Discipline in sports is key

Lazarus Sauti

Sports men and women in the African continent should uphold the reputation of Africa as a sporting continent by ensuring that they maintain strict discipline that will always assure them of success.

This means sports require discipline and good conduct. Discipline and good conduct are in sports are important ingredients that are crucial in shaping individual sports personalities.

Johnny Lewis once said, “Be 100 percent disciplined and you have a good chance of success; without it, you will never reach great heights whether in business or sport.” He was right as discipline - the ability for an individual to have self-restraint and to behave and practice in a strict, controlled manner is key in sports.

In sports, athletes need to be disciplined in the technical, tactical, mental, and physical as well as lifestyle areas of development.

Caps United football player Collins Dhuwa believes that discipline is a key element in developing and maintaining motivated hard-working athletes and united teams.

He says: “Discipline lays the foundation for the rate of development a team experiences, as well as the pride coaches, administrators, players and fans feel for their team.

“Most importantly, teams who use discipline effectively have the opportunity to positively influence players’ behavior in all other areas of their lives.”

Dhuwa also says that talent will count for less if discipline is missing in the aspiring athletes. Thus, the most critical factor to success in any endeavour not only sports is discipline.

Maintaining team discipline enhances chances for a team to win together. A disciplined team also attracts more sponsors and more supporters.

Brighton Mugoni, a footballer says self-discipline amongst the team on the field is very important if a team needs to attain its objectives.

“Lack of self-discipline can cost the team a game. In the end, it does not matter unless everyone in the team shows this quality of self-restraint. Youthful players should have a disciplined approach to lifestyle and training. Inefficient habits and practices must be changed,” said Mugoni, the Black Rhinos striker.

Mugoni also believes that lack of unity and of discipline are the main causes of sports’ team’s decline.

No coach worth his socks tolerates indiscipline in his team. It is a blight that destroys team spirit and everything a team represents if unchecked.

To show that indiscipline costs teams, many football analysts believe the golden generation of Black Stars players in the 90’s failed to lift any major silverware during their era due to divisions over team captaincy.

The French national football team at the 2010 World Cup performed dismally due to indiscipline.

Accordingly, to effectively embrace discipline in sports, coaches and administrators should invest more time in developing methods of behavioral conditioning and they should communicate their programme to their players. Also, coaches need to be able to maintain an environment of respect for all within their sessions.

Coaches should add some roughness in enforcing discipline to their players.

Former Ghana Football Association boss Ben Koufie once told Ghana national team coach Kwasi Appiah to add some roughness in his dealings with the national team to enforce discipline.

“A little bit of some roughness will help you … A little bit of it to push things, to force the pace to ensure that you get what you want”.

On a more holistic approach, football administrators must employ life skills coaches. The aim should be to foster discipline in players and to build role models from players.

Sports administrators should tell coaches and players that while engaging in sporting activities, they would be representing themselves, their families, their clubs and at most their countries and thus, they should be disciplined and professional all the time.

Parents should take an active role in helping their child develop good sportsmanship and in order to do this, they should help them to get the most out of sports. This includes providing emotional support and positive feedback.

Former Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki urged Africans to promote Africanism through sports.

He said, “To promote Africanism, athletes and players in the continent must all be disciplined and display professionalism all the time.”