strength whereas some of them fear criticism and cultivate a negative attitude.

Sports can build a strong and invincible character, an adventurous and a very positive attitude but just like everything, sports has also some disadvantages, these disadvantages vary from person to person, a loosing streak in a sport may force an individual to hide his\her talents, he may be reluctant to play his own game, and at last the fear and pressure may also make him to hate a particular game.

Then there are media persons who highlight every time the Indian cricket team looses , this kind of narrow mindedness is also the cause for the hyper excitement build up before a Indo-Pak cricket matches and which fruitfully leads to the cancellation of tours to the neighboring countries, it is also the cause for the various drug scandals involving famous athletes.

We have forgotten what Coubertin once said “the means are more important than the does... the most important thing in life is not the victory but the contest. The essential thing in sports is not to have won but to have fought well, there should be fair play and healthy sportsmanship.” if winning a game was everything then one should forget the incident in the recent Olympics in Greece where a marathon runner who was a favorite to win a gold was interrupted by a spectator on his course. He landed up with a bronze but he earned a standing ovation from the crowd. If a sport was played only for the winning purpose then people should forget the flawless attitude of Evan ladle on the tennis court, one should also forget the brave hearted South Africans who embraced defeat at the hands of the Australian team in the semifinal match at the 1999 cricket world cup

Professional sports does need a winning attitude and a killer instinct but not to the limit that the athlete disgraces himself to register a win, nor should the people in and around the sport must indulge in unhealthy criticism. One should always understand the plight of a sportsperson. He\ she should try to get into the shoes of a sportsman and think accordingly , he \ her should experience the same emotions that a sportsman goes through like happiness, the sadness the Adeline pumping and the critics hovering around. We should learn to applaud the effort of a sportsman and try to encourage him or her no matter whether he looses or wins because where there is a winner there is a looser. There have been a number of articles written on the same issue but people just read and forget , I hope the same does not happen to this article too, the next time you see a looser spend few moments encouraging him or her rather than criticizing.