Sports and Animal Instincts

Sports and Animal Instincts

Sports fields are the new battle fields of the civilized world. Nations and Cultures clash with each other to prove their supremacy, be it Olympics, or World cups for various sports. The Animal instinct in us wants us to compete and win, as if we are in a hunt. It is the same adrenalin rush. Winning the medal/trophy is akin to a successful kill, for predators, a kill means food. If this sounds terrible to our Human psyche, let’s pat our backs by adding, Human nature brings sportsman spirit, healthy competition and fair play in sports. And yes Humans add entertainment to sports too, we love to have fun out of any competition.

Let’s understand the connection between ‘killer instinct’ and ‘winning’. First let’s look at it from the Animal perspective. Take example of Lions, Chimps, Crocs, Cheetahs- all predators. They got to get out and kill to feed themselves and feed the cubs. When one does that almost every other day then it becomes a way of life, it becomes a part of your nature, character. Predators need to hunt and kill, they need to mate, breath and sleep for survival. If they do not hunt, their existence is not natural. They are like Zoo Animals. All these wild Animal’s actions revolves around food and reproduction. Both do not come easy and generally involve bloody fights. And of course it involves winning.

If you win the fight you get the bigger share of the kill, if you win you get to mate and reproduce. If you win, you become the leader of the pack. Just see how important it is for them to fight- And win. Everyone wants to win. We are all born to win [If we gave it a chance!] That is why the Lion, Cheetah, Hyena, Leopard cubs start practicing their mock fights with siblings from early days. They train themselves to win. They train themselves to become great fighters.

What about Elephants, Wild buffalos, and Hippos? They need not ‘kill’ to feed. They feed on grass, leaves and fruits. But they too need to ‘fight’ and win to protect and mate. The fight to protect is with other Animals and the fight to win the mate is with your own kind. The fights sometimes end up in killings. That is the ‘killer instinct, in herbivorous social Animals’. It is killing in defense. Either one is predator or prey FIGHT is common. If one is in the wild one has to fight. Wild Buffalos fight bitterly to ward off Lion attacks on their herd. Elephant bulls fight with each other to win the ‘Receptive’ female. They win those battles, sometimes kill, so they survive. Nothing comes on a platter.

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.

Bernard Shaw

For those who debate that one need not fight to survive in life, take this hypothetical example. Imagine a place in the wild where a pride of Lion need not hunt for food and food is supplied to them by us. They need not move an inch to get food, it is dumped right in front of them at regular intervals. Can you imagine the outcome? It will be disastrous. The Lions will not hunt, that means they will not move and exercise. They will loose their muscle strength fast and start accumulating fat and become obese, like Zoo Animals. They will loose their supple actions and will move lethargically. Alfa males will not be strong enough to ward off attacks from outside Lions. They will catch more diseases and infections as their immune system will become weak due to lack of exercise.

Alfa males will be the first casualty. This means safety and security of the pride is in danger. The weak and the young will become targets of other predators like Hyenas who will not hesitate to attack a Lion that can not fight.

Fighting is something you can not escape if you are in the wild. If you do not fight you perish. You better stay ‘Fighting Fit’.

Fighting is something you can not miss if you are living in urban jungle too. Oops, that is a little diversion. But that is the whole idea, we are drawing parallels, what the heck!

Going back to fights, Fights in the wild keep honing ‘our’ [“Animal’s” not ours! My Animals instincts are at the fore] killing instincts. Animals fight and kill in the wild.

We are evolved Animals [I enjoy doing that- calling us Animals, though evolved] and our fights are less bloody and less physical in the modern civilized societies. Earlier Human fights were ‘wars’ but now wars are less frequent. As Humanity has evolved we have realized that we can not afford to lose so many Human casualties in wars. In some much evolved societies fights are non violent. But we do fight.

