COMPETITION

 

 

Competitiveness. What is it? I remember hearing many years ago that competitiveness brings out the best in the things we produce and the worst in the people who produce them. A friendly competition, though, can be very healthy. It is a way of measuring yourself. What someone else is capable of can make you realize your own capabilities. I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from watching and listening to athletes. They often give it all they’ve got to get the result they want. For many of them, this means winning. But what is winning? If I see two groups of people, or “teams” playing basketball, the team that “wins” has more points at the end of a given time. This means that they’ve thrown or slammed a rubber ball through a metal hoop more times than the other group. Or in football, one bunch of people has moved a sort of oval shaped rubber ball across a line drawn on the ground more times than the other bunch. Well? I never had that kind of strong feeling about winning. I knew this when involved in some sort of sport in gym class in the early grades, and right on up to the present. I knew because I never understood why someone would care who “touched the ball last” when it went out of bounds, and thus who got it back. I mean, it really mattered to them. I saw this same thing, and still see it if I dabble in any sport now. People who I’d never guess would care about such a thing become very upset, angry, and generally ill tempered if they think they should “have the ball” and the other team gets it. A serious argument sometimes ensues. What causes this? Is that arguing considered part of competitiveness? I have to keep from laughing at times. I’m the guy who never knows what the score is in the game. I don’t pay attention to it because it’s not why I’m playing. In fact, when I was quite young, I thought a good way to keep score in a basketball game would be to have one score. Yes, two teams, one score. In other words, when one team scores a basket, that would be ONE. Now, the other team gets the ball as usual. But no matter which team scores the next basket, that would be TWO. So if you decided to play a game until “21”, the game would be over when the total was TWENTY- ONE. Not 21 to 18 or whatever, just TWENTY-ONE. One can still play very hard on defense when they are defending, and play hard on offense when they have the ball. I know what some of you are thinking. Why bother playing when you can’t prove that your team could throw the ball through a hoop more times than the other. Well, I’d answer that it is fun, great exercise, good social interaction. Another practical question might be, “who would then stay on the court to play the next game?” But that is easy. It could easily be two different teams or one other team chosen beforehand, for example. What would this change in our thinking? Maybe one thing would be the attitude of many “professional” athletes. That mean looking, mean acting, mean spirited attitude that more and more often ends in physical violence outside the “rules” of the game. And this attitude is very quickly absorbed by young people. Another thing that might change is the answer you’d get when you ask any kid this question, “how’d the game go today?” You all know what that answer is now – “we won” or “we lost”. Excuse me, but that is not how the game went. As much as I love sports for the fun, exercise and beauty of motion, I am disappointed with the extreme emphasis on winning, and that “in your face” aggression. It just makes me wonder what results the athletes are trying to obtain. To be the “best”?  In the words of the legendary  (and winning) college basketball coach John Wooden, “Be better than no one, and be the best you can be”. I agree. I think we can be the best without this extreme winning attitude. We can feel the great joy of it all because we’re in the game, not because we win and someone else looses. How does this affect other areas of life? Some of the “heroes” of our time are athletes, and one of the things that makes them people to look up to is the fact that they “win” in their particular sport. The winning spirit is lumped together with not giving up, with trying hard, with reaching your dreams. While these are all good parts of the human spirit, they do not have to be, and maybe in the end cannot be, mean spirited in order to be the best qualities. Maybe “playing as well as you can” is the answer. Winning? You are winning when you are playing as well as you can. With enthusiasm, curiosity, joy, commitment. The results you want will come. I’ve reached the same conclusion as many before me – that I really am only competing with myself. You know, competing against those internal foes. And I am winning.

3/11/99