Right now many people are delighting in watching all the wonderful sport that is being shown on our television screens – the soccer Afcon , the cricket World Cup, the Women’s soccer World Cup, Wimbledon tennis, the four-nation Rugby Championship (and the rugby World Cup coming up), not to mention various Grand Prix, the Tour De France, the Open Golf Championship… There is so much fantastic sport on television that we could sit and watch live sport all day and night with great delight. Bring it on!
What is more, we can sit and watch all this amazing sport in High Definition. We can enjoy the luxury of detailed close ups of all the players and the action; we can witness each move with views from numerous different angles; we can have the benefit of seeing endless replays of each important move, pass or goal; what is more we can slow it right down and see it in slow motion, frame by frame even; and then we can benefit greatly from all the personal, expert analysis of pundits and former players, coaches and commentators. All this is available in the comfort of our homes, on the soft sofa with a cool drink and snacks by our side, or even at our favourite sports club in the company of like-minded enthusiasts and supporters.
It perhaps therefore comes as no surprise when we hear folk ask: “Why play sport when you can watch it on t/v?” After all, it will not take too much brain power to realise that we can have all the rare excitement and raw emotion of sport that players enjoy but do so without getting dirty, sweaty, tired or sore! We can still experience the enormous satisfaction of winning, the deep irritation of injustice, the desperate sadness of defeat, the sheer exhilaration of scoring, the nervous anticipation of extra time, the imaginative celebrations of success, but be relieved of all the effort and pain that is required to achieve such goals. Why on earth would anyone bother with all that effort and pain when we can get as much pleasure simply watching it from the comfort of our own home?
Of course, there may be some real die-hards who will go further than all that – they will forego the delights and comforts of watching sport on television and actually go and watch sport at the venue! What with all the big screens available at many venues, they can have all the angles, replays, close ups plus the added benefit of being able to soak up the atmosphere of the crowd, feeling the rush of adrenaline from their neighbour in the stand, smelling the sweat and joining the cheers. Why bother playing when you can watch sport at such close quarters?
Of course, such thinkers are absolutely correct. After all, why bother cooking when we can watch someone else cook? We do not need to cook – of course not! Why bother driving a car to work when we can watch someone else driving to work? We do not need to drive (or work)! Why bother even working when we can watch someone else work? Why bother studying when we can watch someone else studying? Why bother eating when we can watch others eat? But wait, though, why, indeed, do we make our children play sport when they could watch it?
The short answer would be that we do not want our children to live their lives vicariously through other people’s experiences. They will have to do something in order to achieve something and that goes for sport as well. If lessons are worth learning in sport (and they are, without question) then they need to be learned by playing, not by watching. No experience is gained through watching. Furthermore we do not want our children to learn things through other people’s expertise. It is bad enough when teachers want pupils to learn from a text book or in a library, watching (reading) what others have learned; in sport as in life, lessons will only truly be learned when they are personally experienced and attempted.
The short answer is this: if someone has to ask why anyone should bother to play sport when they could watch it on television, that person has clearly never played sport. If they had tried it, they will know why it is a hundred times better. Watching sport on television should inspire anyone watching it to play that sport. And if they have not tried it, then it is time they started – and we will come and watch them do so!
