To be attacked by a shark while surfing, leading to losing sixty percent of the body’s blood and having one arm amputated, only to be back on the surfboard within twenty-six days and later winning numerous tournaments in subsequent years, we should say, requires a certain quality. So too does being caught in an explosion at the age of eight, being severely burned, losing every toe on one foot, having one leg nearly fifty centimetres shorter than the other, yet going on not just to walk, not just to run but to compete in two Olympic Games. Equally, to be shot accidentally while being a regular member of the national sporting team which led to being confined to a wheelchair for two years before fighting back not only to fitness but also to representing the country at that sport again, reveals that same astonishing quality. Step forward Bethany Hamilton, Glenn Cunningham and Sandeep Singh respectively, sportspeople of extraordinary courage.
Courage is the vital quality – at heart of any important or significant achievement. It is the quality that not just sportspeople but all people need in life. It is the “willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation”; we could add to that list of opposing aspects such situations as failure, disappointment, defeat, injury, setbacks, humiliation, hardship, loss. It is the mental and moral strength to “venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear or difficulty”. It is the willingness to do everything possible for the cause despite the potential cost or risk. Courage is of the heart; the word comes from the Latin word ‘cor’ and the French word ‘coeur’, both of which mean the heart. As such therefore, it can be diminished and it can be developed. We need to understand that.
A school first team soccer coach used to send his team out onto the field before each match with the passionate and persuasive challenge to his players to “Discourage them [meaning the opposition]”. He would add, “I don’t mean ‘play dirty’, mind. Just discourage them!” He did not wish his players to kick their opponents or use illegal means or cheat or even use mind games but they were to discourage their opponents by the way they themselves played. He wanted his players to play so hard that the opposition would tire and want to lose heart. He wanted his players to press the opponents time after time after time; to come back again and again after any mistake, miss, tackle, goal; to hide any negative emotions of anger, disappointment, hurt, frustration; to display a unity and togetherness throughout, so the opposition knew there was no weak link; to handle injustice and favour, triumph and disaster, with equal humility and dignity.
The coach knew that playing dirty could well in fact backfire on any team subscribing to such tactics because, if playing dirty did not work well, it could only give cause for the opposition to have even greater determination. He did not want his team to play dirty but wanted his team to suck the life out of the opposition, to diminish the heart of the opposing players, to weary their will, to make them think they had no hope or ability, to increase their fear, to shed their spirit. Discourage them; take the heart from their performance; remove any courage they may have had.
In contrast, a coach will rather seek to encourage his own players, to give them heart and hope, to put courage in to the hearts of his players. He will so fill up the tank of their hearts with belief and conviction, with purpose and principle, with passion and compassion. He will underline the positives and reveal the opportunities; he will affirm the pleasures and highlight the rewards so that the players want to go out there and give their all, their heart, overcoming their fears and uncertainties. He will not simply encourage people by short and sharp cries of “Well played!” or “Keep at it, boys!” or “Come on, lads; you can do it!” It is so much more than that.
Some might consider that courage is in reality another word for stupidity, or idiocy. After all, why on earth should people put their lives, their reputations, their hopes at risk? Why go such a route, when any rational thought would promote an alternative way? Yet that is just the point: courage is of the heart, not of the mind. Courage is not a dirty word; playing dirty is cowardice, the opposite. But there are sharks out there looking to take us out of the game; there are fires burning that look to cut the legs from under us; there are situations that can paralyse us greatly. We as coaches therefore need to learn how to encourage our youngsters not to be discouraged.
