Mel Reichler, Associate Professor
Emeritus, Department of Sociology,
mwl@nyc.rr.com
A Framework for a theory of Sports
Most work in the sociology of sports concentrates on the connection between sports and the societies in which they are played. We want to shift and narrow the focus to the nature of sports themselves. In this paper we want to develop a general framework in which sports can be analyzed. Not a great deal has been done in this area. Goffman's framework for the analysis of games (1961) and Redl Gump and Sutton-Smith's treatment of the dimensions of games (1971) provide a starting point. Investigating the nature of sports can contribute to general sociology because sports are systems of action and understanding them can contribute to our general understanding of social systems.
As with most social systems, the underlying structure and process of a sport are not visible; they are clouded by common everyday perceptions. We do not see a baseball game as an interplay of structure and process, we see our team playing baseball, at bat, fielding the ball. In most cases the structure of a sport remains invisible even though we are looking at it. It is invisible because we cannot separate ourselves from the emotions and structure of meaning we experience. To talk about a pitcher offering control to a hitter appears, at the least, pedantic. We see a pitcher trying to get a batter out. We cannot disentangle ourselves from the common sense meaning of sports activity. Its structure and connectedness appear foreign and alien.
This paper will deal only with team sports. We begin by identifying and elaborating on the characteristics of sports. In the second section of the paper we develop some central themes and organize a framework for dealing with sport as a social activity.
The characteristics identifying a team sport
List of characteristics
Agents: independent, autonomous individuals;
Agents: organized into two, exhaustive teams
Rules: rule complete; overt, public,
Rules: infractions significant aspect of performance.
Audience: there is an audience.
Time: real time systems.
Time; sports timed systems; max perhaps min.
Units; the sport is broken into repeated units of play.
activity: sports are physical activity systems.
Activity is skill based.
Interaction: sports are competitive.
Interaction: interaction is media oriented and media governed.
Uncertainty: deep uncertainty. Full duality.
Decisions: decentralized, distributed decisions systems; agent coordinated
measure: sports are measured systems.
Space: a distinctive space is used.
Outcomes; disequilibrated systems preferred.
A. The agents/actors in a sport are individual, independent agents. They are organized into teams. That is sports are segmented systems, the participants are organized into two distinct, separate groupings.
B1. Sports are rule complete; the actions are completely governed or covered by overt, public, complete sets of rules.
B2. Infractions of rules, rule violations will be a significant aspect of the play of any sport
C. There is an audience which watches the activity being performed.
D1. Sports are real time systems. Responses to actions are not postponable; action can not be stopped to do something else.
D2. Sports are timed systems. There is a minimum time (measured in actual time or units of play.) There is often a maximum play time also.
D3. Sports are built up of repeated units of play; there is some basic unit of play and a play of the sport involves repeating the unit.
D4.. Sports are characterized by deep uncertainty. By deep uncertainty we mean that not only is uncertainty about the outcome maintained until the end of the enactment but the outcome of any action is maintained uncertain. Full duality is maintained; to every action a permissible, inhibiting, or countervailing opposite action must be possible.
E1. Sports are media bound; a media controls the actions of the actors; interactions of agents and teams is directed or determined by media. State and location of media determines actions of agents.
E2. Sports are physical system; the critical action is physical.
E3. The activity is skill based. The role of chance is severely limited and occurs through modifications of skilled actions.
E4. Activity carried on a distinctive location; there is a distinctive playing field that is essential.
F. Sports are
decentralized, distributed action and decision systems; team action is consists
of self coordinated actions the individual players who make decisions on the
basis of local information.
G1. Sports are measured systems; a measure is imposed on the activity system. There will be an action within the sport associated with producing the measure (scoring actions.)
G2. Sports are competitive; there is a well defined goal which is to win; outcomes are preferably dis-equilibrated outcomes
We begin by extending the definition offered in The Social Significance of Sport, (McPherson, Curtis, Loy, 1989: p. 15) They define a sport as “ . . . a structured, goal oriented, competitive, contest based, ludic physical activity.”
A sport is a cut or slice of the spectrum of physical activity systems. A sport is a slice or cut in the spectrum of physical activity systems, systems of action in which physical activity is the central activity the participants engage in. There are a variety of physical activity systems. Sports is one kind of them. A sport is an organization of physical action, a coordinated system of physical action.
A sport involves actors/players organized in teams. The actors/players are characterized by physical capacities, perceptual abilities, and cognitive abilities. Usually, when we consider sports, we limit our discussion to humans as actors. In this discussion we take a more general stance and deal with a generalized actor/player. These players in a sport are organized into teams. The team is the unit of play in a sport.
