Chapter 1: Introduction: Sport as an Arena of Development of Personal Health, Personal Achievement, and Societal Game

For decades, the focal point of psychology has been to understand “the norm/the average” and how deviances from the norm could be signs of abnormality that has to be fixed to fit into the norm. Yet, when looking at the world of sports, we see a different approach to human being—especially when looking at competitive sports; the striving for health, well-being, and excellence. In sports, we see people going for great lengths in order to reach their desired goals and in order to reach personal achievements. Further, many sports are played in teams and thereby the field of sports does not only entail an arena of personal development and achievement. Sport is a social endeavor for teams and groups seeking achievement. However, not all people engage in sports merely for competitive reasons. Some join sporting communities in order to live healthy lifestyles which will be a subject of discussion later in this book. Furthermore, this endeavor might not be restricted to individuals seeking healthy lifestyles—even groups and communities may seek improvement in health and wellbeing through the engagement in sports and sometimes social change. Thereby, sports will appear as an arena to study personal health and achievement as well as group and community health and achievement, and thus sports will become a personal and societal game. Consequently, the field of sports psychology needs to entail not only abnormalities needing to be fixed in order to fit into the norm but also the strive from “the average/the norm” to excellence and well-being.