Negative Outcomes of Sports
Over the years, the culmination of sports may lead to negative effects such as long-term aches and pains. Also, when individuals who participate in sports age, they become more prone to injuries, which may make life more difficult and lead to various diseases that affect their health. The injuries caused by sports may also lead to permanent physical damages that may limit one from participating in sports. Sports can negatively affect athletes since the environment of athletes establishes an atmosphere that has an increased risk of engaging in substance abuse of illegal substances such as drugs as well as substances to increase performance. The use of such substances may lead to decreased performance in sports, lack of memory formation, decreased alertness, decreased reaction, and also death.
Positive Outcomes of Sports
Similar to how arts and philosophy help to develop emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of an individual, sports assist one to develop the physical aspect of life. Sports can assist an individual beyond physical elements concerning building character, teaches leadership skills, analytical skills, risk-taking and goal setting among other positive outcomes. Participating in sports can also lead to five components of fitness, which include skill, strength, stamina, flexibility, and speed. On the other hand, if an individual is under stress that arises from personal problems, anxiety, and work pressure, participation in sports can help release the tension and strength in a manner that is healthy and controlled.
An example of how sports lead to positive outcomes is the story of Joe Ehrmann. He is a former National Football League (NFL) star who played most over a long time for the Baltimore Colts. Ehrmann became a social justice activist and an ordained minister in Baltimore city after his career. Through sports, Ehrmann has been able to develop his physical, social, ethical, and moral life. Besides, he has been able to mentor other sportsmen and women as well as coaches. Ehrmann has had great success throughout his career in sports.
Transactional and Transformational Coaching
Transactional coaching can be described as a personal exchange between an athlete and a coach to enhance the immediate performance of an athlete. Transactional coaches are mainly focused on the skills, techniques, and competency of the player as it applies to winning the game. On the other hand, transformational coaching attempts to change and inspire an athlete to improve his or her performance in sports as well as positively instills change in the life of an athlete. This is achieved by providing personal consideration to every aspect of performance in an athlete that includes techniques and skills, sportsmanship and work ethic, and behavior and motivation. A transformational coach can positively produce and affect the optimal performance of sports in the whole team.
The foundation of transactional coaching is based on the pure acquisition of talent. Coaches are focused on searching for the strongest, fastest, and most prominent athletes to win. The main objective is to eliminate the opponent, win the trophy, and raise the name of the coach. The negative outcome of transactional coaching is when players fail to win, and they are told they lack hard work; they are soft, and not fit for the team. This results in a feeling of betrayal on the player and humiliation to the game that one plays. In the case of transformational coaching, athletes are taught that the objective of a competition is to provide value and honor while winning is not the ultimate goal of the competition. The athlete should understand that when in a competition, both defeat and success are treated with honor. Transformational coaching builds the inner strength and self-esteem of athletes on a solid foundation, which can be used in their entire life.
According to Ehrmann (2011), InsideOut coaching can be viewed in two-fold. First, it brings out the need to have better coaches and second, it provides a guide to coaches, teachers, and parents to use transformational coaching to build relationships with all people and imparting various values with the aim of training and nurturing young individuals. It is necessary to fully become a transformational coach since it builds players through teamwork, character, unity, sportsmanship, pride, and humility. Also, being a transformational coach builds a solid foundation in players that can help them in their education, professional, and sports career.
The Importance of Sports to the Society
In the world of sports, men have always been more dominant as compared to women. Over the past, sports were used in most cases by men to showcase the courage, strength, and general masculinity to women. The toxic culture of men showcasing has continued to affect the world of sporting. The toxic culture of masculinity is the observance to traditional gender roles of the male, which may hinder men, denying them the chance to express themselves in a manner that is conflicting to the dominant male ideal. In the toxic culture seen in sports, men feel shamed for not meeting the dominant masculine ideal or actions perceived as feminine. In sports, men are expected to be dominant and tough; also, socially, men are supposed to be more aggressive. Many toxic cultures exist in a sport where the most hardened men and hardest hits are celebrated. Toxic culture can sometimes create positive social outcomes as viewed in the example of the South African effort in the 1995 World Cup. The win by South African Rugby Team brought positive social outcomes as the country celebrated together. In the film Invictus, which was directed by Clint Eastwood portraying the actual events of the World Cup, sports is used as a tool in politics to bring positive social outcome in the country. In this case, Nelson Mandela was the new president who was elected freely in South Africa, and he used the national rugby team to bring a moment that was symbolic with significant social, political, and cultural implications. The film represents the feeling of nationalistic that can emerge from sports, in the case of South Africa, building an ending that was happy and suggested the resolution of the challenges that the country faced in ethnicity. Through the success of the national team in the South African Rugby in the 1995 World Cup, the segregation between the blacks and whites in sports and social life brought unity among them. Therefore, despite the toxic culture brought by sports, sports can also be used to deliver positive social outcomes in the society more so for the winning team.