The actions of the players are based on skilled — practiced, studied or trained — use of capacities. Individual players will vary in these capacities and abilities but there is a set of parameters which characterize the players as a whole — that represents a range characteristic of the players (most commonly the human species.) These will identify a set of implicit constraints that we will discuss later. The perceptual and cognitive activities of the participants are essential but they are subordinated to physical action which utilize and exploit them. The perceptual and cognitive activities of the players are largely local, that is bounded by the immediate situation a player finds himself/herself in. While some strategic decisions may be made by a few key players, they are most commonly made by a non player, a coach or manager. Human activities in general allow differently for strategic actions. Planning and practicing for certain predictable events is different from strategic considerations.
The interaction of the players organized into teams is mediated by a physical object or media. Physical objects mediate the core interaction of the teams of players; The interaction within and between teams is through control and management of this physical object. Teams interact through the control of this physical media. Control issues are central in any sport. The skills that are central to a sport center on control of an object through skilled use of the body.
The activity that constitutes a sport is carried on in an
associated, distinctive, special physical space. The physical activity
identified as a sport occurs on an appropriate marked physical space of some
sort. The field is designed, has a distinctive appearance and layout.
The system of activity that constitutes a sport is bound by a set of formal, explicit and complete rules. The actions of agents are governed by a set of rules. The actions of the players are organized, regulated and constrained by an explicit, complete, formally specified set of rules. In some cases the formalization may be entirely cultural and customary but no matter what form the rules take, they must be explicit, complete and identifiable. In a looser manner, custom and informal norms also regulate the actions of the players. It is important to recognize that the rules do not generate the actions but provide a framework within which action is generated by individuals who have absorbed these rules and use them to limit, shape and control the behavior they produce. Action is generated by individuals pursuing a goal within constraints. Often the rules of a sport will specify officials whose presence is meant to assure adherence to these rules.
A measure is imposed on the system of action. In every sport, one or more actions are identified as scoring actions and a number assigned to successful actions of this kind-- the value of a score. Every sport will have a method or methods of scoring. Later in this paper, we differentiate conceptually between simple and complex sports on the basis of the scoring actions.
A sport is carried out under a goal, a common imperative: It is to win. A goal is accepted by the agents/players. It is for the team they comprise to win the game, to get more points than their opponents, to achieve a greater measure.
A dis-equilibrated outcome is the common and desired outcome of a play of the sport. The expected, preferred and customary outcome of any play of a sport is a dis-equilibrated outcome with a winner and a loser. Sports differ in the degree to which they permit games to result in a tie, that is, the extent to which they enforce winning and losing. In social life in general, winning is insignificant; as far as sport goes winning is everything — and for good reason. As will be explained in detail later, winning provides a logic for decision making in sports.
Continuous uncertainty of outcome is provided as a result of the rules. A central feature of any sport is the maintenance of uncertainty about the outcome of any particular play of the sport. A central feature of every sport consists of rules which enforce and guarantee a consistent and continued uncertainty of outcome throughout the duration of a game.
An audience, a collection of observers, people who watch the play,
real or implied, is a central characteristic of a sport. Although no audience need to be present at any given play of the sport,
the existence of watchers is a critical aspect of any sport. This is a major characteristics which differentiates games and sports. Games
are played for the entertainment of the players. In sports, while the players
may enjoy the activity and may play on occasion for
the sake of playing, the existence of watchers is central to the rationale and
structure of sports.
We may summarize these defining characteristics of a sport as follows: A (team) sport is a skill-based system of action that is enacted at an associated distinctive physical location. The agent/players are organized into teams. The system of action has one or more measures associated with it. The interaction of the teams of players is mediated by some media. The actions of the players are organized, regulated and constrained by rules. Players, using these rules produce a consistent, uncertain outcome. These agent/players pursue the goal of a dis-equilibrated outcome (winning) and generate action within the constraints established by the rules.
This characterization is the skeleton of sport as a human activity. This characterization of a sport is too terse to clarify much of the elemental stuff from which sports are composed and to clarify the nature of sports. To do so we will examine and elaborate in more detail some of the aspects of sports we have identified.
Development of a framework for the analysis of sports
We have outlined a conception of sport that is the starting point of a framework for analyzing sport. By framework we mean a set of conceptions that can be used to analyze sports as sociological objects. Once developed this framework can be used to develop a theory of sports. We will develop the framework by discussing a number of central points that develop and extend the concepts and ideas necessary to analyze sports as sociological objects.
