“I’m in.”
There used to be nothing more satisfying than seeing your name on a team sheet and whispering those words under your breath, no matter what standard of sport you played, or where you played it. In some cases it may not have been a team sheet, it could have been a knockabout game down on the park, and one of the star players who was always captain of one of the teams chose you for the first time.
We would do well to learn from the children that used to play at all hours on those swards of open space. For often a captain would not pick their best friend if they were out of form, because pride and reputations were on the line. This was one the reasons these games were so competitive. It didn’t matter what shape or size you were, all that mattered was could you play. Would you be an asset to the team.
As it is with children it could be brutal. You had a bad game, and the next one you were out, not picked by your regular skipper. Have a good game and suddenly both captains wanted you. Whether you liked it or not it was a fact that the best players were picked first; Although specialists like goalkeepers and wicket-keepers were often contrary to that rule. They key thing was everyone knew their place. You knew if you wanted to be picked earlier you had to perform.
In fact in days gone by it all came down to whether you performed, even in the professional ranks. The world has changed, and it has changed dramatically.
No longer will having the skill to play be enough. Now there is the mental side of the game, there is your personality, fitness levels, height and weight. If you fail to achieve a set score on a beep test or your skin folds are higher than what is desired you may well find that your ability will be ignored. Of course these are just physical tests to see where you stand, but often they are now used to determine whether you should be in a team or not.
For sport today we are told is about making ‘athletes’ into sportsman. In other words making people who fit the ideals that someone has come up with into competent exponents of a sport. These people will explain away that in order to be successful at the highest level it all comes down to a person’s height, weight, aerobic fitness, anaerobic fitness, strength, recovery time etcetera. All of these other issues have now come into play, and the most important is often ignored, can you actually play the game. Do you have the skills required on the ball, and in a game, can you read a situation and react to it? Some of these inherent skills simply cannot be taught, and those who are not natural to that sport will find it hard to predict what is unfolding. Even some of the greats were not great readers of the game.
A study in football years ago looked at players who were renowned for scoring last minute diving headers. These were courageous men who would put there head in where studs were flying. The study found that apart from being fiercely competitive individuals, they actually saw the play unfolding very late compared to many of their team mates. So they reacted late to what was happening, and that was why they would dive in at the last minute. It is interesting that we see less diving headers than we used to. Is that because those players will now never make it to the top? They would have been weeded out on one of the many tests to determine if they have what it takes to play at the highest level?
Many of these tests are prime examples of how the modern day decision makers are over-informed. As we have seen in the past year, few of those trusted with the power to make decisions have the courage to make the hard ones. Now all of these other forms of assessment have become a safety net for the decision-makers. They have given them a reason not to select someone that has ability but may not be as fit as a less-skilled player. It is so much easier to explain that because they failed this test they were not up to standard, than taking a risk on them and taking the criticism about their fitness.
This has been labelled ‘affected decision-making’ and it is becoming more and more prevalent in sport.
What is even more worrying is how we are seeing that affected decision-making being influenced by outside factors that have nothing to do with the playing of sport.
Coaches in several sports have openly admitted that the directive from above is if two players are of a similar standard, and one’s parents own, or are a high flyer in a company, they are to get the nod over the player who may come from a single parent family or a poorer suburb. Most who have been around sport will tell you that this is a short-sighted view as frequently those who come from a tougher environment have a far greater hunger to succeed. They will do everything it takes to make it. There are literally hundreds of examples of this, and the ones who make it are the only ones many people know about.
Added to that we now have Government funding based on certain groups of the community being included in sporting programs and teams.
It is sad when a non-white person tells you that they feel that the only reason they are part of a team is to tick a box, so that the organisation they are representing receives additional funding. That is not an example of inclusivity, it is an example of exploitation. It also is an example of a flawed funding model and a flawed strategy to increase inclusivity.
In another example one female athlete, who was also not white joked that she was lucky, she ticked two boxes! Being female and non-white meant she was ‘of special value’ to her particular sport.
How very sad. How sad that these people not only feel this way, but are that aware of the landscape to feel that they may not be there on merit.
Sport it was always said reflected life. Sometimes it was not fair, but when you crossed the boundary or the touchline all were equal. Yet now our life away from the sporting field is having far too big an affect on what happens on the field of play, especially when it comes to who is selected for the teams. The same influences that are now taking over our working lives where being good at your job is no longer enough, unless you fit a certain ‘type,’ are trespassing into sport.
In most people’s lives sport is an escape from their everyday working life, the bills that come in at home, hassles with the children, boy/girlfriend issues, or the imbalance of the world today in terms of work and home life. Sport is a chance to escape for a few hours and enjoy some physical exercise, playing a game you love, with people who share that same passion.
It is incredibly sad that no longer can many players look around the dressing room and think I am one of the best and I deserve to be here. Now many are sitting there wondering which box they tick that enabled them to be there. Or are they there because of what their parents may offer? It is bad enough that this is happening in society, it is terrible that is happening in sport.
The sad reality is this is turning many who are passionate about team sports away from those pursuits. They are leaving and taking up individual sports. They suffer unjust practices in their working lives and they sure don’t need it in their social lives.
The impact that this shift has had is not only are those playing the sport wondering if they are there because they deserve to be, but those who watch sport are beginning to start questioning those who are selected to represent school teams, club teams, state teams, etcetera. Once they believe that the best are not representing them they lose interest.
As for the man of the match and player of the tournament awards, many of these are nothing but laughable. The best are again overlooked for a player they feel will garner more publicity or is the populist choice.
Football used to be full of characters, some were nicknamed “Mavericks,” a book was even written about them. Sure the game has become far more professional and players cannot go down the pub after training today, but where are those players today who play with a smile on their face? Look across many sports and these sportsmen and women are few and far between.
If we go back to those kids that gathered to play sport together depending on which season it was, they played every game hard and the result was incredibly important in terms of your standing in the local community. Not only that, but your personal standing. You wanted to be sure that you were still one of the first picked. Yet as fierce as the competition was there was banter between the players and frequently players from opposing sides would wander home together arms around each others shoulders as the sun dipped down beyond the horizon.
It was in these arenas that children learned the art of decision-making. How to make unaffected decisions. To pick the best.You picked a team to win irrespective of whether you left out your brother or your best mate. They had no enforced protocols to determine who they selected. There were no requirements that absolved them from the responsibility of making a hard decision about whether to pick one player over another.
Their rule of thumb was simple, could you play? If you could play, would you enhance their team that day and help them win? Sometimes they would get it right, sometimes they wouldn’t. If they didn’t then either the captain changed or the players who failed to perform dropped down the pecking order. In the end that was irrelevant as they still had a rush of satisfaction when they were picked. For they were “in.”
They were “In” based on their ability and nothing else. The way it had been for centuries before and they way it should have remained.
Sadly those games on the park today are few and far between, and maybe that is why sport finds itself in the predicament it is in. For not only did these games uncover some talented players, but they also taught a generation how to make decisions.
From the simplicity and uncomplicated view of a child we can learn so much.
