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Mind, body and spirit

To what extent can sport help shape your personality? Read on...

The idea that sport and exercise build character has been around for ages. In Plato's time, the Greeks exercised naked in public and even in the snow, and compulsory physical education was the norm. The sport-builds-character notion reached its zenith in the boarding schools of England 2000 years later. The idea dissipated somewhat in the 20th Century.

Modern psychology distrusts words like character, and the idea gathered disfavour in popular culture — see and read Bill Watterson's cartoon character Calvin moan about his father's attempts to kill him by character building.

Sports enthusiasts claim that regular play builds integrity, fairness, work and teamwork ethics and fortitude. So how come sport is full of unfair tackles, frequent appealing, bad temper and cheating and gamesmanship? How come Maradona's hand of god goal became so iconic?

Sport has been claimed to help people view situations from multiple perspectives. Thinking like one's opponent and acting in harmony with other team members are the elements of a thinking sportsperson's mind.

Empathy is the by-product of this thinking, and psychologists feel that empathy is lacking in juvenile delinquents. But empathy is not always there in a sportsperson's makeup. Studies show that sportspersons are more likely to disregard their opponents' injuries. Sometimes, game plans are altered to take advantage of an opponent's limitations through injury.

Whatever this is, it isn't character. Disturbingly, a few studies found that athletes scored less on moral reasoning than their non-playing peers. Moral reasoning is not an automatic fruit of sport: much depends on how the game is taught. Football coaches who teach ugly tackles are more likely to raise players with aggression and unfair play hardwired into them. If unfair play is frowned upon, as in most martial arts, it breeds fairness and integrity.

Sport builds motivation and a work ethic, but it doesn't automatically ensure a balance between the individual and the collective ambition. The world is full of players who are great yet disliked by their own team members for their selfishness on the field.

Individual sport undoubtedly drills some good traits into people. Team sport, under the right guidance and in the right environment, can build good character. But sport can just as well foster and harden bad character traits. A game cannot build a mind or a conscience.

RAJIV. M

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