The role of Club and School Sport in Society

Club sport have always formed an integral part of communities. It has been used as methods to enhance socialisation and recreation. This defines club sport not only as a casual way to pass time but as a fundamental and necessary building block in society. Sociology is the study of groups and their contribution to a community or organisation. Club sport is pivotal to the social system of a community with a combination of norms, roles and structure that forms a dynamic system in the community in self-development, installing value-based beliefs, building a good self-esteem or morale and ultimately building character amongst youth ensuring a better chance of building a successful life amidst challenges in many local communities such as drugs and alcohol abuse, teen-age pregnancies or unemployment.

Club sport then often is the alternative as opposed to crime, violence, drugs and offers a platform where youth can recreate, re-build or establish themselves to play a meaningful role in society through learning values such as “Hard-work pays off”, “winners never quit” or just to work towards a goal in a team/group environment. These values all contribute to the characterisation of the individual in building a belief system of expected success which all attributes to the abilities of the athlete both on the sports field and in society in everyday living.

There is a series of socialisation that occurs throughout an individual’s life by means of interpersonal relationships. During this process some persons are directly involved and exert great influence. These ‘significant others’ are those individuals with whom the particular person often interact, have important emotional relationships and whose attitude and behaviour important to that individual. There are various ‘agents’ which play an important part during the process of socialisation for example the family, the school, the media, a club, team-mates, a coach. The role of the significant others weighs heavily in the process of socialisation.

The ‘process of socialisation’ evolves into ‘socialisation through sport’. During socialisation through sport the focus is on the degree to which skills, traits, values, belief and norms learned in sport settings can be generalised to other social institutions. Sport has two major educational functions directed ‘enculturation’ or ‘development of the individual participant’. Enculturation focusses on the learning social values and skills that will encourage the continuation of existing social systems and its values. In terms of the development of the individual, such individual experiences a confrontation and evaluation of themselves and their culture. The development of one’s own value in relation to others is important and is encouraged through interaction and shared activities with others through sports participation. Enculturation involves the inclusion of the individual, through shared norms and values, into existing cultural patterns and in this regard sport can play a very important role.

In schools, sports participation is seen as an essential part of the educational process during which the children learn certain values. Values such as good sportsmanship, courage, co-operation and achievement are taught through sport. “I know of no social, ideological or intellectual movement able to bring home these basic values so directly to the young, to every class and overcoming political barriers and difference of race and language, to all peoples of the world”(Mangan 1973: 174)

Sport provides a way of expressing some of the dominant values in society. A common justification for sport in schools is that participation in sport serves to transmit the values of the larger society. The youngster is ostensibly learning not only to play a specific sport but to play the game of life. Every club or school that creates a platform where youngsters can participate in sport is building a solid foundation though which the larger society will enjoy the benefits of an individual that has been moulded for greatness and can impart positively to society not only in sport but in other spheres of life.