Simple and compound sports
An analysis of sports, actual and possible must begin with a distinction between simple and compound sports. Although the distinction is abstract, it helps make sense out of actual, existing sports. By a simple sport we mean a sport with a single scoring action, a single way of scoring points. A compound sport is one in which there is more than one way to score points.
Simple sports are abstractions. All sports that are played in contemporary society are compound sports. All existing sports are composites of simple sports. One can think of a compound sport as an integration of a number of different simple sports. It is important to recognize that all simple sports are complex objects. They are composed of a number of different elements, target, media, scoring action, dual (defensive moves.) A sport is simple and non-compound, if, however complex, there is only one scoring modality.
Baseball and American football[1] are examples of
compound sports. Baseball consists
primarily of two simple sports. In baseball one scores a point by touching all
of the bases without being put out. But this requirement is nominal when a home
run is hit. That is baseball is a compound of what we might call a home run
game — where a point ( or more) is scored when a
ball is hit into a target area, and a hitting game where there is no target.
The hitting game in baseball is a non-targeted, interactional
game. A ball no matter where hit will allow a score if it not fielded and
played properly by the defense. The measure
associated with the hitting game also permits the addition of a minor sub-game
we can identify as the base running game. Finally a score can be made
essentially by the offense doing nothing; four walks score a point. Here scores
can be made by the failure of the defense. Football is also a compound sport.
It has four methods of making a score. The ball can be carried across an
extended plane. It can be thrown and caught beyond the extended plane. It can
be kicked through a delimited plane. It can be made by catching the opposing
team in a particular position. In this sense football is a composite of a
number of simple games.
Target and un-targeted sports:
We distinguish between two large families of sports, targeted and interactional sports. Sports with a target are literally sports where the activity of the game is directed to joining the media with a target of some sort. The scoring action in targeted sports consists of joining the media and the target. This union may be accomplished by hitting (i.e., Baseball), throwing ( i.e., Basketball) , pushing( i.e., Hockey, Lacrosse ), kicking, ( i.e., soccer) or carrying the media, (i.e., American football).
We can distinguish between three kinds of targets. The first we call a delimited region target. The uprights in football is such a target. We consider the net region in hockey and soccer also as a delimited region target. The second common type of target can be called a plane target. The plane through which the ball must be carried in football is a plane region target as is the variable curved region which constitutes the target for a home run in baseball. We also identify a third type although it is more conceptual than actual. We call this a point target. A point target is the lower limit of a delimited region target; a degenerate delimited region. It is also a way of identifying targets like a pole. Occasionally, taking liberties, we will refer to the hoop in basketball as a point target.
The second family of sports are targetless sports although interactional sports would be a more descriptive characterization. These are sports in which there is no target. In these sports the object of the activity is to keep the activity alive. Points are scored by one team when the other team cannot perform a legal action which maintains the activity. Scoring actions consist of any legal manipulation of the media which results in the failure of the opposing team to maintain the sport activity, to using skill to prevent the other team from successfully exercising its skill.
Targeted and un-targeted sports then represent two distinct modes of human activities. In both, scoring involves the actions and activities of both teams. Targeted sports involve directly achieving a result through some definite, distinctive action. The opposing team’s action can stop a scoring action by blocking, stopping, interfering with this positive event. Given a target there are one or more definite, well-defined actions that constitute scoring actions. The offensive action is a positive attempt to take one of these well defined, scoring actions. Competitive opposition in these cases involves preventing the success of this well defined action. Interfering legally by preventing the culmination of the action, interfering with the performer of the action, or the action itself, or capturing or deflecting the media are mechanisms to this end.
In interactional
or non targeted sports the situation is different. Here it is the
failure of one of the teams to take a positive action that results in a score
for the opposing team. That is there is no definite delimited well defined
scoring action. Any legal positive action taken by the offense can result in a
score ( can constitute a scoring action) if the other
team cannot respond by keeping the action going. This is easy to see in the
prototypical interactional sports like volleyball
where a point is scored when the other side cannot return the ball, no matter
how or where it is legally placed by the offense. It is less visible in
baseball. As noted earlier baseball can be conceptualized as two simple sports
combined into a compound sport. The home run game is plane targeted sport. But
what I will call the hitting game in baseball is an un-targeted sport. No
matter where the ball is fairly hit the player may score a run if it is not
played so as to prevent it. Any hit, a bunt for instance, may result in a run
if it misplayed by the opposition.
