Engaging in sports is a result of the human survival process
The "million dollar" question in the field of sports is perhaps: what attracts the athlete to compete, succeed and reap achievements? This question is beautiful and handsome not only for professional athletes, but also for amateurs and quasi-amateurs (the active recreational athlete and any frame of place, time and age).
An inner, personal thrill? Without a doubt! A sense of representative-national pride? Certainly! A feeling of satisfaction after physical and mental efforts? As well! Examining personal ranking, against existing competitors and against his past achievements? Definitely! A celebrity winking from the corner, whether she is local or national? Yes indeed! Money prizes? Hell yeah! Exposure at all? "Going"!
But it turns out that there is a much more immanent, primordial and genetic motive, which is not far from the above-mentioned reasons and without a doubt they are pumped with adrenaline. It is a hidden motive hidden in each of us and it is the creature of survival and the position in the cruel food chain of food and being eaten, of predator and prey.
seriously? Sorry?!
Yes indeed. Despite the hundreds of thousands of years that have passed since the days of Homo sapiens and its ancestors, there have been almost no drastic changes among the "animals-that-walk-on-two", i.e. - humans. These remained survivalists within them, in their essence, although the means of survival have been documented to a great extent. Some of those funds have flown into the sports pipeline.
This phenomenon stands out before our eyes in anthropological studies on "lost" tribes in the Far East, Africa, or the Latin American continent, about ancient societies of hunters and food gatherers who make sure to refine and sharpen the means of survival, which are expressed in part in sports competitions.
Let's go "a little" backwards: quite a few animals, and at least those defined as carnivores, cultivate the instinct of survival and hunting through games and amusements, among themselves, or with a hunted animal. Those who raise pets in their home, dogs or cats, will be able to easily detect these phenomena, especially in nature.
The instinct of survival is therefore burned into our consciousness, and it, after we have documented the means of survival in the circles of our lives, finds its expression in the world of sports. A world that allows, with certain limitations, for that instinct to express itself, to "flourish".
The sport, as we know, releases aggression and refines the deadly, violent elements that lie within it. Human beings consciously, and as part of a long historical process, agreed among themselves to draw a line of separation between casual survival and sports activity and brought under their control, proactively or by chance, a series of sports that stem, all alike, from the world of primordial, primordial survival.
(And in a framed article: Write down the list of qualities required of an ancient "Adamian" animal - our ancestors - and fill in another list of the athlete's existing and desired qualities. A surprise of wonderful adaptability awaits you in this matter).
On the other hand, the sport draws a lot of aggressiveness into it, and this should be released in the real test - in the competition. Even this aggressiveness originates from the thin, blurred, somewhat artificial boundary between sports and fighting and survival in general. During the competition, team or individual, athletic or game, an athlete loses and sometimes cash, sometimes beyond a fraction of a second, the gray area between ... and ..., and feels himself as a redneck fighting for his life, or fighting for the victory of his tribe in a "war". A soccer player rushing towards the goal, or a basketball player rushing towards the hoop, sees before his eyes, one the goalkeeper and the other the defender, as "him-or-me!", in the grip of a life and death war.
Pour into the same cauldron appetizing spices for victory, such as the application of pressure by a series of factors that accompany the player, such as a manager, coach, personal trainer, fitness instructor, psychologist, etc., who on the one hand seek to instill in the contestant the motivation to win and a number of pats on the back, And on the other hand, elements of real war are piled into his veins, and sometimes, if necessary, even beyond that. We remember the excited and agitated call of Ralph Klein, the legendary coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball, when against CSKA Moscow, he instilled motivation among his trainees by telling them that they are playing for the honor of the people and the nation, and that hundreds of thousands of spectators in Israel expect them to make history. On the other hand, and in the same direction, American football coaches provoke their players, hit the opponent and eliminate him. Now, at this point in time, if you delete the restrictive game rules, you've got a real war.
war! tell you something?! In almost every football stadium in Israel, we find in the middle of the game, and especially if it is important and dramatic enough, the eye-opening sign, bearing one word: "War!" This is the "crowd-who-lives-from-Saturday-to-Saturday", the "handful" that dictates to the coach and the players the motivation, the way of training and sometimes the starting line-up. These are, if you will, the "unknown soldiers", or the "army of shadows", behind and in front of the players. These really want war, crave bloodshed, and are driven by dark passions of accounting and revenge.
One response
It's a shame you turn the athletes into wild animals, obeying the laws of evolution.
Does it make sense to you that the Greeks would admire their athletes if everything is just survival, war, aggression and the like?
Do you think that prizes and honors can really compensate for years of investing time and money in sports?
What about the glory and beauty of a remarkable human achievement? To the camaraderie that is created between fighters and athletes?
For the possibility of a healthy mind in a healthy body, which is recommended by educators from the days of Pythagoras to the present day?
And maybe all these healthy references to sports were born because of love?
Humans are not animals. One has to distinguish between war - which is the worst human condition - and more appropriate references that create a partnership between the body parts and between man and his fellow man.