We often take sports for granted as having existed for as long as humans have—and to some extent that’s true. The first Olympics was held in 776 BCE and the earliest recorded footrace occurred in 1829 BCE. While sports and competition have been around since antiquity this does not mean sports are stagnant or unchanging. Quite the opposite, new sports are added to the Olympics each year, and rules and equipment are ever changing even for the most ancient of sports. Play serves a crucial role in the development of new sports, rules, and equipment and if utilized properly can promote creative training and competition tactics.
I was first introduced to the idea of sport as unstructured play with rules in a Philosophy of Sport class aptly named “Play, Games, and Sport.” Play is unstructured cooperative activity while games are play with local rules. Local rules becoming universal rules turns a game into a sport. The intrinsic nature of this process—play becoming games becoming sport—seems to have roots in our human nature being that this experience is common between us now and our ancestors nearly 4,000 years ago. It is the intrinsic nature of play that is important for athletes and coaches to remember.
I was reminded of this idea of play as a fundamental pillar of sport while watching warm-up coverage of an international weightlifting meet. One of the commentators made a comment that the best weightlifters and often athletes look like they are playing while warming up or preparing to compete. I have seen this in my own experience as an athlete and coach. The best athletes are able to enter this childlike state of play while training and even sometimes competing. In swimming this manifests as dolphin dives (deep dives to the bottom of the pool imitating a dolphin), or corkscrew and backwards swimming. For a golfer this may be bouncing a ball on the your clubface, a soccer player may juggle, and so on. Performing these play activities, while unstructured, allows the athlete to explore the limits of their abilities and develop skills that will absolutely carry over to their sport.
For coaches and athletes this idea of play is important because it taps into a fundamental feeling and mindset. I see many athletes so focused on outcomes, specific drills, procedures, and strict protocols that they forget to enjoy what they are doing. They have become too far removed from the playful roots of sport. Coaches can help to rekindle this playful spirit through gamification in training. Making small competitions within a practice or game can help athletes realize their passion for the sport and create more intrinsic motivation. Athletes can give themselves room to play within the framework of their training protocol.
I find play especially important to revisit as an athlete gets older and more advanced in their sport. Often what was once an intrinsic passion can turn into a job once scholarships or paychecks are involved. Participating in a sport becomes a chore rather than a privilege and burnout can quickly follow. Infusing play and games into training can help athletes maintain a positive relationship with sport and enhance their performance through creativity and skill development.
Athletes and coaches can—and perhaps should—utilize play and games to enhance intrinsic motivation, creativity, and skill development. Regular free play can also allow athletes to remain active in their sport longer through the staving off of burnout. Play is a fundamental pillar of the human experience and a crucial precursor to organized sport. In the same way that play can develop games into sport, athletes can utilize free play to develop themselves into champion athletes and coaches can gamify training to create championship winning teams.
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