Betterness,injustice and failed athletic contests

In this paper, I provide an account of failed athletic contests which consists of two ideals, the Athletic Superiority Ideal and the Just Results Ideal. Related to this, I argue that a sports contest can fail in terms of the Athletic Superiority Ideal without failing in terms of the Just Results Ideal and vice versa. In the process of doing the former, I argue that besides adjudicating errors, cheating, gamesmanship and (bad) luck, there are two other types of reasons because of which a sports contest can fail in terms of the Athletic Superiority Ideal. Finally, I argue that my account of failed athletic contests is more plausible than Mika Hämäläinen’s three-standard model of athletic superiority.     

Toward sport reform: hegemonic masculinity and reconceptualizing competition

Hegemonic masculinity, a framework where stereotypically masculine traits are over-emphasized, plays a central role in sport, partly due to an excessive focus on winning. This type of masculinity marginalizes those that do not possess specific traits, including many women and men. I argue sport reform focused on mitigating hypercompetitive attitudes can reduce this harmful and marginalizing hegemonic masculinity in sport. I make this argument first by challenging the dichotomous nature of sport, especially in recognizing that all outcomes are a blend of winning and losing, that ties are relevant and informative outcomes to contests, and that winning and losing do not always tell accurate stories of the outcome. Secondly, I contend that expanding the potential outcomes in sport can help broaden the emphasis of competitive sport to take into account playing well and improving, in terms of both the test and the contest. I conclude that these reforms decrease hegemonic masculinity, making sport better for all.     

The Case for Inter-national Sport: A Reply to Gleaves and Llewellyn

In their recent contribution to JPS, Gleaves and Llewellyn argue on lusory and ethical grounds that elite sporting competition should cease to be predicated on competitions between nations. From a lusory perspective, they argue that inter-national sports’ limitation on who can compete (due to it being based on national and cultural criteria) undermines some of the central principles of elite sport, such as athletic supremacy and merit. From an ethical perspective, they argue that inter-national sport is categorically unethical because the national and cultural narratives that frame such contests are inherently untruthful and inauthentic. In this article, we challenge Gleaves and Llewellyn on both these grounds and argue that national identity and representation are worthy values that can be achieved through sport, and that inter-national sport, far from being categorically unethical, has the potential to stimulate meaningful cultural conversations, both within and between national communities.     

What counts as part of a game? Reconsidering skills

The first goal of this paper is to reply to a number of criticisms levied by Gunnar Breivik and Robert L. Simon against an account of sporting skills I published almost 20 years ago in which I distinguished between constitutive and restorative skills and examined their normative significance. To accomplish this goal, I first summarize my characterization and classification of skills and then detail the criticisms. After responding to the latter, and thus reconsidering and hopefully strengthening my account of skill in sport, I turn my attention to Scott Kretchmar and Tim Elcombe’s inquiry into the skills involved in competitive sport. These authors claim that contesting skills demand the same respect usually accorded to testing skills. The second goal of this paper is then to explore Kretchmar and Elcombe’s inquiry under the light of my reconsidered analysis of skill. I specifically advocate a plausible relationship, both in terms of their distinctive character and relative import, between testing and contesting skills and constitutive and restorative skills. In doing so, I seek to present a more comprehensive account of skill in non-competitive and competitive sport.     

Sport: a scientific experiment?

Abstract

Science plays an increasingly important role in sport. Innovative high-tech equipment and research-based exercise regimes are vivid examples. In more subtle forms, scientific ways of thinking impact how sport is understood and practiced. I examine the possibilities and limits of scientific rationality in the set-up of competitive sport. Standard requirements on reliability and validity make sense when it comes to the quest for equal opportunity, and for fair and impartial evaluation of performance. However, whereas the instrumental aim of science is ‘certified’ knowledge, I argue that sport has primary meaning and value in itself. In further analysis of the normative structure of sport, an alternative ludic rationality emerges with elements of merit, chance and luck. I argue that sport is structured to cultivate not only athletic but human excellence. I conclude that upholding ludic rationality, operationalized in norms for fair play, is crucial for realizing sport’s characteristic values.     

