Sportsmanship in Sports

Have you been injured when playing sports? I am sure most of you have. Almost everyone has been injured before, and a graze or cut is common due to falls or skids. However, there are some cases where people are intentionally hurt by the opposite team because their opponent's team has won the game. I am sure that most of us have heard about the ugly brawl broke out between the ACSI and St Andrew's secondary schools after a rugby match. A St Andrew's Secondary School student punched ACSI's flanker Leonard David Wee when his school lost 8-7, leaving the ACSI student with a bloodied mouth and nose. This incident put the spotlight on sportsmanship. The Committee on Safety in Sports Schools made it clear in a report that the parents also had a role to play in their children's upbringing in sportsmanship, together with the coaches and the teachers.

I agree with this point of view. Although it is still the responsibility for the teachers or coaches to teach them, they only teach and supervise them on their ability in the sport, and the parents are responsible for the child's behaviour. Children learn more quickly from their parents and they are with them for a longer time than the coaches are with the children, so the parents have more time to teach them how to behave. Additionally, they can teach them the values of fair play, integrity and respect through stories or games. They should also behave in a sportsman-like manner as the children will learn from them.

The coaches should also do more than just teaching the children. The government has made it compulsory for coaches to be qualified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of a defibrillator. I think that this is a good idea. When the student faints during training sessions, the coaches would be able to help to provide medical help before professional help arrives. This will decrease the chance of a student dying from his injuries. Extra safety measures should be implemented, however, for sports like basketball, judo, taekwondo, rugby and soccer, where there are high degrees of contact between competitors. There is more chance of injuries in such sports, and coaches need to be more alert and careful.

In my opinion, the children should also play a part in their behaviour. They definitely should be more disciplined and not allow their emotions to get the better of them on the playing field. If they lose, they could just accept the fact that they did not perform as well as their opposition during the match. That way, I am sure that fewer fights will occur, naturally leading to the decrease in injuries. For example, when Roger Federer met Rafael Nadal's family along the corridor, they greet and hug each other warmly even though Nadal had just lost the match to Federer in the ATP World Tour Finals. This is the spirit that the children should adopt- to sincerely congratulate the winner even if you have lost.

Competitions are not all about winning. They are also about having sportsmanship. Some people have no sportsmanship if they cheat just to win a competition. Shouting at the referee or opposite team when one loses is also considered having no sportsmanship. Winning is just an additional bonus that you get if you are stronger than the other side, and the process of preparing for the competition is the most important, as that is when you learn the most things.

My First Day at My Secondary School

"Hwa Chong, Ke Ba Ba! Ole Ole Ah Ah!" I was seated in the hall, watching my seniors cheer loudly. It was my first day at my new secondary school. I was in Group 2 and my group had two buddies who would lead us for the orientation days. I was very astonished that such a small group of people could cheer so loudly!

The buddies led us to our classroom to play some ice breaking games. One of the games was Whacko and its objective is to remember who the people in your group are. To start the game, one person stands in the centre of a circle of people. One person that is seated had to yell out someone's name. The person in the centre would need to run to the person and hit him with a stick before he says somebody else's name. That person would have to say another person's name before he is hit by the person in the centre. I was the one standing in the centre. I ran around, trying to hit one person. "James!" Someone in my group shouted. I ran to James and was about to hit him. Suddenly, he shouted out, "Alex!" Everyone roared with laughter. He was only allowed to call the other people seated and he was not supposed to call me. Later, we found out that he did not know who I was and had just memorised it earlier, when we were introducing ourselves! I felt that the games were interesting, and also allowed us to know each other.

That day, we also practised our cheers. We were asked to cheer as loudly as possible. The freshman beside me complained, " Cheering gives me sore throat! Why do we need to cheer?" We were still very soft because we were self-conscious- I had never done this sort of things before! "Come on everybody! Cheer louder and put your heart into the cheers! We cheer to show that we are proud to be part of Hwa Chong, and we love the school!" Our buddies reminded. Later on, we cheered louder and louder and before I knew it, I was cheering at the top of my voice. Magically, the cheers made us high-spirited and made us feel like part of the school!

During lunch, we rushed to the canteen. I was happy that there were not many people there yet. I queued up at the noodle store and saw that there were two queues. "The store must have made two queues due to the crowds," I thought. I chose the shorter queue and was excited that it was almost time for me to buy the noodles. The aroma coming from the store was so nice! To my dismay, when I was reaching the front, my friend in the other queue told me that I was queuing in the wrong line! That was not the ordering queue- it was the queue to wait for your noodles. By then, the ordering queue was so long that it snaked to the stairs behind. Since recess time was almost over, I had no choice but to switch to the mixed rice store because it had a much shorter queue.

That day, we also had many other activities, including the Amazing Race, the learning of the school song and painted our group flag. These activities were also very interesting and made us know our school better.

The first day at my Secondary school was one to remember and I had lots of fun. All of us looked forward to the next day and I hoped that the next day would be just as fun.

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Hi guys, I'm a student in Singapore, and this are some thoughts and essays I have written over the years.