Monday, February 1, 2016

UNDERDOG – all my due respect, really…



In too many societies and cultures, winning seems to be the only way. Coming in second is rarely noticed and third place is seemingly occupied by losers. Anybody placed below third, why even bother? The old mantra of having fun getting there, in life as in any form of sports and competition, seems pre-doomed, because we pathetically believe that winning is the only thing that counts; and how sad is that – really? But of course you and I are not part of that sad group that believes it’s so, because we respect the efforts of the underdog or any dog for that matter – woof woof…

It was around 1856 that the term ‘underdog’ popped up, as ‘the beaten dog in a fight’ (whatever). The opposite of underdog is ‘top-dog’, as ‘over-dog’ would sound really weird; ‘favorite’, is another ‘most likely to win’ term. Any group, team or individual of any shape or form who is not ‘most likely to win’ is unceremoniously labeled ‘underdog’. I know, not a very colorful background for such devastating term and not hysterically exciting to any extent, but there it is. I think ‘under-cat’ would be a lot cuter; don’t you? 

It was around 1956 that I was watching a bicycle race, one of those things where the riders race around and around, trying to get over the finish line first (silly concept – but whatever). I was with my father. He was vocally and consistently encouraging the riders in the back of the pack to keep up, pedal harder. On the way home I asked him in the wisdom of a ten year old why he did that. We stopped and got off our bikes, as he wanted to make sure that I fully understood what he was going to tell me – I fully understood and never forgot.

Concerning sports (as entertainment), he explained that emphasis should never fully be on winning; to win should not be the essential/only part of any contest, watching or participating. The reason being, that when we emphasize that small part, we are being pathetically ignorant, as well as derogatory to the many of us, most of us, who are not going to win. That’s pretty much everybody participating, minus the one who actually wins the contest. I found and still find that to be so very true on several levels.

In society’s eagerness of hailing winners, we forget the underdogs, and that is neither fair nor nice, besides it does not make sense. We hail winners by associating ourselves with them, will perhaps have some of the luck rubbing off on us. Okay, not you and I, but all the other ‘hailers’.

We might even apply a bit of our darker side, the envy and jealousy part, as in ‘why him/her/them and not me?’ Some winners we praise for their outstanding performance, the immense discipline and effort in training for that top result, placing him/her/them on the highest pedestal; but while doting on that, we totally forget second and third place and every single one of the other competitors who also finished the event – shame shame shame. 

Yeah, not nice to forget all those ‘underdogs’ who had no doubt sacrificed as much energy, effort and time while applying the same massive discipline; but no matter how hard some of these underdogs (most of them/us) worked, the one on the podium had that one thing that day and at that very moment to become the top-dog. Some can even do it again and again, because there are things lined up within and without that make them stand out more often than others. But that does not mean we should ignore the underdogs – not at all; they should be as respected and appreciated as any winner is on any day, at any time – according to me (and my father). I am a stout fan of underdogs and I am always cheering them on and on and on – wish for them to win, by crushing the top-dogs (that’s the spirit, Peter).

Here in the USA the stark contrast between the number one and number two in almost anything is severe. I remember a tennis final I watched many years ago. It was time to hand out the prices and trophies to the tournament winner and second place (such a loser, huh?) The winner got a fancy new and very expensive car, plus a check for $11 million; pretty good payday for playing tennis. Then the announcer presented the second place winner by saying that ‘the loser’ (that day, I assume) did not get the fancy car, but only the ‘loser-check’ of $6 million. I don’t know how much money the announcer idiot made for a living, but if you gave me $6 million for coming in second, the dreaded and lowly ‘loser’ position, I’d be happy to lose every bloody day and wouldn’t give a crap about what you or anybody else thought of me being labeled the losing ‘underdog’ – I would wear that title proudly (and then buy myself a really fancy car – I could certainly afford one).

I was coaching a girls Varsity soccer team (high school) some years back. One pre-season we entered a local tournament at another high school. It was clearly written on the results-board that after group play, the winning teams would be playing the other winning teams in the post-group play-off. But for some pathetic reason the tournament organizers felt it was also okay to announce that the ‘losers’ (seriously) would be playing against the other ‘losers’. One of the players from our team just laughed as she read it and stated that they had been called things worse than that – I embraced her and her attitude; but not that she surprised me.

I have never really been good at things that have anything to do with ‘winning’ (except in my work). The only thing I remember where I came in as a winner was at a national (Denmark) competition in ‘roller-skate pair dancing’ – true story. But I only roller-skated (and was actually pretty good at it) because I was so taken by this very hot and sexy partner of mine; Jytte, was her name. I was 12 and seriously confused by so many twirling and swirling hormones I had to deal with at the time. Jytte did kiss me once and that was right after she was handed our big trophy thing. That one kiss was worth the hundreds of hours of training on skates; I didn’t care less about the trophy…

But I have certainly participated in the role of ‘underdog’ on several soccer-teams from age 6 and up; played tennis in tournaments where the 1st place price was a T-Shirt (and you rode home on your bike). 2nd place, you just rode home on your bike. 3rd place – don’t want to go there.

I started coaching soccer at age 12 and continued here in the USA when our sons were ready to play. My coaching-mentor back in Denmark told me that the most important thing about coaching soccer was to constantly underline that the reason we ALL were involved, players and coaches, was to have fun. Nothing was more important. From the day I started to cruise the sidelines as a coach that was the last thing I told the players running out on the pitch and the last thing I asked them to do after halftime: HAVE FUN, whatever you do – and they did.

We shouldn’t emphasize winning so much, by making it the ultimate goal – the only thing. Sure, winning wars might be of importance as so many other ‘it is essential to win’ issues. But when we are talking about sports and games in our everyday life, let’s all wear the ‘I’m an underdog – and I’m having a lot of fun being one’ T-Shirts.

And we can wear that label with pride and respect and be comforted by the true fact, that the vast majority of us are underdogs in sports and games – at least what that part of our lives is concerned – so let’s have a lot of fun while we are at it, okay? And I will keep rooting for any underdog till the day I die – or perhaps even longer. 

All my respect as well – really (Woof Woof)

PS. I still like ‘under-cat’ better, because it’s cute and cuddly (sigh)...

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