Fighting an Unnecessary Constituent of Sport Essay Example

case, despite their meticulous use of the ethical reasoning to persuade the abolishment of fighting, the authors fail to address in depth the effects of fighting on players. Doing so would have made the essay more effective by using emotional appeals to persuade. Fights are a common spectacle in many sports including cricket, football etc., but it is only in hockey are they apparently accepted and strategically used, even though they are illegal. Fighting as a constituent of the game is controversial, as many argue that fighting is an important part of the game and hockey is incomplete without it, while contrary views claim that it is unnecessary and can be avoided wholly while maintaining the integrity of the game.

In this paper, I acknowledge that the game of hockey has evolved in a way that fighting as part of the gameplay, is sewn into its very fabrics; however, this violence does more harm and therefore it should be removed. Sports is a recreational activity, it is a mean to fitness, pastime and entertainment while violence is evil; sports and violence share no common grounds as their names too suggest, they are exclusively distinct. Fighting and all sorts of violence should be excluded, finished and looked down upon in sports. The paper investigates the effects of fighting on the team and players individually, during the game and after it.

Ultimately, it focuses on establishment of ethical gameplay by making a paradigm shift from fighting. As noted earlier, fighting in sports involves the execution of aggressive behavior meant to harm the player and mostly happens out of the rules of the game. In essence, it is any form

of physical assault meant to afflict pain or injury to another player. The effects of fighting in sports may be severe especially when considering the team or individual players during and after the game. To begin with, fighting or repeated fighting in sports could cause chronic traumatic disorders or concussions. This would occur if the affected players had severe blows around the head hence causing brain injuries.

This condition is prevalent in American football, hockey and professional wrestling participants but it can be very dangerous when considering unregulated sports violence. The effects of brain trauma of players would include loss of attention, regular headaches, dizziness and disorganization. Progressive brain deterioration may cause social instability, slow muscular movements and occurrence of erratic behavior. Damage to the brain due to concussions can last for so many years following an original head trauma. For this reasons, most of the players who have participated in violent games would always suffer from dementia, which is impairment to the memory of an individual, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson disease (McKee et al, p.709). Fighting in sports affects the psychological wellbeing of players especially after the game.

Among the psychological effects are depressive disorders that tend to interfere with an individual performance in life. The most contributing factor to depression is an injury that may result out of fighting which challenges the esteem, leads to loss of self-worth hence development of depressive symptoms. Some of the symptoms that the affected players may experience are moodiness, crying and withdrawal. While depression and psychological anxieties may significantly lead to poor performance, it may also lead to other risky behaviors such as suicidal attempts.

Depressive symptoms can also lead

to loss of physical attention and a drastic change in honoring exercise schedules. This may be so prevalent with professional players who spent much of their time while training and focusing on the next competition (Johnson, 2015). A sport team constitutes a significant portion of functional groups that portray the character traits of intergroup and intragroup behaviors (Lee, p. 38). Team membership may result to implications of being identified in any group hence forming an essential part of social identity on the side of that individual.

As the referred group assumes its vital role of determining identity, an individual may experience stronger feelings of familiarity, interdependence and conformity with other members of the group. That said, teams involved in sports are not only meaningful to the players but they also provide a basis upon which lives of the supporters is determined. In return, the supporters would enjoy being identified with a team that provides them a source of social recognition in the society. Failure of the team would bring forth considerable levels of frustration, discomfort and undue expenses. This development of mutual support between supporters and the team would provide a very strong platform to demonstrate prejudice and antagonism amongst outsiders, which, if not managed, results into intergroup conflicts and clashes (Lee, p. 39).

That is why confrontations during matches will lead to the creation of new rivalry that previously never existed between the teams. In addition, a goal, which would give an opposing team the lead, would trigger violence. Surprisingly, the fans of the team that has taken the lead would cause violence. Provocations such as threats and abuse would follow eruption of violence and hostilities

thereafter. Intimidation is most often lauded as one of the best tactic in winning games. For this reason, fighting and violence in sports is for the purposes of intimidating the opponent and is highly accepted in high contact sports such as rugby, football and hockey.

However much there could be benefits a fine line must be drawn between ethically accepted intimidating tactics and fighting that may result into serious injuries. When a player attacks an opponent within the context of playing, they receive applauses from the coach and fans. In this case, fighting and controlled violence appears commendable. However, intimidation may not be purposefully positive all the times. For instance, fighting to intimidate may easily knock a player out of the game.

In so doing, it impedes the assumed integrity and fairness expected in a game. Moreover, it leaves the opponent far more scared and instead of concentrating on winning the game, he/she thinks on how to avoid the attacker. This leaves the player with low confidence and increased anxiety in sports. Fighting and violence in sports ruins sportsmanship that endangers players and damages their reputation.

Sportsmanship means that an individual is can carry on well in games and other social activities. Players with good sportsmanship never get agitated when the gaming expectations do not go their way, they have a better chance to work in a team based on their right attitudes. It makes people gain a clear reality of things and enjoy fair games. Players who have lost good sportsmanship due to exposure to acts of violence would most often despise other players; hurt them just because things are not working their way. They always want

to take things the easiest ways and in the end damage the legitimacy of the game. Participating in violent games may lead to adoption of aggressive behavior during and after the game.