What used to be a clash of cultures in wars is a clash of cultures in the sports field. We engage in small fights too, we give it different names, like ‘Difference of opinion’, ‘Debate’, ‘Argument’ etc because our minds are smart and sophisticated. We hate to call a fight a fight. Like Animals, fights keep us alert, fights keep us sharp and take us forward. Great fighters do become great leaders. Great fighters do become great sportsmen.

If fighting is an Animal instinct, obviously being social Animals, we Humans share that with Animals. Remember Human nature is exclusive to Humans but Animal instincts are found in both Humans and Animals. So like Animals fight in the wild, Humans fight in the sports arena. We all fight all the time. In sports, the stage is made all acceptable. These fights do not kill but they entertain. They give you an adrenalin rush and make your time exciting. There are rules in our fights. Some of our cleverly designed fights are also called our sports. Human nature teaches us to respect the opponent. This is a graceful thing. Human nature teaches us to feel pity for the vanquished opponent. That is another graceful thing. Humans have found sports entertaining, since Human history, right from the ancient Romans, Egyptians and Indians. Sports involving fights have entertained Humanity. Romans have special architectural marvels built to host those events, where Humans wrestled with beasts or Humans wrestled with other Humans. Hunting was a popular sport for the Indian Royalty. The wrestling trend continues in the modern world and we have those WWF fights shown on TV and kids just love them. I like boxing though, which is real.

I think the first sport man really started enjoying was going for a hunt. Man gave hunt a level of respectability as we progressed. Hunt was justified at that time on the basis of eliminating some man-eating predators. That sport is no more respected, quite rightly now, as we are attacking a hapless, cornered Animal who has no defense against you. It is criminal if the targeted Animal is of endangered species. Hunting as a sport is considered barbaric now. I do not particularly like hunting because it is an unfair fight where the Animals stand no chance to win. Well, Hunting for protection is different. Then probably came wrestling. Two well built men fought for supremacy. This reminds me. Have you ever considered why Boxing is loved and watched by millions of people? Why some of the boxing films ended up becoming biggest grossers in the history of cinema? Why action flicks do well all over? Well, blame it, oops, thanks to our Animal instincts. We love fights.

When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

George Bernard Shaw

We fight it out on soccer fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, cricket grounds in front of cheering crowds. The winner is hailed and the loser waits for another chance to rise to settle the score. In civilized societies the looser is not humiliated but given another chance to come back and settle the score. Give him a chance he will bounce back.

Let’s see one more Animal instinct which helps us in sports. Your killing instincts and your appetite for a great fight is important but there is something more that you need. This one we learn better from Herbivorous social Animals like Elephants and Wild Buffalos, it is TENACITY.

Elephants travel hundreds of miles in search of waterholes and green pastures. One of the important tasks in their daily lives is to put the head down and walk. They walk for days without much problems. They are designed as robust, heavy-duty, tenacious machines that simply keep working without any break down. With that kind of focus and single minded determination, they increase their chances to reach the goal and survive. Tenacity also means huge stamina. Wild buffalos keep running from one destination to another in search of food. When they are attacked by Lions, they keep fighting unitedly with their brute force and many times save themselves. Zebras and Wildebeest are great runners, they conserve their energies so that they can out class the predator in running. Most of the successful hunts are ambushes by predators. Many hunts in the open fail because the tenacious prey Animal runs faster than the predator and saves himself.

In sports like marathon running, swimming it is the tenacity and stamina that makes the difference between the winner and the loser. 

Tenacity reminds me of one incident which I must share with you. I was attending a Conference on Animation Film Industry. One celebrated animator was describing the importance of coordination between various teams in making great animated characters. In an effort to lighten the atmosphere he decided to crack a joke. He showed a picture of  ‘Camel’ to describe ‘what happens when various design teams do not work in tandem? You get an ugly character’. He did manage to create a little laughter in the audience. I found his approach appalling. Characters need to be effective first and eye pleasing later. He had just described a design made by nature, perfected over centuries through the process of evolution, for those harsh climatic conditions and reasonably good looking too as a ‘bad design’, that too by a man who earns his living, sketching Animals.

