COLUMN: Mental aspect major part of athletics
This column is for you if: A) “Field of Dreams,” “Hoosiers” and “Rudy” are your three favorite movies or B) you have ever attended a symphony of your own free will, read Shakespeare in your spare time or participated in a chess tournament or C) you think it’s impossible to address both audiences in the same column.
Most especially this column is for those who choose A and C, or B and C, thinking that there can be no connection between the two. To these people I say, yes, Virginia, there is a place where they can be friends, and it’s not a cornfield in Iowa.
Many people who watch sports are into the thrill of the competition, the roar of the crowds, and seeing those who excel under extreme pressure, those who play enjoy the challenge of pushing themselves to the edge of their physical ability and beyond.
What gets overlooked sometimes by players and spectators, and almost always by those who say all athletes are dumb jocks, is the mental aspect of the sports.
Athletics require not only the ability to train the body, but also to train the mind. Sports can be great lessons in teamwork, leadership, hard work, and strategy. These qualities translate into every area of life, where successful people have learned these lessons.
Any sport can be an intellectual
challenge.
Consider the game of baseball. The pitcher’s mound is 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate and a major league pitcher can throw the ball at speeds of around 100 mph.
A batter has only fractions of a
second to decide whether or not to swing at the ball. Up to this point, being able to hit a ball seems purely physical, a simple matter of reflexes. Then the game becomes a lesson in physics when you consider that the pitcher, by altering how he holds the ball, his arm speed, the angle of his arm and the release point can make the ball curve, drop, spin, or appear to float up to the plate only to swoosh away at the last second.
Now it’s not only a matter of reflexes, it’s a guessing game for the batter. What kind of pitch will he throw? What did he do last time? Will he do the same thing or is he just trying to make me think it’s the same so he can fool me?
The batter makes adjustments, the coaches make adjustments, and the pitcher adjusts. Strategy comes into play on every pitch.
The strategy of baseball goes beyond just the pitcher, batter and runner, however. It’s also a great lesson in statistics. The fielders learn the tendencies of opposing teams, to know where to position themselves to defend against. Coaches look to see which pitcher has the most success against right-handed or left-handed batters and vice versa. They change pitchers and hitters late in the game. Sometimes they play “by the book,” sometimes they take risks or do unexpected things to force the opponent to adapt.
Another sport that requires a great amount of strategy is football.
The game begs for a comparison to military strategy. The troops battle for possession of territory. The offense practices a play for weeks, but must be able to improvise and change to react to a new defense in seconds.
The gridiron becomes a chess board. A quarterback is a king, leading the troops. Receivers and running backs are bishops and rooks, able to move quickly to attack. Tight ends are knights, some times attacking and sometimes blocking. The linemen are pawns. They don’t move far or get a lot of credit, but they are vital to protect the king and the battles are often won or lost by them in the trenches.
The same comparisons can be made for the defense. I hesitate to name a queen because most of the players on our football team are bigger and faster than I am.
Beyond the intellectual, strategic side of athletics, there is an art to it.
There is grace and balance in a wide receiver timing a jump to catch a perfectly thrown pass between defenders. There is something beautiful in seeing a smooth swing of the bat result in a home run that for a moment looks like it will break free of the earth’s orbit or a basketball player who seems to defy gravity to hang in the air before an explosive dunk. In sports, there is enough emotion and intensity that could fit anyone’s standard of a great script or story.
There are the teams who overcome great odds to beat heavily favored teams. There is suspense in watching two teams give everything they have in a close game. There is the drama of playing for championships, or the hope of seeing one person achieve something never accomplished.
Abraham Lincoln said you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and I’m not suggesting that everyone should love all sports.
Some sports just don’t appeal to me, and some won’t appeal to you, but if you look you will be able to find something you can appreciate.
Roy Burton is a senior majoring in print
journalism. Comments can be sent to
royburton@cc.usu.edu