What’s common between?
1- Heath Ledger’s Joker role in ‘The Dark Knight’.
2- Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh role in ‘No Country for Old Men’
3- Ralph Fiennes’s Amon Goeth role in ‘Schindler’s List’
Yes yes, you’re browsing your favourite sports blog and not IMDB, before you Google to decipher the answer, I’ll just save you time. The common ground shared between all three is ‘They are all great supporting roles’. What are the reasons we watch a movie apart from the obvious one of entertainment? Intriguing story, Over the top action or mostly it is because of the lead character is played by our favourite actor. Surprisingly I’d never heard anyone say ‘I watched the movie because the support role was magnificent’ and I’d be glad if anyone could make me not to pardon that phrase again. This is the problem with humans; we always admire a great man but never the person who makes a man great.
Also Read: Sport as a social institution: what sports reveal about society
This article is about all those ‘Unsung Heroes’ in sports apart from the players, who helps to make a team/individual reach the pinnacle.
Coach -
They’re like the director of a movie. They have the Jedi to make Individual/Team successful. The job of a coach is not just about improving someone’s cover drive or backhand, it’s about realising the potential of each player, analysing his/her performance, being a friend, motivating him/her through the rough as well as purple patches, communicating the team’s goal and importance and a lot more. A coach is someone who moulds a player into the version he sees inside him and watch him grow and learn through his dedication and hard work .A coach may bring in years of experience, textbook knowledge, personal analysis but most importantly he brings in the values such as empathy, trust, belongingness, discipline ,culture, personal relationships and the greatest coaches have brought in just exactly that. He is someone who will infuse discipline and hard work like a father and motivate and support like a friend. To name some of greatest coaches, John Madden (NFL), Alex Ferguson (Football) ,Jose Mourinho (Football), Gary Kirsten (Cricket) and Ross Brawn (Formula 1).
Mentor -
To describe who is a mentor, he is someone with experience who helps young budding players as a guide, tutor, counsellor or advisor. However there is no textbook definition of a mentor and mentoring. Majority still consider the job of a mentor and coach to be the same but in reality they’re very distinctive. A mentor is someone who works on a psychological level. The sessions with a mentor are more like casual conversations you’d have with a friend in a pub on a Friday night. Mentors are someone who helps you relax if you’re anxious, cheers you if you’re depressed and motivates you if give up. Many teams and even business organisations to some extend hire mentors to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and eradicate communications barriers of the organizations. Mentoring is a common phenomenon in IPL where ex-players such as Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman are often hired by franchises as mentors.
Physiotherapist:
If a mentor and coach build your mind a physiotherapist would builds your body. The one thing that an athlete dreads is injuries. Sometimes injuries can be career ending or life threatening. That is when a physiotherapist enters the picture as a saviour. Sports injuries are not everyday injuries. A athlete’s body is expected to undergo extreme levels of performances which in turns stresses bones, joints and muscles to the limit. Sports physiotherapist analyze and tracks body performances, helps understand injuries and provide subsequent knowledge and inputs on the course to recovery. With the fitness levels of today’s athletes reaching to an unprecedented stage, the prominence of sports physiotherapist has just taken giant leaps.
Family -
Don’t be surprised. Family is equally significant if not more in shaping an athlete’s career. No sportsman would’ve reached the heights if their family didn’t give them the liberty to play and pursue their passion for the game. And looking at the present scenario in a country like India, a typical career discussion across the dinner table would be wherein the parents would pressurise the kid to join IIT/IIM and all the dreams of the kid of making his country proud would go down in tears of failing in IIT/IIM. This is the harsh reality of modern day Indian society. Amidst this monotonous mindset society if we don’t appreciate and acknowledge the families which actually chose the other road and let their kids do what they enjoy and are passionate about. If you’re someone who has been granted the liberty to pursue your dreams appreciate your family.
Role model -
The last but not the least. Even though sometimes a role model isn’t physically present through a athlete’s roadmap but it still makes him do what is required of him i.e. inspire, motivate and challenge. A role model is someone a athlete would look upon and try to emulate his/her behaviour and achievements. Fortunately there isn’t any degree/course in the world to be a role model, you can have your parents as your role models, you can have a charitable person as your role model, you might as well have your neighbourhood uncle as your role model because of his disciplinary values. A role model who is someone who is there to say you, “Look I did it, you can do it as well”.
