“The Mighty Ducks”: A Sport’s Psychology View To practice implementing sport psychology concepts, I chose the 1992 film, The Mighty Ducks to be my example situation. Being that it was the only movie on the given list that was readily available to watch on Netflix, my decision was easy. Having only seen bits and pieces of the movie, I was now able to watch it in its entirety. The Mighty Ducks is a sport drama starring Emilio Estevez. Estevez plays Gordon Bombay, a high powered lawyer who will do anything to win. He is an ego centric individual who gets a drunk driving arrest. His punishment is to make him become more of a team player by being the coach of the local youth hockey team that consists of unfocused, “bratty” kids. It is a rocky start
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The negatives of youth sport were most apparent in Gordon Bombay. When he was young he played on the rival team, the Hawks, with a winning focused coach Jack Reilly. This focus on winning made his miss of the penalty shot effect his whole life. Because he lost the game, he ended up quitting hockey and was convinced that winning is everything. This spilled into his career as a lawyer where he only cared about winning each case and would do anything not to lose. Jack Reilly also encouraged a negative sport behavior of aggression. He told a couple players on his team during the championship game to harm Banks (a player on the Ducks) so that he is out of the game. Lack of respect for the rules is an example of poor sport behavior (Davies, Stellino, Nichols, & Coleman, 2016). Aggression is defined as a behavior aimed at another human with the goal of being physical harm (Cox, 2012). There is no room for aggression in sports and to teach engaging in it, is a negative at any age of sport …show more content…
This positive outcome happens when the team’s perception of the coach works together with their leadership behavior (Vella, & et. al, 2013). Cohesion is when a group sticks together and is united in achieving goals (Cox, 2012). Not only were the Ducks united on the rink but they displayed their group cohesion so strongly when they “quacked” at the principle of their school and they all ended up in detention. Another time was when a player from the Hawks, Banks, was transferred to their team. There was friction with the new player. Banks had not been with the team from the beginning of the season so the Ducks initially did not take to his presence. Without Banks spending time with the team he wasn’t able to form the task and social cohesion that the rest of the players had. Throughout the movie the Ducks didn’t win many games (absolute performance perspective) but they improved by scoring more each game (relative performance perspective). Sports provide a setting for teachable moments. So, even if the team doesn’t succeed in winning there is still quite a bit of developmental experiences (Vella, & et. al, 2013). Gordon Bombay created team cohesion by developing a feeling of ownership among the players (“Who wants to be a duck?” locker room speech), providing a mastery motivational climate, and spending time together outside of playing. When a team is socially cohesive the individuals are
The negatives of youth sport were most apparent in Gordon Bombay. When he was young he played on the rival team, the Hawks, with a winning focused coach Jack Reilly. This focus on winning made his miss of the penalty shot effect his whole life. Because he lost the game, he ended up quitting hockey and was convinced that winning is everything. This spilled into his career as a lawyer where he only cared about winning each case and would do anything not to lose. Jack Reilly also encouraged a negative sport behavior of aggression. He told a couple players on his team during the championship game to harm Banks (a player on the Ducks) so that he is out of the game. Lack of respect for the rules is an example of poor sport behavior (Davies, Stellino, Nichols, & Coleman, 2016). Aggression is defined as a behavior aimed at another human with the goal of being physical harm (Cox, 2012). There is no room for aggression in sports and to teach engaging in it, is a negative at any age of sport …show more content…
This positive outcome happens when the team’s perception of the coach works together with their leadership behavior (Vella, & et. al, 2013). Cohesion is when a group sticks together and is united in achieving goals (Cox, 2012). Not only were the Ducks united on the rink but they displayed their group cohesion so strongly when they “quacked” at the principle of their school and they all ended up in detention. Another time was when a player from the Hawks, Banks, was transferred to their team. There was friction with the new player. Banks had not been with the team from the beginning of the season so the Ducks initially did not take to his presence. Without Banks spending time with the team he wasn’t able to form the task and social cohesion that the rest of the players had. Throughout the movie the Ducks didn’t win many games (absolute performance perspective) but they improved by scoring more each game (relative performance perspective). Sports provide a setting for teachable moments. So, even if the team doesn’t succeed in winning there is still quite a bit of developmental experiences (Vella, & et. al, 2013). Gordon Bombay created team cohesion by developing a feeling of ownership among the players (“Who wants to be a duck?” locker room speech), providing a mastery motivational climate, and spending time together outside of playing. When a team is socially cohesive the individuals are