In targeted sports there is a well defined scoring action which unites target and media. The accurate performance of this action results in a score unless the defense makes a blocking, interfering action. A score results in the failure of the opposition to take some defensive action. In un-targeted sports there is no special, well defined scoring action. Any action can constitute a scoring action. An action scores if the defense cannot make a positive action. There is also correspondingly no distinctive defensive action: positive actions are simultaneously defensive actions.
Constraints:
Sports tend to be identified with rules. As we have noted the rules in sports are explicit, and formalized and complete. We want to suggest that rules are best seen as establishing constraints. Sports are systems in which multiple simultaneous constraints limit and restrict choices of action of participants.
Also, as we have noted, the rules do not generate actions. Individual players generate produce action in conformance with the rules. Rules form part of the system that players use to produce actions. The actions in sports are overwhelmingly real time, local actions, adapted to the immediate, concrete, circumstance in which the players find themselves. The rules constrain such choices of action.
We identify three kinds of constraints that operate to establish a sport. (1) natural constraints (2) implicit constraints and (3) artificial constraints.
By natural constraints we mean those imposed by the media. Much of baseball is a consequence of the physics of the ball and the actions on the ball of the instruments — the bat and the human arm — used to propel it.
By implicit constraints we mean the constraints that are given by the physical and mental constitution of the players. Speed, endurance, visual acuity, muscular control, power, perceptual and cognitive capacities of the players, implicitly constrain action in sport and are factors that shape the sports we enjoy. Much of the form of any sport as we know it, is provided by the implicit constraints that humans bring to any sport they engage in.
Since all sports until now have been limited to human players ( with occasional use of animals as auxiliary elements (polo) the issue of implicit constraints has not arisen directly. The constraints that characterize humans have been strictly implicit, their effects have been invisible. In developing a theory of sports however, implicit constraints must be made explicit.
As we see from the recent history of chess, non-human — in the case of sports, robotic players — participants bring a different set of capabilities to the performance of a system of action that, prior to their participation, was an exclusively human domain. Baseball, if ever played by robots, will be a quite different game. Balls pitched at twice the speed a human is capable of pitching them would dramatically change the game of baseball as we know it.
By artificial constraints we mean the constraints provided by the
rules of sports. There are the
constraints that give a form to the sport. Specifications of numbers of
balls and strikes, the strike zone, limitations of motion of the ball in
football are all artificial constraints in the sense that they are arbitrary
and conventional and a result of determinations that they are effective in
producing some effect. The rules specifying fouling actions and establishing
penalties for infractions of rules also provide important aspects of the
structure of most sports. The selection of
artificial constraints which have shaped our sports have been quasi anonymous
and historical. But recent modifications of the
rules of currently played sports to produce a faster game or reduce the
importance of some advantage (height for instance in basketball) indicates the more active nature of artificial
constraints in modern sports.
Sports as Control systems
Sports are physical action systems. Because teams interact by controlling and manipulating media, sports can be identified as control systems. It is possible to represent a sport as an organization or system of abstract control actions. From a representation of this sort, a more concrete depiction of a sport can be recovered by mapping the abstract control actions into concrete physical actions.
Control is not simply a physical matter. It is also a social thing. We distinguish between mere physical possession and legal control. The rules of sports regulate rights and opportunities to control the media and establish which control actions will be considered legal.
It is the legitimate rights to control and assigned responsibility for control that matter in sports. Even though the ball in motion is not under the continued physical control of the team which set it in motion, it may be dealt with as being under their control and the rights and responsibilities to control rest with them, i.e., if they were the last to touch it the foul is theirs. There are assigned responsibility for the motion of the media even though they may not have actually had much control of it. Merely touching or not touching sometimes establishes legal control; sometimes although a player has possession, they may be judged not fully in control and the rights that go with control denied them.
Control in sports has to be looked at recursively. In order to analyze a sport as a control system one must look first at the sport as a whole, then consider smaller units like innings or quarters , and then still smaller items also like at bats and downs. Control issues are distributed in a sport over a number of levels of the game.
In a sport three things are controlled. The first is the media. Rules assign and establish rights to control the media. But control of space and access to space is also regulated in sports. Finally, control of the body of the agent/player himself is a focus of control issues. Control of the body, space and the media are the focus of regulation in sports.
One can distinguish between two types of control. The first is what might be called continuous control. The basketball player, dribbling the ball down court and the football player, running carrying the ball both maintain continuous control of the media. The hitter in baseball, the quarterback passing the ball, have discontinuous or terminated control; after the control action the ball is on its own, no longer under the control of the batter or the quarterback.
