Sports teach life. Life teaches sports

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and the social unrest this summer I am getting back into coaching after my health problems of nearly a year ago.  I found myself wondering this afternoon just what can we learn from recent events and how can they be applied to athletics?

There has been so much raw emotion on display as people takes sides on these issues that this seems the logical place to start.

There is nothing wrong with an adult of 21 years or older enjoying an alcoholic beverage. Problems can arise when the partaker consumes too much alcohol and becomes drunk.  Their thinking becomes clouded and mistakes, sometimes life altering mistakes, can be made.

Emotions are somewhat like alcohol. Emotion can certainly be good. "He played with such emotion!" can be high praise in depicting a quality performance. Being emotionally drunk can be self-destructive and detrimental to the team effort.

Using emotion to drive a calm concerted effort can produce the desired results, tremendous results even.

Allowing emotion to boil over into blind rage distracts from solving the problem at hand and can lead to disastrous results.

I believe we have seen this play out explosively in the riotous protests of the last few days. I fear we may yet see this play out in a second wave of Covid-19 infections as some champ at the bit for a return to normalcy.

So, learning to control emotions, to channel emotions in a positive direction, is certainly a lesson we can learn from life and apply to sports.  A positive use of emotion can lead to progression while  emotions that boil over out of control result in regression.

As coaches we love coaching phrases. Short, concise sayings that deliver the message.  Two such come to mind as I type this message to you;  Facts over Feelings and Power Never Flinched to  Emotion Alone.

Both infer the need to remain calm and combine emotion with rationale thought.

We have all seen an athlete become angered and turn in an amazing performance. The athlete used his anger, his emotion, to drive his performance to a higher level.

We have also all seen an athlete become angry, lose his composure and be thrown completely off his game or even thrown out of a game.

So, there is a choice, a decision to be made and training provided on how to make the correct decision in emotional situations. I think that is something we can take away from this Spring of discontent and social unrest.

As coaches a part of this equation would seem to be keeping in mind that facts are not hard and absolute in many cases.  Another coaching phrase, if you will;  Same Facts / Different Interpretations.  Of course, this is based on personal experiences and perceptions.

Think of the well known example of 10 different people all witnessing the same traffic accident. There are 10 varying accounts of what occurred. Agreement exists on some basics, but not necessarily on the details.  There was an accident can probably be agreed upon although someone might state "it seemed he intentionally rammed the other car."   Who had right of way?  Was one or both of the drivers distracted?  All these details, these facts, could be open to interpretation.

I think that is most definitely happening in our society as it concerns both Covid-19 and protests / riots.

And I believe differing interpretations of the same set of facts is perfectly okay ... IF everyone can work towards common ground and understanding that there is more than one interpretation to the same set of facts. If we take the "win at all costs" mentality, the adversarial nature that turns events into a personal Me vs Him or We vs They attitude focused on details rather than desired outcome, and turn it into an attitude of shared responsibility for the good of the game or the good for society, then good things can happen.

Never allow what you feel to lead you to forget what is real.  The balance between Heart and Mind can be a delicate one. When thrown out of balance by alcohol or emotion things can get sideways in a hurry.  Maintaining a proper balance between Mind and Heart seems both prudent and a key to maximizing effort. We cannot allow our emotions to overpower our intelligence. That seems to be a king consideration or key educational objective we can take from the chaos surrounding the pandemic and rioting.