Agassi’s Advice

 

WHAT a profound statement has the tennis legend Andre Agassi made! “Sports should be part of education as it teaches value of losing.” A sportsperson of his stature making a statement that transcends the segments of sports and also suggests something of collective human value, must trigger societal thinking the world over. Of course, his statement does not come from mere reading of books. It comes from his own experience. The man who won eight Grand Slams in tennis, married an equally legendary tennis star Steffi Graff, and raised funds enough to create a centre of excellence named Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, is definitely equipped to speak about not only sports but also education and life. The most important point Agassi made in his statement is about the ‘value of losing’. This is very much relevant to sports as well as other walks of life. The sportspersons also start as ordinary children, develop a liking, train harder than others do, and shine some day.

 

However, many also faded into oblivion because they could not handle one loss. This happens in the life of people pursuing careers in other fields as well as businesses. Agassi could make a comeback and shine brighter only on the strength of realising the value of losing, and working on problem-solving ability with objectivity. Life does not end if one loses a game or an opportunity. Some do not realise that because they have never played a sport and lost. Those active in sports know that one bad game can be gotten over with by quickly coming out of the negative mental impact. One has to start afresh, focus on the next game. One has to out-think, out-strategise, and out-perform the rival. Also, one has to be open enough to acknowledge the strengths of rival because a great rival also serves as a great mirror. A strong opponent brings about terrific transformation in a person that one may not achieve playing against a weak rival. Essentially, it is all about focus on self-enhancement beyond winning or losing.

 

If a child plays sports, he or she develops abilities that cannot be taught through current educational frameworks that focus more on scores, cut-off marks, and treading the defined tracks. Sports brings out the best of a person in the context of self-management, competitiveness, self-worth, ability to rise everytime after a fall, keep investing effort in self-dynamism, and having a forward-looking vision. Hence, Andre Agassi’s advice needs to be taken with utmost seriousness and sincerity by the educationists, if they are really committed to making the world a better place to live in with sorted and fine human beings creating a great ambience. For, finesse of an individual is determined not by how much one loses in life but how many times one rises to the challenges with positive mindset.