We must also consider amounts of control. Carrying seems to represent the maximum amount of control. The basketball player bouncing the ball or the hockey player pushing the puck have less control than a runner carrying a football. Control diminishes when an instrument is used to propel the ball. Control is also quantitatively diminished when the control is discontinuous or terminal. The nature of the media and its associated elements as well as distance factors make a difference in the amount of control a player in a sport has. For example, the shape and size of a football makes it more likely for it to slip out or get knocked out of a players hands even when he/she is carrying it and is maintaining maximum amount of control.
Control issues in sports:
Sports require a consistent and constant maintenance of
uncertainty about outcome. One mechanism by which this is accomplished is the
rule bound shifting of rights to control the media. Baseball
guarantees shifts through the mechanism of fixed innings. Other sports manage
this forcing of opportunities to score by assigning the legal right to score to
the team against which a score has been made. In part, control in a sport is a
matter of transfers and shifts of control. We
can distinguish between shifts and transfers of control within a team and those
between teams. Between team shifts of control are perhaps the more regulated
activity. In considering shifts of control differences often exist between
offensive play and defensive play. In football intra team shifts of control
exist only in the offensive play, whereas in baseball intra team shifts of
control occur only in defensive play.
In discussing control issues two phenomena deserve comment. The first of these is offers of control. The second is seizure of control. In baseball for instance, pitching can be interpreted as an offer of control mechanism. This is distinguished from a kick off in football by the fact that the receiving team ( in baseball in the person of the hitter) does not have to attempt to control the media; he/she can refuse the offer of control. As everywhere else in sports this right of refusal is bounded. If the offer is legitimate (the ball is a strike) the refusal is measured and counts against the hitter. Offers of control differ from shifts of control because of the opportunity to refuse. The team receiving a kickoff may not refuse the transfer of control. In both cases the change of control mechanism allows the team doing the transfer to make acceptance of control difficult. Much of the skill in sports is skill in control.
Seizure of control is another significant control phenomenon in sports. Sports vary in the degree to which they permit and depend on seizure of control. In baseball no seizure of control is possible; a team plays out its innings and the opposing team has no possibility of gaining control before the at bat is finished. In football seizure of control is possible. A ball may be intercepted or mishandled in the middle of a team’s possession. But in football turnovers are relatively rare; seizure of control is a relatively unusual event. In sports like hockey or basketball seizure of control is much more common.
In sports where targets are significant, three types of general control systems seem to have emerged. The first of these might be called control dialogue systems. Here baseball is the prime example. Control is offered, if successfully accepted control shifts to the other team. The second kind of control system might be called a parallel control system. Football is an example of such a system. One team is given control and maintains it over a series of scoring attempts. The opposing team attempts to interfere with the skilled exercise of control with it owns skilled exercise of control. The possibility of seizing control exists but does not dominate play. The third type of control system is a fluid control system. In these systems, control is more tenuous. A team is assigned opportunities of control but these are commonly lost before a score is attempted.
The final matter that is relevant here concerns loss of control or illegal interferences with the opposing team’s legitimate control. The significance of penalties for control infractions is minimal in sports like baseball and maximal in the fluid sports like basketball and hockey. The significance of infractions seems tied to the possibility of seizure of control. Where seizure of control is a legal possibility, the regulation of control and infractions for misuse are common.
Emergence
Emergence is a central but difficult concept. A play of any and
every sport results in the appearance of patterns of action, sequences of
subordination and domination, rhythms and curves
of tension and release. These patterns are not intentionally produced; no actor
or collection of actors intends their production. These patterns emerge from
the application of the rules but are not rule produced or rule governed: there
are no rules which insist on their appearance in a game; rather they emerge
from the joint application of the rules that constitute the sport.
What elements emerge in the playing of a sport?
1. Events, series of events and probabilities of events. For instance, the total number of scores per game is a regularity that emerges from the conjoint application of the rules.
2. Rhythms and pacing and curves of action and tension.
3. Displays of risk taking, of boldness, cleverness and cunning.
4. Sub formations of teams, sub-group formations, dissolution and reforming of teams and domination and subordination,
Every play of a sport exhibits patterns of action, rhythms, curves of tension and release and these provide the center of gravity for watchers/audience. Different sports have different flows of tension and release of tension. Sports allow different degrees to which spectators can rest, turn their attention to other matters like eating or talking. Possibilities of side games, violent interactions, altercations and performance displays hold attention and release it. Each sport will have a different signature with respect to these matters.