论运动技术隐喻的价值

运动技术隐喻就是在运动技术形成过程中,通过以彼喻此,对运动技术动觉感知与思维状态的一种典型描摹。本研究采用文献资料法、观察法、访谈法和案例分析法进行研究,较为全面地挖掘和阐释了运动技术隐喻在科学、人文和艺术方面的重要价值。运动技术隐喻价值的揭示起着引导研究转向的作用,对体育内涵进行了深层次地揭示,也为提升体育运动的地位提供了确证,同时为培养兼具运动技术与人文素养的人才提供可行途径。     

From the Point of View of Sport

Zero-sum aspects of sport have generated a number of ethical concerns and a similar number of defenses or apologetics. The trick has been to find a middle position that neither overly gentrifies sport nor inappropriately emphasizes the significance of winning and losing. One such position would have us focus on the process of trying to win over the fact of having one. It would also ameliorate any harms associated with defeat by pointing out that benefits like achievement, excellence, and moral development are available to winner and loser alike. Relying on the notion of ‘frame’ introduced by Polanyi, I argue that this approach underplays the poignant drama of sport (including the sting of defeat) and thus, seeks redemption at too high a cost. I argue for a version of red-blooded competition that is justified more by transcendence than mitigation, more by a willingness to play again tomorrow than civility during any single contest. I analyze sport in terms of its receptivity to such repetition and find that epistemological uncertainty, enhanced by the presence of chance in sport, renders repeat engagements both sensible and attractive. I conclude that sport verdicts, unlike outcomes in war, business, and love, do not settle things. Rather they invite both winner and loser alike to ‘play again tomorrow’.     

In Praise of Partisanship

J.S. Russell, Stephen Mumford, and Randolph Feezell have criticized my view that zealous partisans of a particular team are superior to purists, who derive an esthetic pleasure from good play by any team. All three philosophers extol the virtues of purism and Russell defends a pluralistic view that rejects the very idea of an ideal type of fan. In response, I renounce the claim that partisans are superior to purists and instead propose a more modest defense of partisanship. Moderate partisan fans, who constrain their support by moral and esthetic criteria, exhibit admirable concern for their team’s wellbeing, have unique opportunities to display moral virtue, and are necessary for the welfare of competitive sport. Partisans’ choice of team is influenced by arbitrary factors but arbitrariness is built into the very nature of sport and applies equally to purists’ admiration of athletic excellence. It diminishes neither the value of athletic excellence nor the value of partisans’ devotion to their team.     

The use of head-to-head records for breaking ties in round-robin soccer contests

Head-to-head records are often used in round-robin contests for breaking ties between athletes or teams that are equal on points or wins. In this paper, I argue, on the one hand, that tie-breaking systems of round-robin soccer contests should give more importance to overall goal difference than to head-to-head records. On the other hand, I also argue that even the mere inclusion of head-to-head records in the tie-breaking criteria of a round-robin soccer contest is problematic.     

单板滑雪U型场地技巧优秀运动员竞技能力特征的研究

为了提高单板滑雪U型场地技巧运动员的运动成绩,本文运用文献资料法、专家访谈、逻辑分析法研究了与运动成绩最相关的运动员竞技能力。结果表明:技能是竞技能力中的主导因素,优秀运动员技术特征表现为稳、高、飘、难、多样性。运动员体能三要素中以运动素质为主;优秀运动员下肢和腰腹肌肉力量发达,有良好的平衡协调能力,下肢关节和躯干的柔韧性较好;优秀运动员的心理特征表现为兴奋敢为型和自信型;竞技能力中的各因素互相影响,相互促进,只有共同发展,才能提高运动员的运动成绩。     

美日中三国中小学校内体育竞赛比较研究

纵观世界发达国家中小学校内体育竞赛的现状与发展趋势,同我国中小学校内体育竞赛加以比较,探索美日中三国中小学校内体育竞赛的异同,促进我国学校体育竞赛的改革与发展。     

Athletic goal achievement: A critical antecedent of event satisfaction,re-participation intention,and future exercise intention in participant sport events

The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive understanding of consumer experiences in participant sport events. The authors explored two traditionally prominent components (i.e., service quality and perceived economic value) and one emerging factor (i.e., athletic goal achievement) of consumer experiences at participant sport events. The authors examined the effects of these three factors on re-participation intention and the effect of athletic goal achievement on future exercise intention. Results of moderated serial mediation analyses based on data from a sample of marathon runners (N = 3186), all three factors exerted significant effects on re-participation intention. In particular, athletic goal achievement was positively associated with re-participation intention and future exercise intention through the serial mediation of performance satisfaction and overall event satisfaction. However, the moderating effects of athletic goal importance on the serial indirect relationship between athletic goal achievement and two outcome variables (i.e., re-participation intention and future exercise intention) were not significant. The findings of this study offer participant sport service providers with insights to manage participants’ athletic performance, service quality, and perceived economic value for better consumer experiences. Such efforts should result in higher participant satisfaction, better retention rates, and a higher post-event physical activity level.     

