Youth Sport and Spirituality

Description

Unsportsmanlike behavior by student athletes or parents at youth sporting events happens with regularity these days. Much recent research reveals that young people are dropping out of sport at alarming rates due to the often toxic elements in the culture of youth sports. The timely, innovative essays in Youth Sport and Spirituality present a wide-ranging overview that draws on resources from Catholic spiritual and theological traditions to address problems such as these, as well as opportunities in youth sport in the United States.

The book consists of two sections. In the first, prominent scholars in philosophy, psychology, theology, and spirituality reflect on how youth sport contributes to the integral development of the person and his or her grasp of spiritual values. The second half of the book consists of chapters written by coaches, athletic directors, and specialists working with youth coaches. These practitioners share how their approaches to working with youth in sport contribute to the integral development of their players and their openness to transcendent values. The essays examine coaching as ministry, youth sport and moral development, and how parents can act as partners in youth sports, among other topics. The book will interest coaches, athletic directors, and youth ministers in Catholic elementary and high schools in parish settings, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in education who are preparing to teach in Catholic schools.

Contributors: Patrick Kelly, SJ, Daniel A. Dombrowski, Nicole M. LaVoi, Mike McNamee, Clark Power, David Light Shields, Brenda Light Bredemeier, Richard R. Gaillardetz, Kristin Komyatte Sheehan, Dobie Moser, Jim Yerkovich, Sherri Retif, James Charles Naggi, and Edward Hastings.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Sports Psychology
• Sports
• Essays
• Sport psychology
• Catholic spirituality
• Recreation
• Catholic
• Christianity
• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268024017
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

YOUTH SPORT AND SPIRITUALITY
CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES

