Lesson 1- What is Excellence in Sport?

Do each of the following in order.

1. Read What is Excellence in Sport?

2. Read Lesson 1 Perspective?

3. Read Arête and Excellence

4. Please read the excerpt from Robert Simon on Excellence

5. Please read the excerpt on Excellence by John Wooden

6. Please read this excerpt on Dara Torres and Excellence.

7. Answer Multiple Choice Questions

8. DO ASSESSMENT 1 for Lesson 1 WADA.  RETURN TO BbLearn for Assessment.

What is Excellence in Sport? What is Excellence in Sport?

The testing of one's mettle in competitive athletics is a form of self discovery...The claim of competitive athletics to its importance rests squarely on athletics providing us opportunities for self discovery which might otherwise have been missed.  Athletics provides opportunities for self-discovery, for concentration and intensity of involvement, for being carried away by the demands of the contest...with a frequency seldom matched elsewhere.  This is why it is a far greater success in competitive athletics to have played well under pressure of a truly worthwhile opponent and lost than to have defeated a less worthy or unworthy one where no demands were made. Edward Delattre.

Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.  I wish to hell I'd never said the thing...I meant the effort and having a goal.  I sure as hell didn't mean for people to crush human values and morality.  Vince Lombardi

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.  Vince Lombardi

Return to Top

Lesson 1 Perspective:

What is excellence?  Is excellence limited to winning the contest?  Or, is excellence about the process? Or, is excellence a place of honor in the striving and the succeeding.  Excellence is of the highest quality; a state or quality of excelling above.

After the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and all the pomp and fanfare has faded, the enduring things that are left are: the dedication to excellence, the dedication to victory, and the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live. Vincent Lombardi

Excellence has roots in Ancient Greece which is Arête. It is bound up with the notion of fulfillment of purpose or function:  the act of living up to one's full potential.  It is courage and strength in the face of adversity and it was and is something to aspire to.  It was and is the aspiration to be more than the average.

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Vince Lombardi

Return to Top

Assessment:

Return to your Bblearn Web site and do your assessment linked to this lesson.

Click Here for Assessment 1

Return to Top