Camels are extremely tenacious. They can survive a very hot climate in hot deserts where most other Animals and Humans would die in hours. Camels can survive for two weeks in deserts without water. I wish, the famed animator tried staying away from water for one day. If he does that successfully he will know Camels better. Humans are so preoccupied with the physical appearances that they generally miss the real picture.

I noticed, that the gentleman was wearing a necktie and he was touching the knot in a stylish manner quite often as he went on describing ‘What a bad design Camel was’. We, Humans have been wearing the necktie for all our formal occasions. It makes the formal dress complete for our brain. But necktie is one of the most unnecessary piece of clothing worn by man. It has no real purpose at all. If we stop wearing it, nothing is going to change. It made a silly situation, see how.

Something which is absolutely ‘unnecessary’ is ‘stylish’ and ‘formal’. Something which is genuinely ‘great’, ‘effective’ is ‘ugly’ and all the judgments passed here are based only on the ‘external appearances’ and never on ‘real performance’.

TEAM WORK- like Lions, Hyenas, Crocs, Elephants, man is a social Animal too [?].

Lions hunt as a team, Crocs catch and feast as a team, Elephants protect and attack as a team, Chimps hunt as a team, Hyenas are doubly effective as a team. There is a lot of strength, camaraderie, and relation building when teams are at work. The result is favorable most of the times, that is why teams stick together and win together. Every member of the team does his bit and helps the team. Animals at times die fighting for their team. Lions can die in buffalo hunts. Crocs get trampled in a Zebra stampede and can suffer injuries. Elephants are too big to worry defeat but it is their intimidating team that keeps the predators away from their young and old. A group of four-five fully grown Hyenas can snatch a kill from a couple of lionesses. So much is their dedication for the team that one of those Hyenas would get killed by a vicious angry bite by a male Lion. They are willing to die for the team. As teams they are lethal and as individuals they would be helpless.

Similarly, there are sports where you need team work, where every team member selflessly puts in efforts for the team to win. Take Soccer for that matter. It is all about passing the ball to your team member at the right time. For teams, it does not matter who is more skilled in ball control, what really matters is that the team members keep passing the ball to their mates and the ball moves towards the opposite goal post. It is just a matter of time, that the ball is going to rest in the rival’s goal post because that is the final aim and some team member who is in the best possible position to do that, will do it and finish the team job. All the coaches know that. This is team work. The real strategists know that, it is not important who puts the ball in the nets, it is important that all the team members some how transport the ball into the striking distance from the goal post.

Next is EXERCISING and TRAINING, Exercising is not only good for one’s body, it is fantastic for one’s mind too.

Lion, Cheetah, Tiger, cubs and Elephant calves keep engaging one another in mock fights. Deer, Wildebeest young and Buffalo calves engage in wild chases with each other. They keep doing that not just because it is fun but because they need to do this in a much better fashion when they grow up. These are vital survival lessons as they grow up. It is their school. They would be ill equipped to face the wild without that training and those skills.

Another type of training is taking part in the hunts. Young Lion, Cheetah, Leopard cubs initially watch their parents hunt. Then they slowly start taking part in the hunts from a safe distance. They try their hands on some very small Animals that they encounter, like Rabbits, Frogs, Pigs etc. It is very common for a Cheetah mother to introduce her cubs to a captured Deer calf. The cubs are encouraged to chase and kill the calf. The mother some times demonstrates to the cubs how a prey is strangulated with the deathly bite on the neck that suffocates the prey to its death. It all looks like ghastly, cruel end of life for the calf while it is life saving training for the cubs. Such is the cruel irony of Animal life that someone’s death is another’s survival.

