Modern sports are characterized by noticeable rejuvenation. In gymnastics, swimming, athletics, etc. still young athletes achieve success with everything. Victory in sports arenas, the delight of spectators, parents, praise from the press, the very peculiarity of sports, where competitions reveal the superiority of one person over other people – all this is a very heavy burden on the shoulders of an unformed personality. Purposeful moral education of the athlete should serve as a counterbalance to this burden.
Some of the most acute problems of raising children in modern society, which teachers face today when working with children:
– Low trial, anti-moral products available for purchase by children (films, literature, etc.).
– the systematic observation of immorality and lack of spirituality by children leads to addiction and is in danger of becoming the norm: dysfunctional families, as a result, neglected children.
– another problem has appeared – this is the problem of “successful parents” who are actively and fully engaged in professional activities, and as they say, “for a good reason” are unable to pay attention to their own children, dooming children to loneliness with living and successful parents.
The main form of communication between an athlete is training sessions, competitions and training camps. The path of an athlete from a beginner to a master of sports, at times, takes 10 – 16 years of daily many hours of training. Every day, the coach spends more than three hours a day with the pupil, goes to competitions and training camps for long periods. Many children engaged in sports activities are in contact with a coach for a longer time than with teachers of secondary schools, and even with their families. Therefore, the personality of the coach, his human qualities, life position and morality have, at times, the greatest influence on the formation of the personality of a young athlete. A large number of hours, the years spent by the coach and the student, stressful situations experienced together, as well as the joys of victories and the bitterness of defeat, bind the coach and the student for life. “Coaches have a unique relationship with their athletes,” writes Sandra Pelaez , who did research for her thesis at the Department of Graduate Studies at Concordia University . “Coaches are mentors, parents, educators and judges at the same time,” Pelaez continues . If we talk about an adult athlete, formed physically, mentally and morally, OV Dergunov in his work “Cultural space of sport” highlights the spiritual and moral component of the personality. “As a result of spiritual and moral development, a person becomes self-sufficient, he is able to live his inner life. He does not have unmotivated aggression, the desire by all available means to assert his “I”, humiliating other people. This feature of spirituality is clearly manifested in boxing or martial arts training. Young people, deprived of spiritual and moral humanistic guidelines and values, use their skills and abilities to the detriment of the people around them and society as a whole, trying to work out techniques on the weaker ones, beating them and causing various kinds of injuries. Such “sports activity” is nothing more than a crime, a socially dangerous activity. It is not for nothing that athletes before the start of the competition try to concentrate spiritually, to bring their inner spiritual world into a state of harmony and balance, which once again emphasizes the importance of the value component of sport. “
In a situation of moral choice that every person, including an athlete, has to make, the question of the relationship between goals and means is acute. The value of the means depends more on the character, but it depends, and does not justify. The choice of means that do not correspond to the goal leads to an undesirable result and thereby distorts the nature of the goal. A clear manifestation of such a pattern can be observed in the actions of people who, in search of effective means in the fight against immorality, decide to act by the same means as the latter: cunning, treachery, etc. It follows from this that an arsenal of means of immoral behavior is used to achieve moral goals. Such a position in the struggle of views and positions often leads not only to defeat, but to the degeneration of the one who fights for morality into an immoral person. In this regard, N. G. Chernyshevsky wrote the following: “a good goal cannot be achieved by bad means. The nature of the means must be the same as the nature of the end, only then the means can lead to the end. Bad means are suitable only for a bad purpose, and only good ones are suitable for a good one …
The means must be the same as the end. ”
It can be concluded that moral is the means that is necessary and sufficient to achieve a moral goal and that does not contradict a higher and higher goal, does not distort its moral essence.
As mentioned above, in professional sports, sports of high achievements, a person inevitably faces the need to improve his spiritual and moral choice. The athlete is faced with dilemmas: to lose for money or play fair and win; dope or try to do without it. Being physically strong and well-developed people, athletes face the need to solve worldview problems.
Modern sports, developing in the spirit of the ideas of Olympism, laid down by Coubertin and his supporters in the “Olympic Charter”, are based on the concept of ” fair play ” – fair play. In the Preface to the Sport Manifesto, adopted in 1964 by the International Council for Physical Education and Sport (SIPS), Council President Sir Philip Noel -Baker (Olympic Silver Medalist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) wrote: “Fair play is an essential element every sport worthy of that name. It is at the heart of both amateur and professional sports. The principle of fair play requires not only strictly but also voluntarily abide by the spirit of the letter of the rules. It presupposes respect for the enemy and for oneself. Without fair play, competition becomes rude and humiliating. “
The principles of “ fair play ” are also detailed in the “Manifesto on Fair Play”, which was developed and published in 1977 by the International Council for Sports and Physical Education at UNESCO, which notes that “fair play is expressed primarily in the behavior of the athlete himself. It is she who characterizes his course of action, arising from self-esteem and including: honesty, conscientiousness, decisive and dignified behavior in situations where others behave dishonestly: respect for a partner, regardless of whether he is a winner or a loser, the realization that rivalry is an indispensable condition for competitive sports and that the adversary is a necessary partner in the sport. ” In addition, it emphasizes respect for the judge, and the respect is positive, expressed in a constant desire to cooperate with him in any situation; the ability to remain humble after victory and calmly accept defeat. This document also emphasizes that compliance with the principles of fair play is required not only from athletes. It is a necessary criterion for the behavior of coaches, sports leaders, spectators and other people associated with sports, which can directly or indirectly affect an athlete, his athletic performance and sports career.
A similar characterization of the principles of ” fair play ” is presented in the new text of the Manifesto, adopted at the meeting of the International Committee of Fair Play in 1992, which notes that “the principles of Fair Play are a necessary and dominant feature of Pierre de Coubertin’s Olympic idea (Olympism).” The need to comply with the principles of ” fair play ” in elite sports, in youth sports, in recreational and health sports, in sports for the disabled is emphasized, examples are given to explain the meaning and mission of these principles. Modern sport is rich in examples of the implementation of the principles of fair play. So, the Danish orienteer Hans Ole Ketting , without hesitation, left the track to help an injured opponent. Andrzej Gruba from Poland in the final of the prestigious and very monetary Grand Prix table tennis tournament, leading 19617 in the fifth set, refused a point, mistakenly credited to him, although in the end he lost to the Swede Uwe Waldner . The Frenchman Michel Poo did not start the qualifying heat, believing that another, stronger swimmer should go to Olympic Seoul. Equestrian Wolfgang Brinkmann from Germany, who already won the gold in the team in Seoul, voluntarily gave his place in the individual competitions to his eternal rival, who eventually received the “bonza”.