The Olympic Challenge

I enjoy the Olympics. 

I enjoy the ideals espoused and, in large, followed.

The Olympic Creed, drafted in 1908 by Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics, reads as follows:

"The most important thing in the Olympic games is not to win but to take part, 

just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. 

The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

I gain inspiration from that creed.

It reminds me of what, in my view, is truly best about sport - not the victories or the fame or the grandness of hardware received, but merely engaging the desire to compete. Not as profession or a means to an end, but simply competition for competition sake with people from all over the world who share that enthusiasm.

That enthusiasm is not so terribly different than what I recall playing sports as a kid. The pure enjoyment derived from playing a game for no other reason than to challenge oneself to perform. The ability and desire to load upon oneself self-doubt along with confidence, power with control, rage with calm, fear with courage, to willingly put oneself in a position to fail or succeed.

Having been an active kid, I recall only wanting to play any sport or game I could get my hands on.  I settled on a few favorites but I often tell people that I grew up playing golf. I mean this as frame of reference in time but also in regard to mental maturity. Golfers will understand what I mean. Golf, when in its most essential form, has a way of making us all very humble and also keeping us very equal. Size and strength really matters very little when it comes to golfing success. It was from that sport I learned at an early age what failure is like... frequently.

What I also learned is that when one continues to try, successes will also become apparent. I consider myself quite lucky in that most of my friends growing up felt the same way as I did and we all loved to compete with and against each other. Whether it was a fully sanctioned league game of some sort or a simple backyard challenge, I enjoyed whatever form it took. Not realizing it at the time, those days spent playing sports and games were all little defining moments in my growth to adulthood.

In my adulthood ironically, and especially I find when one has a family to be concerned with, I wonder if I too easily recuse myself from challenges, seeking the security that comes from experience and the 'knowns'. As a parent I feel often as if I default to a place of low-risk security in an attempt to provide that solid platform for my children to learn to test their own limits. I also wonder if sometimes I couldn't better exemplify behavior toward challenges by testing myself more, showing them how I define and respond to success and failure.

It's often said we learn most from our failures, and less from our successes. I happen to agree. That fact that failures are so often frequent is also what makes those fleeting moments of success all the sweeter. The Olympics exemplify this on the highest level and for that I am grateful to witness.

It also serves as a reminder that there is a little bit of Olympian in all of us... 
if we choose to embrace it.

Current Sports Umbrage and Proposed Solutions

Cleaning out various physically cluttered areas of one's domicile or workplace also leads to considering where else might the general clutter in one's life be, physical or otherwise. Today's housecleaning will address some of the clutter from the sports world that occupies a (perhaps all too large) percentage of my mental energies.


Indiana High School Class Basketball 
Over four decades of life in this state and two decades of living with the changed system from single-class high-school basketball tournament to four classed tournaments leads me to this conclusion - IT SUCKS. Little pride or excitement remains for a tournament which formerly was the stuff of legend (I'd argue envy of other states) and part of the identity of the entire state. One of the greatest sports movies by most accounts, Hoosiers, is a tale based on it. 


'Hoosier Hysteria' (the origin of which can be attributed to basketball's inventor James Naismith's agreement that Indiana was the sport's spiritual home) associated with the original tournament gave us frequent 'David versus Goliath' match-ups throughout the many levels of the tournament that resonated with the people of a flyover state where national attention is a rare as a hurricane. Even the tournament's draw was televised because of the intrigue with learning who your favorite school would play. Most everyone celebrates the underdog in its struggle to overcome the larger foe - mainly because, in my view, we identify more with them as people and especially as residents of Indiana. So it was for Indiana High School basketball then and no matter if it was the early upset win in a sectional (the first and most local rounds of the tournament) or the state final, it gave the smaller teams their shot at enduring glory. 


By adopting a four-class system for the 1998 tournament (even with the four class state champions playing off in a 'Tournament of Champions' however) most fans agree that the intrigue, mystique, and legendary passion for the sport and the state's championship has waned considerably and left a state with no 'true' champion for which we yearn. Another example of the popularity of this come-all, wide-open type of single-class system can be found in the FA (Football Association) Cup Tournament in England's most-beloved sport of football. I believe this to be a net negative for the students, parents, schools, and residents of this state. Many valuable life lessons are learned through participation in athletics and the size-delineated tournaments only serve to amplify a thought that differences are to be maintained, not celebrated.


Solution: 
Re-instate single-class basketball. Simple as that. I'm not sure just how much or how little it would actually take to acheive, but were it actually put in the most-democratic form of a statewide referendum, I'd put dollars to donuts the vote would go 70-30 or better in favor of returning to a single-class, single-elimination high-school basketball tournament.


It is a true head-scratcher to me that the IHSAA ever saw the multiple class system as an answer to a question no one was asking. Fixing what isn't broken has never been the Hoosier way. Fix Indiana high-school basketball.

