Domino Effect of Playing Sports

When you participate to play sports. Be it football, hockey, cycling, and so on. At the time of wanting to play the sport, we were naive about the action that we are about to get into. As we grow older, we either continue to fall in love with sports or fall out with sports or a somewhere in between. As we grow older, there are more and more factors to consider before saying, “Yes, I am in. I want to play.“ There is an invisible domino effect in play when we make a decision of wanting to play or not. These factors vary from individual to individual. Generally, they include. Cost, format, location, time, who will I be playing with, and so on. Let’s attempt to dive in the psychology. Bear in mind, this comes from personal experience. Definition and experiences may vary from person to person. If you have a counter argument or want to share your experiences. Do share with us.

Who will I be playing with?

Consider the top five factors on why do you want to participate in a sporting activity. For me, number one, it is the people who I will be playing with and the organiser who is handling the session. Growing up, I had this opportunity that I will forever cherish in my heart. Playing Futsal with this uncle for five years of my life. Clocked in over 100 sessions. The format of the session is typical of any social Futsal groups, people group up, and we play. The majority of my time with them, I never felt out of place. The warmth was special, the constructive feedback was immense, the fear of uncle scoring against me, with his spectacular headers were always real. Side note, was a goalkeeper then. He made sure everyone respected the sessions, and everyone loves him.

Remember one time, someone brought a friend to play. This friend who only just started, didn’t play well, he was berated by the best players on the night. During a break, uncle respectfully reminded the best players about themselves. Everyone started out as a noob when they try something new. And have the compassion to show them the ropes by being a good teacher. One of them took offence and left. The others heed his words. The friend who started, over time improved, and became a nice addition to the community. Socially sharing some funny anecdotes that would take a stressful air and push it away from the community. Looking back, really like how everyone respected and values each other. By not only civilly saying it, but actively being civil. Uncle always has a rule, he adheres honest communication above all else. “Ada problem, we share. We do our best to solve any issues. Don’t let issues build up and consume us, life is short. Have courage. Be present.“

From there, if you ever have a problem with someone, you don’t feel safe in a community that you are in reach out and speak out with them. When the in-communication continues, bring the management and the organiser in. Complications can be resolved, communicate with honesty.

Format

Sessions of sports vary from the organiser to organiser, collective to collective. The end goal is to have enjoyment and go home happy. Everyone has a preference or two. A good number doesn’t mind anything. People just want to play and get involved. Be on the playing arena as much as possible.

Location and time

Each individual has an imbedded distance radius of how far they are willing to go and play sports. Some will go as far as to the mountains. So will go closer to home. To which, each individual has an imbedded time radius of when they want to go and play sports. Some want to play every day of every hour. Some want to play after work. Or just during the weekends. Or a mix.

Growing up during high school and college, weekends were the best. Now, as a multiple freelance working adult. Weeknights are the best. To which in the padangbolasepak.com database majority of the sign ups prefer playing weeknight, after work. A set of people who I have asked over the years, adults of 21 to 35, noted that weeknights are social games, weekends are league games.

Cost

The most I have spent. Paying to participate in playing a sporting session was RM60. Two hours of Futsal against a bunch of troublemakers who didn’t want to be reasonable. It was a ‘friendly against a team who invited the team I was in to ‘play for fun‘. Turns out, we were deceived by the people who invited us to play. Apparently, loser has to pay the whole session. Funnily enough, we actually won the game by a single goal. But ‘Fergie time’ was added on, so we lost by five goals so that there weren’t any arguments after the session. RM60 for two hours and fifteen minutes. We were young back then, we didn’t want to get into a high temperature verbal argument and high octane physical clash. Peacefully, we paid and leaf, never play them again. But since we spent a lot of money on that morning, we didn’t get to play for the month.

Domino effect

Before deciding on saying yes to participate in a session. We often ask ourselves these questions. Have a feedback loop of the memories of participating, be it good and bad. Calculating and considering our respective budgets. Contemplating on the time and location of the session. And the kind of format. Before ultimately deciding. To each their own.

Personal summary

I would love to recall and calculate how my I have spent in total, of my hard earned earnings on these sessions. Subsequently quantify them with the amount of enjoyment I had vs the times I went home frustrated and disappointed. Additionally, to see how far I have grown as a person. And the respectful friendships I that I have forged over the years. There were regrets, no doubt. There were comfortable, no doubt. And everything in between, no doubt. As a participant I want to be a better human and a better teammate.

As a recreational football organiser

I understand the plight of a sports participant. Every time, the management team and I plan something we ask ourselves, who had faced a lot in our lives. Would our younger selves be happy with our programs. Always do our best to organise a standard quality and provide as much value as possible like having photographers, jersey provided, (a special surprise), you to be on the pitch or court as long as possible, and so on. However, we must be mindful of everyone in the environment, from the facilities providing, to the participants' commitment, to the photographers on duty, to us as organisers ensuring the standard, and so on. Everyone must grow.

Overall, we are committed that a recreational session under padangbolasepak.com will not go over RM25 a-session, RM25 is the maximum limit. In the event, where not many show up, for reasons. We will bite the bullet, because that is our collective commitment. You will not pay RM26 and beyond for a session. We are working to have a recreational football session towards the RM10 - RM20 region, there’s a lot to be done. Nothing is impossible, when there is a will, there is a way to achieve ambitions. So that everyone will get a chance to participate and grow.