The Role of the Instigator in Sports Conflicts

In recent weeks,there has been a glut of unfortunate display of poor sportsmanship and physical violence in our local schools' sports scene in Singapore. In particular, two incidents involved were from the same sport (rugby) and one from judo. One boy was hospitalized due to physical play which no one dare to admit, and in another, provocation from a winning opponent led to a violent attack on him from the losing opponent. In the judo case, a coach actually instructed his young school charges to sit out their fights on the floor mat in protest of a supposedly wrong decision made by the organizers. What ever happened to sportsmanship in the quest for peak performance in sports?

There is no room for all these acts of violence or defiance behaviour in our sports world, especially so in the world of student-athletes. The impression ate minds of our young charges are simply too easily influence these days. Already, they watch and learn numerous sporting stunts from the professional world of sports on television. What makes things worse for them is to learn firsthand from adult figures that poor display of sportsmanship is ok.

In the first instance, where a player was hospitalized fro rough play, do we seriously think that his concussion and coma like condition was purely accidental? What happens in the scrums, rucks and mauls of a rugby field is already nasty. The situation is only made worse when deliberate violence is used to inflict greater harm on opposition players. These form of intentional rough tactics are increasingly common in school rugby. One has to wonder where did our kids learn this from. Even when they are not taught explicitly to play dirty, by condoning such acts, are we not teaching our kids that it is ok to do anything you want for peak performance in sports. Sports is supposed to be pure and honourable, but the way we have been gunning for victory really speak foul of the integrity and ideals of sports.

How about the attack on the ACS(I) player by his St.Andrew's opponent after a hotly contested and close final game. There is no excuse for that kind of violence by anyone. Failure to control his emotions because of provocation means that he has lost his battle in his character development. Sports teaches control and discipline. There has been many instances of lack of self control by key players that led to their team losing ultimately. Remember David Beckham in the World Cup when he was provoked to kick out at his opponent? Too bad for him and England then. Same with this SAS boy, he will not be playing for the foreseeable future.

But there is something more disturbing with regards to the instigator. In all this instances, we notice that the provocateur has escaped major punishment if at all. But in our court of law, the schemer or instigator is equally if not more guilty than the actual offender. The instigator could have done a thousand other things to celebrate his victory. He could have walked away and join his teammates. He could have run a lap of honour on his own. He could have run to his mother or girl friend and gave them a hug. He could have knelt down on the final whistle and thanked the heavens for the victory. He could even, as a great gesture of sportsmanship, offered a hand shake to his fallen opponents to thank them for a great match. But he has chosen to do none of this. Instead he took the sole path that led to the unfortunate incident of violence. Based on his one and only course of action taken, there is no doubt that he has every intent to provoke and emotionally taunt his victim, resulting in the punch up. That intent is enough to make him just as guilty as the one who threw the punches at him. It was really a sad day when our finest school athletes should descend into such hideous depths of poor sportsmanship. There should be no place for such behaviours from our athletes in their quest for peak performance in sports.