Adult Lions need to fight for their territories. They must fight with the prey in the hunt too. Wild prey Animals are strong Animals and do not give up easily. Adult Elephants need to fight to protect and mate. Adult Deers, Wildebeest, Zebras need to run as fast as possible and out run the chasing predator. All their training and exercising during their growing up time comes handy here.

Young Lionesses keep playing with each other. This keeps them fighting fit and their muscles are supple and well toned. Young cubs keep running and training and this helps them build muscles and sharpen their minds. They are learning how to attack, how to gauge the power of an opponent, how not to get hurt and how to hurt. Elephants keep walking since their birth, this helps them build tenacity and stamina.

What will happen to sportsmen that do not train? It is unimaginable. They will be simply out of the business.

Sports is all about relentless training under the watch full eyes of the trainer. It is a continuous process to sharpen your skills till you are near perfect. No one is perfect. The trainers and coaches are like that Cheetah mother who is showing her cubs how to do it right. Coaches and trainers do the same thing but with a lot more sophistication than Animals. They have more modern tools for their aid. For a sportsman winning is to move forward in his career. More wins will ensure more rewards, awards, prizes, glory and success.

Lack of exercise makes a sportsman slow. His reflexes lack the speed and accuracy. While an exercising sportsman keeps the vital organs like heart, brain and lungs working at the optimum level. This allows the organs and muscles to receive fresh and full blood supply from the heart. The physical training is vital for the mind too. Full blood supply full of fresh oxygen keeps the brain at its receptive and analytical best. The body and the mind work in tandem. So for Animals and sportsmen, those who train, are the ones who have chances to win.

PLANNING is very important in sports and it all comes from our Animal instincts, lets see how.

When Lions plan a kill it is a planned effort. It may not look so because there are no ‘Discussions’ and no ‘Instructions’, it all comes from instincts and training. First they identify the herd they want to attack, let’s say a herd of Zebras. They stalk the herd for hours during the day and watch them closely but would not attack, which is a part of their planning. The planning goes like this, Lions generally attack during dusk time or night when the advantage goes to them, as their night vision is better than the prey Animal. They attack from a place where there is enough cover to hide. Lionesses sneak up to the prey herd as close as possible without getting noticed and take positions, from various angles. When they are as close as 100-200 feet from the prey they attack in a burst. The attack creates panic and confusion in the herd and the Animals run helter-skelter.  Lions try to identify the weakest and the injured by noticing who is lagging behind or simply the closest [opportunist] and concentrate on that Animal. Many times one Lioness would drive a prey in the striking distance of another Lioness or Lion. And the waiting Lion would grab the prey and strangulate it.

As one can notice in the process above, it is a planned teamwork. It’s not that they see a prey Animal and all of them start chasing the Animal, immediately. Lions know their strongest points and the weakest points. They know they can not outrun a prey Animal in a long chase. They know they can out smart them in a planned ambush attack.

Chimps go for a kill in a similar fashion. They identify a Monkey they want to kill and start chasing him. At one point the victim is driven into the waiting hands of a Chimp charging from the opposite direction.

Leopards kill the prey and take it to a high tree branch to save it from the Lions and Hyenas snatching it. It is all a part of “Post kill planning”.

Elephant matriarch is the best ‘planner’ you get to see in Animal kingdom. She has the responsibility of the whole herd when they travel. They do not have to worry much of the predators because Elephants are the strongest of all. The matriarch is constantly planning about her travel plans. Elephant herds always travel in search of food and water in the harsh hot climate of Africa. She must take them to the new water hole in time so that there are no deaths because of starvation and thirst. That is a huge responsibility. Matriarch’s planning is based on her memory of visiting those places in past, her sense of direction and her sense of sound. She must decide on which direction to go and when. Remember there are no roads which they can follow, there are small calves in the herd, there are deliveries by pregnant females, occasional attacks on the young. The small calves are very precious to the herds. Elephant females become pregnant every 5 to 6 years. They remain pregnant for two years before delivering the calf. Obviously the calf is very important to the herd. The herd has invested way too much time in the calf. Imagine the responsibility on the matriarch. She has to plan her next move keeping all these happenings in mind.