edited by
PATRICK KELLY, SJ
University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2015 by the University of Notre Dame
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Youth sport and spirituality : Catholic perspectives / edited by Patrick Kelly, SJ. pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-268-01235-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-268-01235-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Sports-Religious aspects-Catholic Church.
2. Athletes-Religious life.
3. Sports-Psychological aspects.
4. Sports-Sociological aspects.
I. Kelly, Patrick M. (Patrick Michael), 1960- editor.
GV706.42.Y68 2015
796.01 9-dc23
2015023724
ISBN 9780268024017
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
Jesus said, Let the children come to me and do not prevent them.
-Matthew 19:14 (NABRV)
CONTENTS
Introduction
Patrick Kelly, SJ
PART 1 RESEARCH-BASED AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
1 What Is Sport? What Should It Be? Some Definitions and Some Homeric Remarks Regarding Moderation
Daniel A. Dombrowski
2 Christians and Sport: An Historical and Theological Overview
Patrick Kelly, SJ
3 Youth Sport and Psychological and Social Development
Nicole M. LaVoi
4 Youth Sport and the Virtues
Mike McNamee
5 Playing Like a Champion Today: Youth Sport and Moral Development
Clark Power
6 Reclaiming Competition in Youth Sports
David Light Shields and Brenda Light Bredemeier
7 Youth Sport and Spirituality
Patrick Kelly, SJ
8 For the Love of the Game: Toward a Theology of Sports
Richard R. Gaillardetz
PART 2 PRACTICES AND PERSPECTIVES
9 Playing Like a Champion Today II: Youth Sport and Growth in Body, Mind, and Spirit
Kristin Komyatte Sheehan
10 Catholic Youth Organization Sports: A Mission-Oriented Focus
Dobie Moser
11 WE: A Model for Coaching and Christian Living
Jim Yerkovich
12 Connection, Reflection, and Validation in Sport
Sherri Retif
13 Coaching and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm
James Charles Naggi
14 Parents as Partners in Youth Sport
Nicole M. LaVoi
15 The Examen of Consciousness for Coaches and Parents
Edward Hastings
Conclusion
Patrick Kelly, SJ
List of Contributors
Index
Introduction
PATRICK KELLY, SJ
Youth Sport and Spirituality: Catholic Perspectives is a unique book that meets a pressing need at this time. The book is unique because it is the first of its kind that brings resources from Catholic cultural and intellectual traditions into meaningful conversation with scholarship on youth sport to address problems and opportunities in this domain of young people s lives. The first two chapters consider the question What is sport? and provide an overview of the history of Catholic engagement with play and sport. The remaining chapters are about how experiences of participation in youth sport can foster the integral development of the young person, and his or her search for meaning in life from a Christian perspective.
The book is divided into two sections. The first section contains chapters written by scholars from different academic disciplines. These chapters, while based on sound research and scholarship, are written without academic jargon or extensive footnotes. The second section of the book contains chapters written by coaches and other practitioners who work closely with young people in sport on a day-to-day basis.
The primary audience for Youth Sport and Spirituality is youth coaches, physical education teachers, and athletic directors who work in Catholic school and parish settings. The book will also be of interest to other groups, including youth ministers, Catholic educators and administrators, parish priests and staffs, Catholic parents of children involved in sports, university students who are preparing to teach or coach in Catholic schools, Christians of other denominations, and anyone interested in the relationship between youth sport (or sport in general) and spirituality. Academics from the disciplines represented in the book, namely, philosophy, moral development, education, psychology, theology, and spirituality, will also find resources that are of interest to them. Catholic theologians and scholars of spirituality, in particular, will find that the book treats an area of human experience that has been woefully neglected in their disciplines.
Indeed, Catholic theologians and scholars of spirituality have not paid much attention to sport in the modern world. This is curious, given the Catholic sacramental worldview and emphasis on finding God in all things, and the Catholic tendency to accept diverse cultural experiences and customs and to incorporate these into the life and even the worship of the church. The lack of attention paid to sport is even more surprising, given that sport is a human universal, that is, it has been a part (in one form or another) of all cultures for which we have recorded histories. Sport is also pervasive in U.S. culture in our own time and in educational institutions, as well as in Catholic schools and parish settings themselves. It embodies many of the values and disvalues of the culture of the United States and plays an enormously influential role in the formation of young people. For these reasons, it is important that Catholic theologians and scholars of spirituality begin to pay attention to sport in our time.
Since this book is about youth sport and spirituality, it is important to say something about what spirituality is. Many scholars of spirituality today are trying to find a way to think about spirituality that doesn t limit it to persons who belong to a particular religious tradition. David Perrin is one scholar who has written about what this might mean. For Perrin, spirituality is a fundamental capacity in human beings. One of the first things he mentions in this regard is the human capacity for self-transcendence. As he puts it,
Spirituality, as an innate human characteristic, involves the capacity for self-transcendence: being meaningfully involved in, and personally committed to, the world beyond an individual s personal boundaries. This meaningful involvement and commitment shapes the way people live and allows them to integrate their lives. 1
For Perrin, spirituality in this sense can be expressed in human experience before a person identifies with a particular religious or spiritual tradition or beliefs, rituals, or ethics.
For Perrin, spirituality also has to do with the big questions that all human beings ask. We try to forge meaning and find purpose and hope in the midst of our life experiences, which at times can seem disconnected or random. We attempt to make sense of it all. And we do so in the context of what is ultimately important to us. As he puts it, Spirituality stands at the junction where the deepest concerns of humanity, and the belief in transcendent values, come together in the movement toward ultimate fulfillment in life. 2
The strength of this broad rendering of spirituality lies in its inclusiveness. It could refer to spirituality in any religious tradition. It doesn t require belief in God and so could be used with reference to nontheistic traditions such as one finds in some expressions of Buddhism. Or it could account for a spirituality that exists outside of organized religion, such as twelve-step spirituality. It is important to note that for Perrin, spirituality has to do with a way of life. His use of the word integrate signals that spirituality has to do with the way a person brings together all of the dimensions of his or her life into a meaningful whole.
If this is spirituality understood in a broad sense, what is Christian spirituality? Obviously, God is the ultimate concern for the Christian. According to Perrin,
At the center of Christian spirituality is God s animating, graceful presence. It is God s Spirit alive in people s lives that moves them beyond the boundaries of their fragile selves to give their lives in many different ways to others. For the Christian, God is the foundation for all self-transcendence and for all spirituality. 3
Sandra Schneiders, IHM, fleshes out in greater detail what Christian spirituality is when she writes:
Christian spirituality is an explicitly religious spirituality in which the horizon of ultimate value is the triune God revealed in Jesus Christ, in whose life we share through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christian spirituality is the life of faith, hope, and love within the community of the Church through which we put on the mind of Christ by participating sacramentally and existentially in his paschal mystery. The desired life-integration is personal transformation in Christ, which implies participation in the transformation of the world in justice for all creatures. 4
Schneiders is a Catholic religious sister, and so it is no surprise that in her definition of Christian spirituality she emphasizes the communal dimension. In the Catholic understanding, persons are social by their very constitution-and encounter God in community. Personal transformation in Christ involves, simultaneously, a deepening experience of God s love and a deepening of our love for our brothers and sisters. Indeed, from a Christian perspective, love of God and love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. As the first letter of John puts it, If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us (1 Jn 4:12b). Because of Jesus s own example and identif