Sources of Success in Sports

Competitive games occur in almost all human societies. Three sources of success are physical skill, strategy, and chance. Many games have more than one source of success. For example, strategy can enable a cleverer contestant to defeat a stronger or larger opponent in most games of physical skill, such as boxing between individuals and football between teams.

In a world sample of diverse societies, thirty-nine had games of physical skill only and thirty-nine had games of physical skill and also games of chance, where success is determined by external agents, such as dice or cards (Herbert Barry III and John M. Roberts, “Infant Socialization and Games of Chance,” Ethnology, 1972, Volume 11, pp. 296-308). In the societies with games of physical skill and also games of chance, bodily movements of infants were severely restricted, such as in a North American Indian cradleboard. The infant’s physical contact with the caretaker was infrequent. The infant’s mother slept in a different bed. We inferred that games of chance are adult expressions of dependency acquired during infancy. The gambler passively submits to the external agent, which determines success. Physical skill and strategy are irrelevant. The gambler also has an infantile fantasy of magical omnipotence. In the musical play and movie Guys and Dolls, the successful gambler sings “Luck Be a Lady Tonight.” Benevolent Lady Luck is associated with the mostly absent but ultimately rescuing mother.

Competition induces excitement and aggression. Strenuous physical activity expresses and relieves the intensified feelings. Greater tension is usually felt by golfers and chess players than by boxers and football players. Golf requires no strenuous activity or physical contact with the opponent, and chess is not a game of physical skill.

Chess, a game of strategy, is an effective method for training children to acquire rational and empathic behavior. Young children choose each move quickly and impulsively, ignoring the opponent’s threats. Successful chess players learn to choose each move carefully, in accordance with their game plan. They also need empathic understanding of the opponent’s best next move and game plan.

Most first born children learn to restrain aggression, especially against the younger brothers and sisters. Most later born children learn to compete against the older brothers and sisters. First-borns, who are inhibited against physical violence, can avoid contact with the opponent by playing tennis, golf, or chess. A questionnaire by Arpad Elo and me revealed that players in weekend chess tournaments were predominantly first-borns. In contrast, professional football players are predominantly later-borns.

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