I spent some time dwelling on my fascination with sports, specifically my favorite sports team(s) that I won't mention here because some will take issue (Roll Tide Roll). It's true that I get caught up in the moment, the hype leading to each game, prior to the season, and sit riveted to the television during games over which I have zero control.
Those last four words of my previous sentence are what drew me into this thought provoking quagmire. No level of superstition, pre-game ritual, attire, or food eaten prior to, or during, the game will change its outcome. Despite my heartfelt prayers, I doubt God has the time or inclination to interfere in the outcome of a game. Naturally, none of this prevents me from exercising my right to conduct each of the aforementioned, but the reality is it's for naught.
My allegiances notwithstanding, why, I wonder, do I get caught up in the emotion of the game? The obvious answer, and one sans analysis, is I grew up with it, played the game(s), and understand them. Why is then that so many who may not have grown up playing sports feel energized while watching them?
The answer to this question, insofar as a group of fans is concerned, is most likely a complex one. People enjoy camaraderie, togetherness, the mass thrill of victory, and the comfort large groups provide in the face of defeat. On a deeper, more personal level, however, I am most fond of four aspects of team sports (individual sports like wrestling, MMA, gymnastics, etc. follow similar levels of respect in my mind, but those are not the focus of this article):
- The acute mental faculties of the players--I.E. their never say die attitude, their willingness to buy into a coach's system, and their game acumen.
- The incredible conditioning they put themselves through to be the best of the best.
- Their unwavering support for their teammates.
- The strategy and chess-like application a coaching staff will put in place in order to be victorious.
For a player to be mentally prepared for the physicality of any sport, he/she must move pain to a different compartment in their brain. I'm not talking about ignoring pain, I mean a honed athlete can compartmentalize pain temporarily, moving it from their mind and locking it in a safe spot until needed, post-game.
The victorious team will have jumped headlong into a coach's system without question. He/she will focus on how to improve their game, be responsible for his/her assignments on the field or court, and will study game strategy and playbooks until they become a part of him/her.
Conditioning is tantamount to experiential achievement on the field. Without fail, what a player does in practice is what he/she will do on the field. Game time is fun, but practice and training make the athlete!
These teammates will stand by each other no matter what. Support and encouragement are a small part of what teammates do, but it shouldn't be underestimated. When someone screws up, blows a play, or gets on the coach's bad side, his/her teammates are there to pick him/her up and push them back on the right track.
The strategy a coach employs is critical to victory. How a team adapts and overcomes on the "field of battle" is shaped by the head coach and refined by the coaching staff.
All of these things combined is what draws me to the television or to a live game. The constant push for perfection by a team without consideration for their opponent is the most enviable outcome they can desire.
I'm not kidding when I say this: I am sick and tired of hearing people on the right talk about how a certain congressman is intent on overtaking a section of the country for black people. I grow weary of the Mexican take-over of the central southern portion of the country, and I can't take anymore of an unnamed president-elect having views that set racial progression back thirty years.