On sports field, the sportsmen take cognizance of all the factors that would affect their performance adversely or favorably. They plan before they enter into a match. Let’s take example of a universal group sport, if it is universal and group it has to be Soccer. Herd against a herd, sounds familiar. Let’s see the planning before the match and during the match.

Players watch videos of the opposite teams. Trainers and captains study the weaknesses of the opposition and work on them. The opponent’s best striker is marked by the best defender. The Coach chooses the fittest players to survive the battle. They are kept well hydrated for the grueling sessions ahead. If short passes is opposition’s strength then defenders are instructed to break the flow by blocking the passes and clearing the ball. There is pushing and shoving, verbal duets to show dominance, to get psychological edge finally, to posses the ball. Coach is constantly involved in changing strategies on the field. He has to do that keeping in mind the score board, new substitutes, injuries to players, strategies of the opposition team, time left and many more factors. He shouts instructions to the players all the time. Players have many sign languages and code words to fox the opponents. The coach wants them to keep the ball in the opponent’s half and keep moving towards opponent’s goal post. He knows by doing that the ball will land in the nets.

Like predatory Animal herds no one knows before the hunt who will strangulate the kill, in soccer matches, no one knows which striker is going to put the ball in the nets. Like Animals, All they know is someone will finish the job when he is in the best possible position to do it. They are all trained to do that. Scoring goals is the ultimate aim here for the players. He will head the ball home, or kick, or flick, or slide, and send the ball in the net.

Much planning goes into the kind of shoes they wear, the clothes they wear, the type of training they go through. In competitions, winning one match is not sufficient, they need to keep winning all their matches. So they give rest to their best players in less important matches and keep the best players fighting fit for the crucial finals.

And what they earn in the end? A trophy. More fame and more money.

What Animals earn in the end? A kill- their trophy but more importantly their food. With Animals it is always about the basics.

Moving on to another instinct- Learning the special skills and use them effectively.

Cheetah is a very good example of great skills. First of all he can run faster than any predator, this means he has a better chance to catch the prey that others can not. Secondly he can kill a prey bigger than him by strangulating prey’s throat skillfully.

There have been instances where unskilled Cheetahs have died in such fights. Male Deers have pointed long horns which they use to protect themselves. Even if Cheetah manages to bring down a strong Deer, it is important for the Cheetah to stay away from Deer’s pointed horns and swinging kicks while he strangulates the prey. A ‘lees skilled Cheetah’ gets killed when the deer pierces horns into Cheetah’s body and harms vital organs. Zebra kicks could be fatal for any predator, who drops his guard while trying to kill a Zebra.

What about skills in sports? In sports it is all about Skills and Power. And, Skills are more important than Power in any sport, except in wrestling may be. Not so sure.

Going back to soccer, you need to practice hard and gain the skills. How to kick the ball to another player with precision so that the ball lands exactly where it is intended to land? How to head the ball while charging? How to dodge the opponents and take the ball forward? Further advanced skills involve shooting a penalty, learning long distance curved kicks.

You will see skills and techniques in all sports.

End Surprise.

I have deliberately titled the chapter ‘Sports and Animal Instincts’. Sports is the rawest form in which we compete with each other. Concentrating on Sport was easy for me to compare Animal behavior with Human behavior. I thought it was easy for the reader too to connect with that too.

There are areas where we compete and fight with one another in a more sophisticated manner. More civilized manner. More complicated manner. It is the Business world. 

Just remove the word ‘Sport’ and add ‘Business’, just remove the word ‘Sport’ and add ‘Administration’.  It works. All you need to do is minutely analyze Human behavior in those fields and compare it with Animals, you will be surprised to see some interesting results of your own analysis.

The kind man feeds his beast before sitting down to dinner. 

Hebrew Proverb

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