The importance of humility in sports education

The education of values ​​in the sports context that we develop at UPAD Psychology and Coaching tends to always move through the same contents: respect, camaraderie, responsibility, effort, humility... Most of these values ​​have such an intuitive name that even the Benjamins whom we instruct in them are right to give a definition. impromptu. However, there is one of them that represents the exception that confirms the rule, and it is none other than humility.

And it is that, sometimes even adults forget what humility is, and even more: why it can be important in sport or in life, because, as he said, "isn't too much humility good?"

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What is humility in sports education?

Humility is defined as the knowledge of the scope of one's own abilities, that is, know how good we are and how we can improve. This means that acknowledging a personal merit in public is not a lack of humility (perhaps it is a lack of modesty). In fact, an explicit denial of a great achievement can be interpreted, ironically, as a lack of humility.

But then, is it humility to go telling each person that crosses my path the great dribble that I made the other day? Is it humility to celebrate a goal by dancing in front of the whole world? Is it humbling to compare my track record with yours to a teammate or rival?

We can all quickly understand that, belittling the merits of another athlete is not sporting conduct and, although it may be related to humility, it is perhaps more related to respect.

On the other hand, if we say that being humble is being aware of successes as well as mistakes, it can be deduced that talking about these successes naturally can be related to humility, as long as we do not boast of they. However, The line between showing off and being natural will always be blurred., so this would be an ambiguous criterion that might be worth us to philosophize in this small article, but not to educate, in this important value, our young athletes in training.

The criterion that resolves this hole in the definition would be that this knowledge of achievements and skills to be improved does not depend on the opinion of others. I can make a spectacular play, but if I need to validate it through my teammates, rivals or spectators, I won't be humble. If I need to do an exaggerated celebration to get more attention on my goal, I won't be humble. If a teammate, a rival, a friend (or a journalist) asks me about said goal, and I express my honest opinion about it, then I will be being humble. If I celebrate the goal with my teammates, like anyone else who has scored, I will be being humble.

Therefore, in order to optimize the value of humility, it is important to generate and strengthen self-esteem, since, following the logic of our discourse, the former will be a consequence of the latter.

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The management of self-esteem

It is common for people who boast the most about their achievements, appearance or merits to do so by masking low self-esteem, as if it were overcompensation as a defense mechanism same. And it is true that one of the sources of self-efficacy is the feedback we receive from others. others, so I can manipulate that feedback, or my perception of it, to protect my self-esteem.

However, the healthiest solution is to achieve a strong self-esteem, which does not need protection and, therefore, does not depend on others. For this reason, it is vitally important to educate trainees to obtain said self-esteem through objective data that speak for themselves of their merits, as well as be very conscientious about how we reinforce earning those merits.

In this way, if our self-esteem depends exclusively on the objectives we achieve and our margin for improvement, we will have a self-esteem strong that it will not depend on the evaluation of others and, in turn, we will not need to display behaviors contrary to humility to perceive said self-esteem. Therefore, understanding humility in this way, I would say that not only is too much humility good, but it is, above all, healthy.