Emotions and Moods in Sports Atmosphere - Essay Example

Emotions and Moods Introduction It would not be a mistake to suggest that there are numerous socialization agents that influence a person. Other than family, peers and mass media, school plays an important role in this process. That is why the kind of experience that one is gaining at school can be particularly important. When I was a high school student, I was a member of the soccer team in my school. When I reflect about those days, I see that the team had a distinct predisposition to create certain emotions and moods in the members. Now that I think about it in more details I can see how this was conditioned by sports atmosphere. In this paper I will prove that moderate aggression is cultivated by coaches of soccer teams as a way to contribute to their success. Emotions First of all, I may be logical to explore the kind of emotions that coaches were promoting. There is no doubt that they were aggressive: we were often told that we were to show no mercy to the opponent. Indeed, we are not gladiators and soccer does not often involve severe physicals attacks on the opponent. However, the coach insisted that while playing on the field we had to be relentless. He explained it in a very simple manner: since there is no probability that the other team would show us mercy, why should be show it to them? As a result, this generated a vicious circle of emotions that gradually resulted in moderate aggression. Nevertheless, there were individuals who questioned the need to feel this kind of emotions. They argued that a good match can be played without aggression. They noted that after the game the two groups of people will reunite and those who were more aggressive would be ashamed. However, the coach noted that feeling aggression towards one’s opponent is natural: it is an irreplaceable aspect of sports. There is nothing bad in it: it is just the way soccer is played. I could not fully agree with mu coach, but I knew that following his point of view did have benefits: this allows me to release aggression while being on the field and then argue that that was just part of the game. Moods The coach always insisted that moderate aggression is able to set the right mood: the mood that will take all the team to a glorious victory. He did not want to say that it is impossible to win without aggression: it is just that aggression allows people to see the world from a different perspective and this perspective is needed for the team to win. I remember him saying that sports, unlike reading or drawing, cannot be performed in a calm state of mind: one can to be excited about what is going on. Since soccer is a competition of two teams, it is obvious that some aggression will be generated along the way. According to him this is quite beneficial since that is one of the components of victory. Another point that he made was that moderate aggression can be seen as a common ground for all the team members. Indeed, in the daily life the players are separated, friendships are rare; however, when they come to the team, everyone is expected to unite. That is why moderate aggression can be used as a unification tool: everyone wants to win, everyone wants to beat the other time; this is a good start for being one group. I asked my coach whether the desire to win was not enough to unite the people. He often replied that everyone wants to win; moreover, negative emotions have a bigger impact on the people if compare to positive ones. Therefore, it is logical to use them to gain an advantage. A different view on aggression in sports Apparently, not everyone was ready to share the vision of my coach on aggression. There are scholars who argue that though aggression is perceived as an inevitable part of sports, it does more harm than good (Stanger, Kavussanu & Ring, 2012, p. 208). Indeed, it is incompatible with a different concept: empathy. The latter is regarded as one of the characteristic feature of human beings; that is why when sportsmen deliberately choose to be aggressive and not care about their opponent, they, in fact, choose to be less human. While this argument seems to be quite abstract, it is obvious that there is no game in the world that is worth rejecting, at least partially, the human nature. In addition to that, just like many other negative emotions, aggression is self-destructive. In other words, it is able to backfire and the team will suffer from an aggressive climate that the members of it generate. It was found that aggression in sports often leads to peer aggression which means that members of the same seem tend to badger their colleague; to make things worse, coaches often do not know about this state of affairs which means that they are not aware about the negative impact that their encouragement had (Baar & Wubbels, 2013, p. 385). In other words, while aggression is thought to mobilize the powers of the sportsmen, it has a negative impact on the team; that is why in the long run, it is not the wise strategy to follow. Conclusion The issue of aggression in sports is extremely controversial. However, it must be noted that coaches often think that while introducing it to the team, they are actually doing it good. Therefore, the analysis that I performed shows that moderate aggression is cultivated by coaches of soccer teams since they see it as a way to contribute to the performance of their team. The example of my soccer coach shows that he often generated emotions that are connected to aggression, like tell us to show no mercy to the opponent. As a safeguard, he noted that such emotions are normal for the world of sport. Moderate aggression was also thought to generate the right mood for the victory and unite the team. References Baar, P., & Wubbels, T. (2013). Peer Aggression and Victimization: Dutch Sports Coaches’ Views and Practices. Sport Psychologist, 27(4), 380-389. Stanger, N., Kavussanu, M., & Ring, C. (2012). Put yourself in their boots: Effects of empathy on emotion and aggression. Journal of sport and exercise psychology, 34(2), 208-222. Read More