自由式滑雪空中技巧比赛作风和竞技能力的分析与思考

客观审视运动员在国际大赛过程中的竞技能力与拼搏精神、经验作风、意志力等综合表现,试图为我国自由式滑雪训练提供创新理念内涵。运用观察分析方法对芬兰世界杯自由式滑雪空中技巧比赛作风和竞技能力进行研究。面对突然变化的天气状况和比赛环境,世界高水平运动员所表现出的沉着、冷静、勇敢、果决和自信的优良作风和竞技能力,令人敬佩。应全面贯彻落实"从难、从严、从实战出发"训练原则,强化我国空中技巧运动员敢于拼搏的比赛作风和最佳竞技能力的培养和提高。     

In search of invariant athletic behaviour in sport: An example from championship squash match‐play

Analysis of competitive sport performance from a priori observation is frequently used to prepare an athlete for a future contest. This practice necessarily assumes that the observed athletic behaviours are invariant, in that the data from an earlier contest apply to the next. We report different analyses of championship squash matches from 1987 and 1988 in search of such invariance and thus a general signature of athletic behaviour. The results show that once the preceding condition to an athletic response (shot) becomes more detailed, by either accounting for where on court the previous shot was played to, or by pairing the previous shot with its own antecedent, the corresponding response becomes more predictable (P > 0.25). This is especially the case for a squash champion when the forehand and backhand characteristics of his shot response are accounted for. The finding that the champion is more consistent if his forehand and backhand shot responses to a preceding shot are analysed separately, shows that the level of analytic detail is an important consideration if the derived information from sport analysis is to prepare an athlete reliably for future sport competition. Finally, we consider sport competition from an ecological perspective with regard to the natural organization and stability of non‐linear systems in an attempt to explain the empirical data.     

同场对抗性项群运动员竞技能力非衡结构理论研究

竞技能力是决定运动成绩的关键因素,提高运动员的竞技能力是提高成绩的有效途径。在同场对抗性项群中对运动员竞技能力非衡结构理论的研究,揭示了竞技能力非衡结构理论的补偿性、整体性、层次性、动态性与稳定性对提高这一项群运动员竞技能力的作用,为取得优异的运动成绩奠定了基础,对运动训练的实践具有重要的理论指导意义。     

The compatibility of zero-sum logic and mutualism in sport

This essay argues that within competitive sport zero-sum logic and the theory of mutualism are compatible and complementary. Drawing on Robert Simon’s theory of mutualism and Scott Kretchmar’s argument for zero-sum logic, this article shows how athletes can strive for a clear-cut victory and shared benefits such as athletic excellence fully and wholeheartedly at the same time. This paper will also consider how acknowledgment of this dynamic could advance understandings for ethical theories for sport. It will then conclude by describing a subjective approach that will make the affinity of zero-sum logic and mutualism more accessible for sports people.     

我国竞技网球运动发展史研究

文章采用文献资料法、逻辑分析法对我国近代竞技网球发展史进行分析研究,我国近代竞技网球发展经历了以下5个时期:解放前的中国网球、建国初期的中国网球、中国网球的恢复期、中国网球重返国际网坛、中国网球的快速发展期。通过对我国近代竞技网球发展史的研究,充分展示了作为"贵族运动"的网球运动是如何在我国演变发展成为一项竞技水平逐步提高、深受群众喜爱的运动项目的发展历程。     

论我国竞技体育高等教育化

文章主要对我国竞技体育高等教育化的问题进行探究,提出竞技体育高等教育化顺应世界竞技体育发展的趋势,高校在构建培养体育人才战略高地的过程中,应该更新观念,面向未来,为国家培养更多的优秀体育人才。     

Social Philosophy of Sport: A Critical Interpretation*

In this article I argue both that an understanding of sport’s general character as competitive play can help us to read Homer more insightfully and that this reading can boomerang back to us to further illuminate the sport as competitive play thesis. My overall method is that of (Rawlsian) reflective equilibrium. The three sections of Homer that I examine are the Phaiacian games in Book 8 of the ‘Odyssey’, the Patroclos games in Book 23 of the ‘Iliad’, and the Penelope games in Books 21–22 of the ‘Odyssey’.