Complete Article List:
- Building a Creative Business Culture
- Defining Yourself
- 4 ½ Stages of Organizational Success
- How to Fail Your Way to Success
- Six Life Lessons I Learned in Vegas
- Making Sense of Humour in the Workplace
- The Art of Professionalism: Learning the Right Way to Get Ahead
- The Secrets of Effective Decision-Making
- The Customer Rules:
Surviving & Thriving in the New Customer-Driven World - The Fascination of Sport
- Are You a Twenty Percenter?
- The Times They are a Changin'
An Investigation of Five Future Trends - The Business of Global Greening: How Technology and Business are Saving the Planet
- The Changing Face of Charity: How Businesses and Individuals are Redefining Philanthropy
- Web 2.0: Business in a Connected World
- Searching for a Needle of Knowledge in an Information Haystack (pdf format)
- The Power of Design (pdf format)
Articles
The Fascination of Sport
By Steve Bannister
In the inaugural issue of this unique sports publication, it seems only appropriate to examine sport in a different manner. More specifically, to ask the question, "What is it about a sport that makes it so popular?"
The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle compared sport to a meditative state in which participants are, "taken out of themselves". This concept is commonly known today as being "in the zone"; an intense mental state whereby all of the athlete's strengths and talents are perfectly in sync. Whether we are playing a sport or whether we are intense fans, once the action begins, we are purely engrossed in the moment and time seems to fly by.
Okay, so sports are fun to play...but is that it? As you may well agree, there is far more to it than that. To examine sports more closely means to go back to the beginning. At the risk of writing forever on every possible sport in existence (by the way, is poker now considered a sport?), let's just look at the top four professional team sports in North America, namely hockey, baseball, football and basketball.
Canada's Game
It's interesting how hockey is touted as "Canada's Game" yet so many NHL teams are based in the States. I know, I know, it's all about economics. That being said, you need only watch one episode of the American sports program, PTI (Pardon the Interruption) to see how far off the radar screen hockey is to American sports fans.
The birthplace of hockey in North America is still being debated today, with the main rivals being Windsor, Nova Scotia and Haliburton, Ontario (both lay claims at around 1800). As the debate continues, one thing still remains the same; hockey unites Canada like no other sport does or maybe ever will. Our grittiness from surviving our winter's (BC being the exception) is aptly portrayed in the grittiness of our hockey players. A Canadian need not be a hockey fan to understand what hockey means to Canada. Think about it: how many Canadians recognize the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme or for that matter, how many Canadians can recognize Don Cherry?
Take me out to the Ballgame
Baseball began in the late 19th century before Americans became slaves to the clock. People were not yet working in factories and life had a much slower pace. As a result, baseball never became a timed sport; from the very beginning rules were set and traditions were honoured. The world has changed dramatically since baseball's early years but baseball's traditions still prevail.
I have seen the Blue Jays and the Expos play but it wasn't until a couple of summers ago had I fully understood the baseball mystique. My family and I were in Anaheim, California on a warm summer evening to watch the Angels play the Yankees. Like all Yankee's games at home or away, the place was packed and the atmosphere was electric. As I munched on peanuts, I was taken back to a time when things were simpler and life just moseyed along. Traditions in baseball are sacred and it's because of this that the ballpark remains a wonderful place to step back and take a break from life's hectic pace.
Gridiron Games
Football started in America in the 1920's and 30's after World War I when Americans were concerned with global strife. This "game of war" became an avenue to express the feelings and frustrations of Americans who worked in the factories and mills of a tough industrial society.
Footballs structure is built around war's components and strategies. Like war, football uses the deliberate use of force to gain territory and attain a goal (either a field goal or a touchdown). The players take strategic positions and the quarterback throws "long bombs". The quarterback is also susceptible to being "blitzed". Heading a traditional football team is a George S. Patton type of general popularized by the famous coach, Vince Lombardi. Not all modern day coaches fit this stereotype but toughness still remains one essential characteristic.
B-ball
Even though basketball was invented around the same time as football, it didn't become popular until after the traditional American factories began to close. The televising of basketball which started in the mid-50's was the beginning of a new era. Inner city kids were now exposed to the game and they started making it their own. From then on, the moves from the street slowly began to trickle onto the court.
Basketball is epitomized by fluid motions interspersed with explosive bursts of energy. This is a far cry from the structured format of football. The emphasis in the workplace (starting in the 50's and 60's) was on looking at the worker as more than a little cog in the big wheel. Work, as with basketball, began to develop into a team effort. Cooperation towards attaining a goal is the key to basketball. The coach's role is to become more of a facilitator.
Our Sports Crazed World
So, how popular are sports today? Well, in America alone there are 265 stations devoted primarily to sports talk. Surveys show that 70% of Americans get a daily infusion of sports statistics and highlights from such media as television, newspapers, books, magazines, radio, blackberry devices and cell phones.
In today's fast-paced world where it's sometimes hard to keep up with things, sports offer well-defined boundaries: your team, my team, a set of rules and people to enforce them. When we play sports or when we get caught up in the action as a fan, we are taken outside of ourselves to concentrate our full attention on something that holds our complete focus and interest.
The fascination of sport can best be described by reading the Olympic Creed:
"The most important thing in the Olympic games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well."
As long as there are people interested in testing their own physical and mental limits, there will always be the arena of sport to allow them to do so.
For info on how you may get permission to use this article
on your web site please contact Steve directly.