This is likely to occur regardless of the outcome of the competition. The spectators who observe violent games may also adopt aggressiveness after observing the events hence spilling the effects to other social settings. The trend is not only likely to occur in non-contact games but also even in vigorous physical exercises such as bicycle racing (Lemieux, p45). The aggressive behavior that comes about due to frustration is due to impediments that block the teams or individual players from achieving their goals. The social learning theory teaches that aggression as a social behavior is learned through the processes of reinforcements and modelling (Bandura & Richard, p3).

In this regard, participation in violent sports can teach someone aggressiveness and even reinforce the behavior. When faced with conflicts outside the sporting activities, players who are used physical confrontations in sports would likewise revert to such behaviors to solve the issues. Just like business organizations, ethics have a role to play in games. Due to the prevailing situations of sport violence and increased aggressive behavior in and outside the field there is a need to establish an ethical gameplay that would create a paradigm shift from fighting. Every stakeholder such as the athletes, sport administrators and coaches must play their role wisely in order to reduce violence related to sports.

Engagement in sporting activities does not only serve to equip a player with physical skills but also serves to cultivate their moral character. From the teleological perspective, the stakeholders

must emphasize on the moral values such as compassion, respect and sportsmanship while exercising their respective duties (Park, p.25). I so doing, athletes would uphold discipline by not taking part in violence, coaches would restrain from teaching fighting strategies in games, and the sport administrators would come up with well-established rules and penalties for dealing with in-game sport violence. One of the main reasons why coaches embark on teaching violent strategies is that other coaches elsewhere are doing the same. They may be under pressure to maintain their competitive advantage. One possible way to solve this problem is enforce rules would prevent violence in the fields.

The rules can help to reinforce values such as respect to others and integrity to colleagues. Following the win-at-all-costs philosophy that most players and coaches continue to adopt, it comes by no surprise that they learn aggressive and combat strategies in order to achieve their goals. If the respective stakeholders would come to realize how the impact of infliction they tend to impose on their opponents, then they would have conformed to the establishment of ethical gameplay without violence. As a recommendation, coaches should never be fired or promoted , in order to control all forms aggression while training. If the coaches were to act out worries for the possible consequences of winning or losing, they would adopt courses of action that would help them acquire pleasure or evade painful consequences.

If losing will cost them their jobs as coaches, then they may employ extreme tactics to ensure they are on the winning front. Elimination of the violent provisions in some games such as hockey and football could be of much

help in minimizing violence in sports. If the rules of such games were violent-free, then there would be no perpetuation of sport violence and fighting. If elimination of such rules may work to jeopardize the traditionally accepted provisions of the game, the modification of some aspects would realistic. Following the realization that spectators can also be negatively affected by violent games, it is imperative that the games are not touted as violent confrontations amongst the players. The sport administrators can therefore take the responsibility of making public announcements that would help to diffuse eminent hostilities.

Moreover, officials should be well trained to handle masses and thus make calls that funs would perceive as fair. In conclusion, fighting in sports presents adverse effects to the team and players individually, during the game and after it. Some of the effects are the possibilities of physical injuries such as concussions, severe traumatic disorders and injuries on some parts of the body. It also has some psychological effects such as adoption of depressive symptoms that interfere with the wellbeing of an individual in life. It promotes rivalry and hostilities amongst the players and their supporters, which eventually translates to other areas in the social sphere. Fighting ruins the good character of sportsmanship hence damaging the reputation of the players involved.

This virtue enables the players to have a positive response when the game fails to go as per their expectations. It also causes intimidation, which despite being highly regarded as competitive strategy; it has negative consequences on the player, as it tends to reduce their confidence while causing the game to lose its true meaning. Finally, continuous exposure to violent games

may lead to adoption of aggressive behavior during and even after the game. In order to establish an ethical gameplay that would create a paradigm shift away from fighting in games, there is need for the stakeholders to emphasize on the values such as compassion, respect and sportsmanship while exercising their respective duties in sports. This would not only seek to alleviate the effects of fighting on the teams and individual players but would also foster strides of peaceful coexistence in the society.

Works Cited

1. Lewinson, Ryan T., and Oscar E. Palma "The morality of fighting in ice hockey: Should it be banned?." Journal of Sport & Social Issues (2012): 0193723511434330.
2. McKee, Ann C., et al. "Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in athletes: progressive tauopathy after repetitive head injury." Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology 68.7 (2009): 709-735.
3. Lemieux, Patrice, Stuart J. McKelvie, and Dale Stout "Self-reported hostile aggression in contact athletes, no contact athletes and non-athletes" Athletic insight 4.3 (2002)
4. Bandura, Albert, and Richard H. Walters. "Social learning theory." (1977).
5. Park, Sungjoo. Moral education and sport. Diss. The Ohio State University, 2010.
6. Lee, Martin J. "From rivalry to hostility among sports fans." Quest 37.1 (1985): 38-49.
7. Johnson, Bill "Beyond Winning and Losing: Athletes and Depression".

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