These patterns, curves, rhythms emerge out of actors/agents following the rules for the sport. They are not specified by the rules. Rather, they emerge out of the conjoint application of these rules and the action generated within them seen as constraints.
Every sport not only involves a team but a differentiated team often reformed into smaller units, pairs, triples, sub teams. The rhythms of dissolution and formation of a team are issues that become visible with the playing of a sport. The display of motivation to win and organization of team play, the ability to display subordination of individual performance to group success is a key emergent.
A sport presents a challenge to audiences because of the demand it makes on their attention, involvement and concern. It both draws on and creates a pattern of tension and attention. The patterns of tension and attention it calls upon must somehow connect to those patterns of attention and tension that exist in a society. But it enriches them by providing new sets of patterns.
Sports become a frame on which human interest, concern and identification can be hung. It is the structure of sports provided by the artificial constraints that allow this to happen. These constraints are selected or invented precisely to allow the intensification of such patterns.
A sport is the foundation for psychological, processes of a deep sort. The pleasure of watching and the ability to identify with a team, feel their victory and defeat is central to any popular sport. Although esthetics are infrequently stressed, a sport is a world of appreciated, skilled performances. And team effort, working cooperative interactions are central to the game. The psychological processes that center on sports as psychological and cultural phenomena reach to the heart of human being. They must involve investments in the body, the making visible of conflict processes and their containment, and the extension of identification of the self. But they also probably serve purposes of displays of less visible, less noticeable social processes of which we are barely aware. In this sense, they are like religion in that they represent and display basic social configurations and by doing so allow them to be felt and appreciated. The constant dissolution of teams into smaller units, and the subsequent reformation of teams, the flow of tensions are probably critical to integration in societies where such rhythms are not naturally shaped.
Chance and uncertainty in sports.
In other human activities, many games for instance, chance operates out in the open, that is it plays a
direct, assigned role in the performance of the activity. In other activities
like sports, chance operates in a quite different manner. In sports, the role
of chance is severely bounded and constricted; chance may operate openly only
in random assignments of order of play and initial decisions about selection of
positions. In all other areas chance operates only by affecting skilled
performances. It is only as chance expresses itself as an aspect of skilled
performance that it is permitted to appear in sports. There is a concerted
effort to limit the role of chance otherwise. In sports chance cannot enter the
play in the arbitrary and capricious manner it
does in everyday life. This limitation of chance is one of the elements that lends sports its distinctive character.
Sports are distinctive in another way also. The system of action which results from the organization of the physical actions which make up a sport is balanced so that effort will and desire can make a difference in the outcome. A wide range of skill differences can be made up with the extra effort that comes from morale differences. In part this is a function of the explicit specifications of the composition of teams and the rules of play. Sports are positioned in a small and special region in the space of human activity systems. Some of the positioning is accomplished not by the rules that constitute the skeleton of any sport but by the organizational structure in which sports are embedded, league rules, etc. But sports are systems of activities which precisely have the character that the activities which make them up are such that chance operating through skill and morale differences can make a difference. They are systems precariously balanced on skills.
The goal of winning
In everyday life the goal of winning is an occasional thing; In sports the goal of winning is everything. The goal of winning is paramount in sports. The significance of this goal is not only based on motivational factors but rooted deeply in the mechanisms of decision making. Winning concerns cognitive matters as much as motivational ones. The existence of a common goal, complements and compensates for the fact that player’s decision making is always local decision making, decision making based on an immediate concrete situation. The common shared goal of winning provides a foundation for a cognitive process which integrates individual local decision making. It permits a player to decide quickly in any situation which action is preferred, namely that action that is likely, immediately or ultimately, to result in a team score. And it allows other players to anticipate the decision that is likely to be made. Players know that whatever decision a teammate or opponent will make will be oriented to scoring points for the team.
Winning is essential as a basis for players’ local decision making. Actions are selected on the basis of scoring points. By constraining the role of chance, skilled performance becomes even more essential to winning. Unless there is a reasonable likelihood of winning through a skilled performance the sport will not be played.
Scaling
Sports are robust human activities. Their robustness is connected to their scalablity. Scaling takes a number of forms. First scaling is visible in the fact that players may perform at less than peak performance. Skilled performers operating at less than peak performance may still play a sport credibly. Sports accommodate fluctuations in an individuals skilled performances.
Second, the sport itself can be played at varying levels of skill, that is it is scalable in overall level of skill possessed.
