Every athlete has its own story. A lot of them experience the same situations with a little tweak here and there. Majority of their backgrounds are not good which takes a major toll on defining what kind of athlete is bread. Looking at Hughes and Coakley's definition of sport ethic, " athletes use this as an exclusive guide for their behavior, sport, and sport participation" (307). Within this principle, athletes will make sacrifices for 'the game', hunt for distinction, embrace risks, and accept no limits. This create a special kind of behavior that an individual athlete present for all the spectators and no one would know why he or she value these certain norms for sports unless it's shared. However, we could theorize from digging for information about their background or look at 'the world' of a coach's philosophy. According to Hughes and Coakley's article, "Coaches have emphasized the need to "pay the price," to "play with pain," and to "shoot for the top" (308). This shows that there could be any to numerous reasons on why athletes conform to this set of beliefs.
As an athlete myself, I've experienced all four dimensions of the 'sport ethic.' I had to incorporate some kind of guidelines to make it out of where I grew up. Sport ethic is still in affect with me; to an extent.
I agree that coaches have a huge part in athletes' acceptance of the sports ethic. Players push themselves to be the best, but coaches put an enormous amount of pressure on athletes to work harder and move forward.
ReplyDeleteJessica Michel