Olympians and Empathy

I noticed something last night - something perhaps I don't like - something about myself for which I am both perturbed and somewhat stubbornly unwavering. 

Watching the Winter Olympics with some friends, I mentioned (with some residual anger), that I can't root for a certain athlete. Not until 'she gets it'. 'Getting it' means showing contrition for a stupid move that was seen by all the globe in the highest of competitions. A friendly return volley was instantly received that was something to the effect of, "that was 4 years ago, she was a just a kid and made a mistake."  Who among us hasn't made a stupid decision that came back to bite us hard right in the tucus?  Perhaps, I have been hasty in my opinion. Am I judgemental? Am I hateful and leaking compassion?

I've been taught and have tried hard to be, in general, a very empathic person. I attempt to understand the other person, without judgment, first. The limits of my empathy do seem to end when the perceived or realized suffering is from one's own intent and doing. I have been given pause to rethink this limit to my empathy however, citing the universal constant that is 'human error'. Case in point - The Fall of Lindsey Jacobellis. 

In 2006, I watched as many did with utter disbelief that this young woman, who apparently decided to tweak out a trick on the next to last jump of what would have been a Olympic gold-medal snow-cross run, bit it hard in the snow of Turin, Italy. As an athlete, I was angry. As an athlete that had no chance of ever thinking that I had any ability to be the quality of an Olympian, I was positively pissed.  As an American, I was utterly aghast at this egregious and arrogant display of disregard for the fellow competitor and of the competition.

Her immediate and sheer disappointment for crossing the line in second I felt was the most honest of reactions to knowing she had 'blown it' and in a BIG way. In the days, weeks, and months following, she attempted to mitigate the loss by stating she 'always uses a grab to stabilize', 'was just celebrating' or 'just messed up, oh well, I still got silver'. I seethe at such wriggling behavior. Karma exacted a swift and (quite memorably) equivalent toll for her move. In multiple interviews given, even to this day, she seemingly does not understand or is unwilling to admit, that what she did was wrong in many ways. It is on this basis that I refuse to reconsider my empathy or lack of support for her. I can forgive a mistake, what I cannot condone is the unwillingness to be contrite about it.

For this I stand steadfastly against the attitude that prevails all too often in sports today - that "personal expression" (bullshit term for excessive celebration in the face of one's competitors) is some sort of personal right and fully acceptable in today's society. Personal expression is one thing when a person or group is testing and ultimately exceeding the self-imposed hopes or expectations. Those are the true victories in life.

The methodical showboating / taunting while in direct competition with others serves ONLY to show blatant disregard and lack of respect for the opposition, the competition, and is an embarrassment to those who support the athlete / team. It neither expresses personal joy nor adds quality to the competition.

Sport, I believe, is one of the most visible remaining vestiges of what goodness can be found in this human race. A place to showcase what can be great and right and good about people. Jacobellis, and those like her who are unwilling to admit what they do is insipid and wrong, continues to represent a growing, embarrassing, and pathetic trend found in an athletic world for which I choose to not be empathic - one that devalues a true sense of sport and fairplay. I will celebrate those who from a sense of equality promote fairplay, and for which human commonalities and appreciation may be reached, not parted.

PS: I would be happy to change my opinion of these types, provided they show some empathy of their own by discontinuing and discouraging the showboating behavior described above and by apologizing to those they may have offended. Then is when my empathy for them may begin.

Fave Sports Moments I

Weird.

Maybe it's the advent of the NFL season or that summer is winding down or because I typically eat quiet lunches alone, but recently I've had these odd recollections of sports moments pop into my head. I'm not sure why they've started showing up, but it made me think of several that are my favorites.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be smattering in a few moments that have stood out to me. Not sure why anyone would really care about them except for me, but I'm still going to post them. Ah, narcissism.

Without further adieu and in no particular order...

Julius Erving - circa 1982: The moment when Dr. J appeared to defy gravity
It strikes me as odd how many are not familiar with Dr. J or his style of basketball (likely a factor of how time passes). Many things he did were incredible for their time and in the attached YouTube link at approximately 2:40 into the video, what may be his most famous move is shown from 3 different angles.

I can remember watching this game live and remember talking about it with my friends with whom I played basketball in junior high. I was totally dumbfounded when it occurred live and still to this day find the move amazing. I remember thinking there was no way anyone could emulate that move in the gym the next week.

I also recall thinking that it wasn't anything remotely close to what our coaches taught us or even showed any admiration for, making me understand that just because a particular method has success, doesn't mean that it can't be made better or more beautiful. It also made me aware that to get to a higher place, means first mastering the fundamentals, then allowing your creativity to guide you from there.

Watching Dr. J and how he played, made me for the first time, consider athletics as a possible physical and moving artform, and giving freeform play as credible a place in learning as rigid schooling of the fundamentals.