PRACTICE THIS WEEK
(November 04, 2000)

[Discussion]　 "Sports" 　(J.Amano)

It's never been easy for me to be a ''good sport". A "good sport" is someone who doesn't get mad when they lose a game. Someone who keeps trying to do their best even when things aren't going so well. I suppose a good sport is someone who believes, as the popular saying goes, "it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."
When I started playing squash a few years ago, the biggest challenge for me was not the game itself, but my attitude. I lterally felt sick if I lost an important game. Or if I started losing half way through, I would feel so discouraged, I would just give up on trying to win. When I realized playing wasn't fun anymore, I decided I had to work on mental training. I really wanted to become a good sport. I started concentrating more on having a good time and on learning something positive from my mistakes. Like one famous squash player said, "you always learn something, especially when you lose." I also began to learn a lot from watching other people play.
I don't know what Japanese children are taught about mental attitude in sports, but I'm always amazed when I watch good players in Japan play squash. Occasionally someone will yell out or argue with the referee, but generally, Japanese players are fairly quiet and controlled. They seem to concentrate on heir technique and fight to the end, even when the score is 0-9. Watching that kind of playing has really inspired me to be a better sport as well.
So the first time I went to the Japan Open, where some of the world's top players come, I experienced extreme culture shock. Among many of the European and American players, the idea of "the good sport" seemed to have no meaning at all. Both women and men screamed at the referees, used bad language on he court, threw down their rackets when they lost and left the court in anger. I'll never forget one woman who even hit her head against the wall over and over when she missed shots.
I wondered how a person could lose their temper on the court and still play he game well. But to my surprise, the most emotional players often won. In fact, very few of he Japanese players ever make it to the finals. That means the final day of the tournament is quite a display of wild emotions by the mostly European players.
Squash players in Japan often discuss why Japanese players don't win in international tournaments. Is it because squash is still a fairly new sport here? Or could it be that technique is emphasized too much? Maybe squash school coaches expect too much conformity among their students. I can remember my own frustration once when it felt more natural to turn to the left after a shot, but the coach insisted that everyone turn to the right. If players were encouraged to show more passion and personality on the court would their individual strength come out more?
I don't know the answers. But what I do know is that, for me, being a good sport feels a lot better than being a bad sport. And my squash heroes are not the ones who win in a great passion, but rather the ones who play the game with dignity and grace, with a fighting spirit up to the last point. That's the kind of "winner" I want to be, especially when I lose.

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