Taylor Fowler
Professor Emerson
ENG 110 H1
11/29/18
Beauty Can Be Seen In Anything
When you think of sports, beauty is not a word that you would immediately associate. Usually, competitive, rough, tenacious, team, winning, etc. are what come to mind. If you really stop to think about it though, sports are full of beauty. Beauty does not have a discrete definition, because every person experiences beauty differently. John Armstrong who writes “La Bella Vita” uses Friedrich Schiller’s idea and explains beauty as “…an arena in which two powerful psychological drives are at work”(Armstrong 2). Schiller believes that you need both the sense drive and the form drive to experience beauty. These two psychological drives, go hand in hand, and when the two work together, it allows us to see the full potential beauty has to offer. The sense drive explains the beauty you see on a small scale such as a beautiful pass, shot, play, goal etc. Schiller’s definition of the sense drive is; “…The sense drive which lives in the moment and seeks immediate gratification…craves contact and possession” (Armstrong 2). On a larger scale, the form drive can be seen as the team works together to overcome challenges and succeed in accomplishing their end goal. In all the minute details of the game, but also when players and teams persevere through challenges and overcome them, is when beauty is found in the game of hockey.
The sense drive will become evident in all the minute details; the bruises, the broken bones, the joy, laughter, tears or anger, the endless hours shooting pucks in your driveway, the early mornings waking up to go to practice, the late nights getting home from games just to wake up and do it all over again the next day. Those things are what give the game beauty. With the sense drive all that hard work is beautiful in the moment, but like Schiller points out, in order to experience beauty, the form drive is doing it all for the end goal; the win, or to be the best player you can be. He defines the form drive as; “…the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order” (Armstrong 2). Hockey is a game that is full of beauty and when all of those little pieces of beauty come together they are able to create a magnificent work of art.
Ice hockey is seen as a rough and tough sport, but all in all, it requires a lot of finesse. If you look at the top hockey players who have perfected their stride, the beauty that can come from a skating stride is like none other. The sound of the ice as the skates slice the ice and leave their mark with every stride taken is as stimulating as a Mozart symphony. The best skaters today did not just wake up and skate perfectly. This skill came from hours on hours of practicing, continually working at it and attempting techniques that may have made them uncomfortable. Kendall Coyne, who is 5’2”, and the fastest female hockey player in the world, did not earn that title without putting in the work. She spent hours in the gym and on the ice perfecting her stride and strengthening her muscles. With all her hard work, she was able to refine her skating stride, to be powerful, and efficient. When others watch her, they are in awe at her skating ability. https://youtu.be/O6gxeX5Y5LU In a podcast by my classmate Elizabeth Knell, her sister Kristen Knell talks about overcoming challenges to experience beauty, she says “I was glad that I overcame something and overcame the fact that I was scared to put myself in that position…it was a reward to see how beautiful it was” This moment stood out to Kristen, the most because she was able to overcome the fear and challenges of getting into the cave, but once she overcame the obstacles she was able to experience the full beauty that the cave had to offer. Every day as a player you have to push yourself to constantly improve your skill, and most of the time, the only way that you are able to do that is by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and try something that might scare you or make you uncomfortable. If you are able to do that, you are then able to experience the beauty and the happiness of what it is like once you accomplish the skill. An experience that stands out to me and really shows perseverance involves a girl I coached at a skating clinic this summer who was not the best skater. I could tell she was apprehensive about stepping out of her comfort zone and trying the drills I was asking her to do. I told her that she wouldn’t improve by just doing what made her comfortable; that if she pushed herself through the constructive struggle of the more difficult or unfamiliar skills, they would help make her a better player. She tackled the fear of falling and getting hurt and slowly started to step out of her comfort zone, only to realize that she could do the drill. As she continued to grow and achieve success in her ability to perform the different drills, she was able to experience the true beauty of her more fluid stride.
Beauty can also be found in sports when a team is able to come together, persevere, and overcome challenges, to accomplish their end goal of winning. Whether as a team or as an individual player, you are required to face adversity, step outside of your comfort zone, and push yourself to be the best each and every day. Until you are able to do that you will not be able to experience the beauty of teamwork. As a team, there are many challenges that arise throughout the season, and some of those challenges require a lot of work to correct, but if you persevere through the ups and downs, everything starts to fall into place. This winter, the USA Women’s Olympic team did exactly this by committing themselves to overcome the team challenges they faced both on and off the ice and persisting to win the gold for the first time in twenty years. Their commitment and hard work made the win a whole new level of beautiful. 
Emily Ryall wrote in an article titled “Sport is Not Just About Athleticism: Beauty Matters Too”, “…but the beauty of truly original performances lodges in our memories. That’s the beauty that matters most in sport, and we rightly celebrate it” (Ryall). Not only will fans and the players of Team USA remember all the events leading up to the win as being beautiful, but the game itself when the team came together and connected to defeat Canada is one that will be remembered. The beauty that I experienced while watching the game was unimaginable, and really elicited a mix of emotions for me as well. I can only imagine the emotions that flowed through the players as they stood as a team, united as one, wearing their gold medals and singing the national anthem.
As an athlete, there are times when we take playing the sport we love for granted. As a player who had their career cut short, now more than ever, I try to find the beauty in everything. Each day I take a minute to step back and reflect on the beauty of the opportunities I am given and the beauty the world has to offer. I interviewed Meaghan Fortier for my podcast. She talks about how her object of beauty gave her a new perspective on life.
“It opened me up to look at what I do have, what I can appreciate, how I can make what I have the best that I can have.”
Now I try to express to my teammates to never take anything for granted, and when they go to the rink, to go everyday wanting to be there and improve or refine their skills, because life can be fleeting; your career could end in a snap and you may be left with the regret that you took some practices for granted, and regret that you didn’t take a step back to experience the true beauty that the game has to offer.
Without the integration of the sense and form drive, you would not be able to see or experience the beauty that the game of hockey has to offer. The sense drive, of players going to the rink and working hard each and every day to get better, or of the team at practice or in the weight room always pushing each other to be the best they can be, is a beautiful experience. When all that hard work pays off and the team makes it to the championship game, and you see the team unite as one to make the tape to tape passes, and create unique plays to defeat their opponent, the form drive comes into play and the true beauty of the hockey can be experienced.
Pages: 1 2
