Sportsmanship

In an attempt to clarfiy a number of issues surrounding most sport, I think it's important to understand the difference between playing sport for the fitness, the fun and the cameraderie - versus playing to win at all costs. There are two terms mentioned often around sport. Sportsmanship and gamesmanship. They are sometimes mistaken for each other.

The term 'gamesmanship' is based on the principle that winning is everything; and therefore players and coaches are often encouraged to bend the rules wherever possible in order to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent. This is the opposite to the real reasons why we play sport. Some commonly heard sayings of gamesmanship are:

• 'Winning is everything'
• 'It's only cheating if you get caught'
• 'Just do it, the ref isn't able to see everything'

...and some common examples of gamesmanship are:

• Faking an injury.
• Attempting to get a head start in a race.
• Not getting back onside when the ref isn't looking.
• Tampering with teams, such as having someone older or better play in your team.
• Grabbing a player and holding them back when they attempt to support.
• Inflicting pain on an opponent with the intention of taking him or her out of the game.
• Taunting or intimidating an opponent.
• Mocking the opposition.

You'll have noted that all of these examples place greater emphasis on the outcome of the game, rather than on the manner in which it is played.

A more ethical approach to playing sport is the term 'sportsmanship'. Under a sportsmanship model, healthy competition is seen as a means of cultivating personal growth and character. It creates a community of respect and trust between competitors and our society. The goal of sportsmanship is not simply to win, but to pursue a win with respect by giving your best effort without losing integrity.

To maintain ethics in sport, a person requires four key virtues: fairness, integrity, responsibility and respect.

Fairness

• All players and coaches must follow established rules and guidelines of our sport.
• Teams that seek an unfair competitive advantage over their opponent create an uneven playing field which violates the integrity of our sport.
• Referees must apply the rules equally to both teams and can't show bias or personal interest in the outcome.

Integrity

• Players who seek to gain an advantage over his or her opponent by means of a skill that the game itself was not designed to test, demonstrates a lack of personal integrity and violates the basis of the game.
• The knowledge of right and wrong and being able to cleary demonstrate this through actions on and off the field. 

Responsibility

• To be sportsmanlike requires players and coaches to take responsibility not only for their performance on the field, but also their actions off the field. This includes their emotions and the use of their keyboard.
• Many times athletes and coaches will make excuses as to why they lost the game. The most popular excuse is to blame the ref. The honorable thing to do instead is to focus only on the aspects of the game that you can control, i.e. your performance, and to question yourself about where you could have done better, or could train to become better.
• Take ownership of your behaviour and your child's behaviour, if it needs .

Respect

• All players should show respect for teammates, opponents, coaches, and officials.
• All coaches should show respect for their players, opponents, and officials.
• All spectators especially parents, should show respect for other spectators, as well as the players and officials.

The sportsmanship model is built around the idea that sport both demonstrates and encourages character development, which then influences the moral character of the broader community. How we each compete in sports can have an effect on our personal, moral and ethical behavior outside of the competition. We all live in the same area, eat at the same restaurants and our kids go to school with each other.

Some may argue for a "bracketed morality" within sports. Meaning, that you can misbehave on the field and switch back to behaving off the field. But this approach suggests that sport and competing are set apart from real life, and occupy a realm where ethics and moral codes don't apply. This is a false attitude. An ethical approach to sport rejects this and encourages respect for the game and your opponent through tough but fair play as you would in day-to-day life. This means understanding the rules and their importance in encouraging respect for your opponent. This will then push you to be your best.

So, stay true to sportsmanship, expand on the benefits you learn in sport, this will then reflect in other aspects of your life.