Page 34 - EW Oct 2023
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Teacher-2-Teacher



         Sports education builds


         life skills


                                                                                PURU SINGH




                ECALLING HIS EARLY YEARS IN HIS autobiog-  At a time when NEP 2020 is being rolled
                raphy My Life, legendary basketball player Earvin
                ‘Magic’ Johnson says that his senior school years   out, it would be a good idea to mandate a
         Rat a predominantly white school, where he was in   dedicated sports class starting an hour
         the basketball team, was probably the best thing that ever
         happened to him. Humiliated by his team-mates even dur-  before academic classes commence, or
         ing practice to the extent they wouldn’t even pass the ball   after school gets over
         to him, Johnson says that those years taught him “how to
         understand white people, how to communicate and deal
         with them.”                                      which abound in India.
            This life skill could have been learned only on a bas-  The most obvious beneficial spillover from any sport —
         ketball court in a sea of racism that Johnson experienced   and one says this consciously, any sport — is to learn to
         as a student, and not from any other place. This is as true   become a team player while simultaneously excelling indi-
         of basketball as it is for any other sport, as lessons learnt   vidually. The popular belief that only field games such as
         on playing fields are indelible. This is why sports educa-  hockey, football and cricket teach team spirit is erroneous.
         tion needs to be an integral part of school curriculums —   Sports such as tennis or golf where there’s a whole support
         rather than limited to one or two 45-minute classes per   team, including coach, agent and physiotherapist, enables
         week — when young children can start learning life skills.   players such as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win
         Therefore, at a time when the National Education Policy   Grand Slam tournaments.
         (NEP) 2020 is being rolled out, it would be a good idea to   onversely, even in team sports, there’s room for indi-
         mandate a dedicated daily sports class, which could either  Cvidual excellence. But individual glory is little solace
         start an hour before the academic classes commence, or   for great performers if they are on the losing side. Michael
         after school gets over.                          Jordan, the greatest hoopster the world has ever seen whose
            Moreover, sports classes in schools are usually under   popularity transcended geographical boundaries, was al-
         the charge of a physical education teacher who’s more aca-  ready a star in the 1980s with numerous accolades, but be-
         demic than an individual with experience in a sports arena.   reft of championship win. That came about only when he
         To derive full value from sports education only individuals   teamed up with other greats like Scottie Pippen Sr, Horace
         who have experience of competitive play if not internation-  Grant and Phil Jackson which led to the Chicago Bulls win-
         ally, at least in national games, should be selected to teach   ning several championship trophies in the 1990-91 season.
         sports and games. Indeed it’s advisable that schools invest   Jordan aptly remarked that “If you think and achieve as a
         in specialist coaches for specific sports. Just as an English   team, individual accolades will take care of themselves. Tal-
         teacher can’t teach algebra or trigonometry, a swimming   ent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win cham-
         coach can’t effectively coach a football team.   pionships.” This also explains why in two back-to-back
            This is to not discount the importance of academics. In   Olympics of 1992 and 1996, the US dominated basketball
         the US to qualify for inclusion in a school or college ath-  despite the absence of stalwarts like Johnson, Jordan and
         letics or sports team, students have to score a minimum   Pippen. But the team included Larry Bird (1992), Shaquille
         grade point average (GPA) in academics. And to maintain   O’Neal and Karl Malone (1996). They played as a team for
         minimum scores to retain their places in an athletics squad   the country.
         or field games team. Therefore, coaches work in tandem   Sports also teaches humility, grace and acceptance be-
         with fellow teachers in academic disciplines to ensure that   cause no sportsperson can end his/her career with an all-
         star athletes understand that sports and academics are not   wins record. Even Balbir Singh Dosanjh, the greatest field
         mutually exclusive.                              hockey centre-forward the game has ever produced, ended
            A similar model needs to be adopted in India to ensure   up without the gold medal at the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games.
         students playing for school or varsity teams maintain mini-  In 2006, when South Africa beat Australia with one ball
         mal academic grades. Sports stars should be made aware of   to spare in their fifth cricket ODI, Ricky Ponting and Her-
         minimum grades required if they wish to continue playing   schelle Gibbs were declared joint recipients of the Man of
         on school or college teams.                      the Match award for chalking up brilliant centuries. How-
            After winning India’s first ever gold medal for pistol   ever, Ponting, an aggressive on-field player, graciously de-
         shooting at the Beijing Olympics 2008, Abhinav Bindra   clined the award and stepped aside in favour of Gibbs.
         stressed that if teaching life-skills to sportspersons was   These are the important life skills that sports teach.
         mandatory as in the US, “none out of 10 athletes will actu-
         ally fail.” Learning a life skill can be the difference between
         earning a decent living and living in penury — examples of   (Puru Singh is founder-director of the Push Sports Academy, Delhi)

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