Udit Raj Kafle

Published On: October 24, 2019 10:54 AM NPT By: Udit Raj Kafle

It is more than just a game

It is more than just a game

                       

Do games and sports affect your emotional integrity, social development and even intellectual enhancement?

Affirmative! Odd enough but truly speaking, there is much more to games and sports than just winning. Whatever the level of sport you play, you take away with you an immense amount of learning, feelings, emotions, social gestures and even personal development.

Be it a singles sport or a team, it can never be discounted on the fact that any kind of sports is loaded with passion and emotions. Compare a professional badminton player competing in the championship finals to a 10- year old kid in his school sports week.

Weigh the emotions attached here, the balance becomes steady. The player plays for his pride, plays with his heart and soul; so does the kid. The professional after winning becomes jubilant, so does the kid. Winning the hearts of the people of the country complements winning the hearts of the friends, parents and teachers. Both parties get what they deserve and are satisfied. Here however, the winning mentality is vital.

Being overwhelmed can degrade further development. Future goals are obscured while dwelling in the present success for too long. The feeling of superiority if persists, personal motive declines and hence personal development. So it is necessary to maintain a healthy mindset of victory and keep the winning mentality intact to avoid such degradation.

On the other hand, for the losing parties, there are more positive things to take away from the game. A loss shapes the emotional stability in an individual. It gives a person a platform to recognize their weaknesses and shortcomings, and provides them the opportunity to work on them.

Failure makes you emotionally stronger. It builds up your confidence from scratch. Emotional fragility is inevitable, if one is reluctant to make amends. A mixed martial arts fighter who has lost a match channels her frustrations in her trainings, becomes more focused and skilled thus using her soon to become emotional vulnerability to something productive.

A friend who lost in a FIFA game instead of having an inferiority complex, goes on to practice with the AI and develop new strategies to answer to the previous thrashing. Losing does not matter; it is merely a part of a game, what matters are the acceptance of the loss and the willingness to work on the constraints.

Talking about the social development, the more you play, the better you get to know people. An individual is surrounded by players, coaches, health personnel, managers and working staffs of different social virtues and personalities in a football club. Maintaining a healthy relationship among all these people is often challenging and any sort of misunderstandings can be detrimental.

From respecting to cooperating to sharing, a football team can teach you to become socially sound and active. Any sort of games and sports at any level require good communication and sportsmanship gestures.

From acknowledging the fans to taking in criticisms like a professional, social development is imminent. Three kids who are street racing in their bicycles learn social gestures without them knowing about it. After the race, two of three kids do not mock the last stood kid, instead they shake hands or high five. A valuable lesson to social skills and gestures is well learnt from any games and sports one plays.

A good decision can win you games, win you titles. Winning a game without an intellectual move is almost non existential. A professional skateboarder at the X games intellectually decides what moves are required to get better points.

Also, games and sports have evolved so much that athletes and their trainers nowadays blend smart work with hard work. A perfect example would include Olympians training at higher altitude. There is science involved here. With atmosphere air thinning and depleting oxygen, body adapts by increasing ‘red blood cells’ that carry oxygen to tissues. The advantage here is that when they climb down, they have extra red blood cells to carry extra oxygen to their tissues. With every failure, new ideas generate to compensate the loss with success later. This compels people to use their brains and thus can bring intellectual enhancement. More the experience, more the chances to level up intelligence and this apply to each and every games and sports played at any corner of the world.

And most importantly, every game, every sport teaches you to have fun, requires you to have fun and rewards you for having fun. Enjoy every bit of your time playing and always take away the life lessons and skills the games offer you.

 

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