Unity in sports

Sports have long held the ability to bring people across the globe from all over the world together since the Olympics were held in Greece. By providing people with an outlet where they can share experiences and accomplishments, in an environment where they are comfortable, is an effective means to forge unity among people even when they are from divergent groups originally.

As a participant players and coaches understand that you have to be able to communicate with teammates to reach your common goals. Even in individual sports, communication with a coach or caddy is vital to success. Communication is a key element in any relationship where unity is important.

When you have unity in a team or group setting you have trust. Teammates have to trust each others ability to do their jobs effectively so the team succeeds. A team divided--or without trust in each other--will rarely defeat a team united even though they may appear to have more talent overall. We see teams with one or two superstars who don't seem to mesh or play well together and we don't understand why they don't win more games. We blame "bad chemistry" or say they just don't seem to mesh well together. It really comes down to the fact that the stars either don't trust each other or their teammates enough to win. Good communication breeds trust and trust breeds unity and unity breeds success. This is when we see that elusive "good chemistry" that coaches are looking to see in their team.

We see the power that world wide events like the Olympics have to bring people together and sometimes tear them apart. The same elements that lead to success on the field or in the locker room lead to success at higher levels where unity would be even more important. Call me a hopeless romantic but I believe that when people practice good sportsmanship and have a good time on the playing field or court, they tend to be more likely to develop better understanding and mutual acceptance off the field.

Most of us know from experience that a unified team is more enjoyable to play for than team divided. And we know intuitively which one is more likely to succeed. In addition, if you remove unity, you remove a lot of the enjoyment from participating on a team.

UNITY - How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! - Psalm 133:1