Every sport is a collection of rules that are modifiable so that the system
qualities are maintained at an overall lower level of performance. This is not
true of other human activity systems or not true nearly to the extent as in
sports. Esthetic performances, a ballet for instance or an opera is minimally
scalable. There is a level below which the performance disintegrates. But
sports may be modified to retain their character when played, with suitable
modifications, by very young children or the disabled. The character of the
sport is maintained even with this transformation.
Finally one other aspect of scaling is identifiable. Sports may be scaled into less than a full game. Each sport seems to have a distinctive, significant kernel which identifies the sport so that the sport can be reduced to a miniature or truncated version and still carry the flavor and character of the sport. Football can be reduced to a two-man touch game and still be recognized as a variant of football.
Units
Sports are wholes; it is useful to ask what are the parts that make up these wholes. The issues of a system and the parts that make it up arise in the analysis of every social organization. Every analyst of any system faces the questions of what kinds of units are significant in the operation of the system, how do they emerge, and what rules govern their operation. Other questions concern the organization of these units and the processes which characterize them. Recursion, repetition, reappearance and nesting of units are relevant issues here.
A number of distinctions can be drawn in the kinds of sub-wholes or units that operate in sports. In general, units can be formed in two ways. First, units can be established by breaking up some whole into pieces. These we will call units by decomposition. Second units may be formed by assembling or joining together a set of given, pre-existing smaller elements. These are units by assembly. Most sports consist of some sequence of recurrent units.
It is true that life consists of continuous action and the establishment of units is arbitrary and conventional. In sports the formation of units is bound more by rules but the same condition holds; the identification of units is sometimes vague and imprecise.
The first significant distinction is between temporal units and action/activity units. Temporal units are clock or time units. Any specification of some duration of a game or part of a game forms a temporal unit. The duration of a half of a basketball game is an example of a temporal unit. These temporal units are decomposition units.
An action/activity unit is based on other criteria. An inning in baseball is not defined by time but by a set of activities/actions, i.e., possession by both teams until each makes three outs. A down in football is defined by a set of actions. There are three common kinds action units. We may call these criterial delimited action units.
(1) Resource limited units; ( three outs by a team identify a half of an inning, three strikes at bat define a unit of at bat for a player.)
(2) Achievement limited units; ( when a point is scored possession changes.)
(3) Mixed resource/achievement units: ( four
downs to
We may also distinguish between fixed and dynamic units. These terms can only be relative not absolute. By fixed we mean that the structure of the unit is specified by the rules of the game. The unit has a definite beginning and end and the action that constitutes the unit is well identified in the rules. Innings, downs, at bats, halves are fixed units. By dynamic we mean those units that emerge as the play of the game proceeds. These are less formal units than fixed units and more difficult to specify. The dynamic units of a sport are those emergent elements already noted. Rallies, pushes, double plays, setups, power plays and blitzes are examples of dynamic units.
We suggest there are a number of different kinds of dynamic units
that emerge as a sport is played. Here we focus on the emergence of sub team
combinations. Some sports allow for pairings to occur
frequently and these appear as dynamic units which recur during the play. In
games in which possession of the media shifts suddenly on a regular basis ( where stealing the ball is common) — soccer,
basketball and hockey for instances — there are dynamic units that form
as the positioning for an attempted score occurs. The parts of a team form
itself into different configurations as the possibility of a score develops.
In baseball the pitcher is a central position. He is involved in almost every play as is the quarterback in football. Hence pairings, within the team and between teams are common. The appeal of a sport may lie to some degree in the typical dynamic units that form; Situations in which a set up for a score where a unit formed of people coordinating their action, heightening their attention to one another and positioning themselves for a quick movement of the media for a score is one of the dynamic units that emerge in any sport. These distinctions allow us to distinguish between two gross classes of sports. There are what might be called continuous sports and discrete sports. As usual there are hybrids which mix both of these elements.
One way of thinking about units is in terms of units of control. By unit of control we mean the unit that is formed by the legitimate opportunity to score. Rights to score are assigned. This means that certain rights of control are assigned to one team or the other.
Thinking about units of control we can identify
(1) total unitized sports; In baseball each team has control (right to score) for a well defined fixed unit. There is no way the other team may gain control.
(2) partially fixed unitized sports; one team is assigned right to use four down to move the ball or accomplish a score. But turnovers allow control to shift to the other team. Turnovers are fairly rare and unusual events.
(3) nominally unitized sports: basketball is a sport where the unit of control is nominal; after a score legitimate possession is shifted from the scoring team. But the actuality of the sport means that control of the media shifts rapidly as a matter of the course of play.
