4.4 Good sportmanship and fairness

Life orientation

Grade 7

Physical development and movement

Module 18

Good sportsmanship and fairness on the sports field and athletics track

The media regularly bring malpractices on our sports fields to our attention. It is evident that any form of competition and the adjudication thereof have the potential to bring out a great deal of aggression and chaos amongst competitors and spectators alike if strict rules are not in place and if they are not adhered to.

A number of newspaper reports that highlight this principle and illustrate the kinds of problems that are sometimes experienced, follow below.

Group work

[lo 4.5]

Divide the class into groups.

Each group gets one report to discuss.

The group must deal with the following questions:

• What sport is discussed here?
• On what level is this sport played (e.g. school sport, national level, etc.)?
• Who is/are the guilty party/parties?
• What kind of violation is referred to here?
• What could have prevented this negative situation from developing?
• If your group were in charge of handling the situation, what would you have done in order to (a) defuse the situation, and (b) prevent it from occurring again?
• Have you ever experienced situations at school where unfair behaviour on the sports field, poor sportsmanship or spectators’ misbehaviour has caused problems?
• If so, discuss possible solutions to your school’s problems.

Additional assignment

Learners can bring examples of poor sportsmanship or sports violations that they read in the local papers to school for discussion. It is unfortunate that similar incidents also occur in school sports. Local papers often carry reports on such incidents.

Die burger, 13 august, 2002 (translated report)

Second Rugby Shock

The reaction of some South Africans to the disgraceful conduct of a spectator at Saturday’s rugby test is actually just as shocking as his behaviour.

The conduct of Mr Pieter van Zyl, who ran onto the field in a critical stage of the test between the All Blacks and the Springboks, and tackled the Irish referee David McHugh, dislocating his shoulder in the process, was oafish.

Those people who immediately sided with Mr Van Zyl by collecting money to pay for his legal costs, and supported him because he had decided to “wake the ref up a bit”, must realise that they are defending totally unacceptable and uncivilised behaviour.

This kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated in any civilised country where people have agreed to live together according to certain universally accepted norms. It is essential that people understand that the majority of decent people in this country condemn such behaviour and demand that it be punished.

The fact that some people approve of his actions is not only alarming, but is also an indication of the moral confusion in a society that has lost sight of the fact that the game must be played according to the rules if chaos is to be avoided.

There is no point in making all sorts of excuses for his behaviour and in saying, “Yes, but…” while trying to find extenuating circumstances. What he did is wrong. There is no grey area.