As I read this week’s readings about D’Agostino and Morgan’s analyses of games and rules, and their implementation of their ideas of how formalism and ethos should operate (e.g. Morgan’s social context perspective and D’Agostino’s permissible, impermissible, and unacceptable behavior), I was attractively drawn to Brown’s ideas regarding the prudential life and the distinction between external and internal goods on sport and practice. Through the collective work of the authors, I find myself continually trying to understand the practice of sport and what it ultimately entails for participants. Thus, I have arrived at the conclusion that the idealism for the practices of sport, regardless of one’s internal and external pursuits, possesses one thing in common: the un-relentless quest for victory.
As a high school basketball coach, I ask myself and my players, why do we play the game of basketball? Why do we practice the game? Most times I can say that the majority of them would say to “win”, or to “beat the other team”, or to “be champions”. It is unfortunate to see that our culture focuses on the idea that “winning” is everything. It is witnessed within sports, movies, social media, and even within the pursuit of the American dream. Success to us means winning, and we are willing to do anything to achieve it.
WHY CAN WE NOT ACCEPT LOSING?
Brown claims that practice is characterized as “complex social activities” and that practice essentially determines the goods (internal and external) to be achieved (p. 65). Internal goods are characterized by things that are achieved by the practice itself, or rewards within the sport. Furthermore, Brown characterizes external goods as “those contingent to a practice, and have nothing to do with the practice itself” (p.66). He labels money, fame, and entertainment as sources for external goods. However, the issue at hand is how and why the attitude of winning devalues the distinction between the two.
To demonstrate Brown’s assertion, I intend to use an example of what I have recently experienced. As my high school basketball season nears, I have asked my team to take pride in one thing: pride in our defense, because defense WINS games. Reflecting upon this particular statement I made, Brown’s claim that “winning blurs the distinction between internal and external goods” (p.64) flashed across my mind. Truly my intention was for my team to understand that defense is a necessary component to master within the sport, and that from my own personal experience, when one understands the constructs of defense, one understands the game. However, the implied context translated into just DEFENSE WINS GAMES. Knowing my team, I recognize they will not want to play defense because it is good for their overall basketball intellect, but rather, will play defense for the external rewards of success. So as a sport practitioner, and a believer that the practice of the game should be practiced in and for itself, how does one instruct my players in doing just that? Through my previous experience as a high school basketball player, I do admit that defense wins games. Social media such as NBA TV and ESPN would agree as well. However, the art of defense in basketball is a philosophical construct (internal good) that has been perplexed by external means. Has society and I alike, been brainwashed to the point where we have lost the “love of the game” and instead fallen in love for what extraneous elation victory brings (gold medals, championships, winning records)?
Society, social media, and professional sports, I believe, will perennially promote the idea of winning, strongly masking the pursuit of internal and external goods. Although I believe the human nature of participants of sport possess an un-relentless quest for victory, I however, on the same token, do not believe we should relinquish the distinction between the pursuits of internal and external goods. Brown’s work has served as an eye opening affirmation of how sport practitioners should educate future participants. Ultimately, future practitioners should preserve the ideas of internal and external goods of why we practice sport, but at the same time, acknowledge that victory is also part of the game.
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