One major issue in sports is the extent to which the whole team functions as a unit. Here again whole team functioning will sometimes differ in offense and defense play. Practically, the issue is the extent to which the whole team functions as a unit. In baseball in offensive action the whole team is never involved. In football the whole team is involved in every play.
Measures and Memory
All sports are measured activity systems. In all sports, one or more scoring actions are identified and a number assigned to them. The team performing the scoring action receives that number of points. This allows for a dis-equilibrated outcome— winning and losing. Formal measure of performance are also kept. For example, balls and strikes measure the ongoing performance of pitcher and hitter.
We distinguish between full measures and partial measures in any sport. By full measure we mean measures of associated with scoring actions. By partial measure we refer to any scoring or measure of less than a full scoring action. Bases in baseball provide for partial measures. A man on base in baseball is a partial measure. It tracks and measures part of a movement toward a full score. Bases track movement toward a full score. They are ways of summing and transforming individual performance into a team operation. Occupation of bases then is a partial scoring mechanism.
It is important to distinguish between a locational
measure such as measures the number of yards scored on
a down in football from the bases in baseball. In American football, placing
the ball at the place it was carried to, is a precise measure of activity. Together with the initial placement of the ball, it
marks movement to a partial score.
One of the more interesting questions in sports is what is tracked and measured. We can distinguish between formal and informal tracking and measuring. By formal tracking, we mean what is tracked as part of the playing of a sport. By informal tracking we mean all other performance measures collected and used to deal with the sport. In sports there is much interest in statistics concerning individual and team performance, in this sense informal measures are a base of interest in sports. Informal measures track individuals and team. We are concerned here with formal measures.
Why in general are only total measures used? Sports have available partial scoring measures but do not use them. It would be possible to assign a team partial points (1/4 of a point for each man left on base when a team half of an inning is over.) But this is not done. The question is why.
Total measures provided a certain granularity and sharpness to an activity; Using total scores provide a clarity of winning of losing. Losing by a quarter of a point seems less like losing than losing by a full point. There is a mushiness and unclarity provided by partial points. Thresholds of victory are sharpened and clarity enhanced and magnified if total measures are used exclusively. Also partial measures may require more subjective judgments than total measures. Total measures enhance the likelihood of their being a disparity between winning and losing and provide the opportunity for the concerted effort necessary to connect previous individual effort toward winning. No matter how many points it achieves one team's scoring must exceed the other team's score to win. To be meaningful a teams score must be greater than its opponent.
Conclusion
Sports are distinctive in human activity. They are central because they squeeze out chance from direct operation in an activity system. Chance only enters through the exercise of skill. This is very unlike everyday life where randomness often intrudes in a raw and irrational form.
Sports also involve shaping of constraints so that they magnify the appearance of the elements of the game. In one sense a sport is a closed system whose design excludes elements which would diffuse and blur the actions which are identified as critical and central.
Two factors then-- limitation of chance and organization of rules so that they limit elements that can appear to those which will magnify and enhance the actions which are supposed to characterize the connectivity between two sets of agents, two teams — two extended, multi-person actors-- set sports aside from other social activities. They constrain action so that a set of actions is constantly focused on a single goal. They heighten competition and winning as a goal by making such a goal central to decision making.
We can then see why sports are important in every civilization.
They function as a device for producing certain clarifications and simplifications
of everyday life. As opposed to ordinary activities chance is circumscribed
closely and explicit, formal rules specify permissible actions. The rules are
set up so that the central action of the sport is reinforced and extraneous
matters excluded. Sports enhance our perception of certain aspects of human
social existence clouded in every day life. Sports
heighten the competitive aspects of everyday life. They make competition and
winning central to the activity. As we have noted, the goal of winning is
central to a sport for the reason that local decision making
requires the player calculate action on the basis of concrete,
immediate, circumstance. He/she must act in terms of the immediate situation.
In order for coordinated action to occur, there must be some unifying principle
so that each actor making decisions on a local level can produce actions that
others can anticipate. Winning by scoring points can be counted on as the basis
of an individual player’s action. His action can be anticipated to be oriented
to that goal. The players on both teams maintain a single basis for decision
making. Again, as opposed to ordinary life, the players in a sport and the
watchers also have a single goal— to win. The goal of winning we have argued
serves a cognitive and organizational function. The activity is oriented toward
an audience,, that is to watchers who will focus on
the activity. It is social in a double way.
In many ways sports function as a counter foil to the family, and family principles and concerns and values. That is they are the opposites of activities that are based on particularistic, diffuse, being, specific norms.
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