Thursday, January 26, 2017

What do we do when we've lost the game?

What do we do when we lose the game?
I will never, ever forget the day we lost and one of our teammates threw the ball over the net at the other team.  OOOOOOhhhhh!  We were in TROUBLE!  We had lost all decorum in the eyes of our illustrious coach.  It was as though we had run to the other side of the court and hit each of the other girls in the nose and blood was rushing out.  Coach had no tolerance for sore losing. 


This episode changed the rules of the game for everybody.   There had already been a rule that throwing the ball over the net was a no-no. This incident stiffened those rules immensely for us all.  I don’t think we lost many games after that sad moment.  Coach T hollered at us as only he could, in silence and we all went home in tears, because we knew that our teammate’s activity was agreed to in sentiment by us all. His simple and convincting reproof sent us completely, penitently home to our knees. He had our hearts in his hands and our behavior would reflect our penitence.
The new rule meant that win or lose the teams had to stand at the baseline after the final point had been played and wait for the referee to give us the whistle to shake our opponents hands.  This was a real civilizing inclusion to the game.  It is inevitable that in the heat of the attempt to defeat your competitor the wrong heated effect can come about.  Giving a person a couple of minutes to catch their civility and their right mind, before shaking hands can do much to keep the disappointment from dominating the situation.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)