Not having lived outside the US for any real period of time it is hard to imagine what the rest of the world values when it comes to art and the relationship with sport. I go back to a Patton quote that sounds something like this: "America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser..."
I've won my fair share of games and I'd venture that I've won far more than I've lost. I hear the occasional blurb from sports writers/announcers about how Brazilian and Spanish fans won't tolerate ugly futbol. They'd almost enjoy losing as much as winning if losing meant the quality and aesthetics were intact.
I don't know where I began to feel the same way. Perhaps I've watched enough bad soccer to want to teach others to appreciate the beautiful game. The downside of teaching the sport this way is that you have to explain to the novice parent/viewer what they are looking at when a team outplays an opponent for 79 min and loses 0-1. Frustrating to say the least, but so enjoyable to watch.
Purist: A purist is one who desires that a particular item remain true to its essence and free from adulterating or diluting influences. In my case, the diluting factor is the overemphasis for winning and getting the result. To get a result you'd have to sacrifice some of the art, creativity, and aesthetics. I struggle with this, and although I could make my life much easier by playing ugly and playing to win, I have to remain true to my core beliefs. Shortcuts in player development create instant gratification but often stunt individual growth and creativity.
My youngest players enjoy the art, my older players enjoy the skill, and my graduates appreciate the philosophy. Once again teaching the dilettante is tedious to say the least.
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Hi Antepillani, For some reason this morning, I went around clicking on the followers at Billy's site and saw your link and read this post. It reminded me of conversations I often have with my students of singing.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me your students are lucky to have you as a teacher. But then again, I share your view. The thing is whether it's sports, music or painting (it really doesn't matter), one of the things that I think is necessary is to establish your priorities. Is it your priority to win at all costs or display your beautiful voice. If that's your main priority you're going to be one kind of athlete or singer. But if you have another set of priorities that values the beauty of the game, the process, the communication in singing, etc, then everything you do will serve that priority. I think it's as simple as that.
But I'd think it's really hard to be that kind of a soccer teacher, with parents so invested in their kids WINNING all the time. By the way, have you ever read Timothy Gallway's "The Game of Inner Tennis?" It completely changed my life as a singer and it was supposedly about tennis, but really can be applied to anything. Timeless book, written in the 70's I think. Check it out. Sounds like it's right up your alley.