Chapter 2: Sport as Life: Cultural Psychology of Goals-Oriented Striving

Sport is activity with duration that is meaningful for the actor. It captures the whole body and mind, is situated in societal context, and is oriented towards the future. A person involved in sport—be it collective (team) or individual sport—is oriented towards a future accomplishment that is currently beyond the realities of the athlete. Even in cases where an athlete is necessarily oriented towards lowering current level of accomplishment— such as recovery from an injury—the longer term future goal is that of previously unaccomplished new performances.

Sport is a dedicated commitment to the future. It is a kind of personal mystique—requiring elaborate and careful preparation, all in preparation for the moments of complete immersion in the performance act—which may succeed or fail. After that full unity of the body of the purposeful Psyche with the task to be performed—can follow retrospective analyses of what had just happened (or failed to happen). The person then returns to the preparation of the next event of such immersion—within the same competition event, or to the one planned some time ahead.