Our Centers for Ethics:

Frequently asked questions

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Sportsmanship

• What is ethics?
• Why is ethics important?
  
• What is sportsmanship?
  
• Why is sportsmanship important?
  
• Whose responsibility is sportsmanship?
  
• Do sportsmanship programs work?
  
• What values should be implemented?
  
• What makes a sportsmanship program effective?
  
• What are the 12 myths of sportsmanship?
  
• What is Josephson Institute?
  
• What is Josephson Institute’s approach to sportsmanship?
  
• What sportsmanship programs and services does Josephson Institute offer?
  
  • Training
    
  • Education
    
  • Publications
    
  • Apparel
    
  • Products
    

What is ethics?

Ethics refers to standards governing the conduct of people:

• Discerning right from wrong
  
• Committing to do what’s right
  
• Doing what’s right
  

Why is ethics important?

• There is an inner benefit (virtue is its own reward).
  
• There is a personal benefit (virtue is personally and professionally prudent).
  
• There is an appreciation benefit (virtue enhances self-esteem and the admiration and respect of others).
  

What is sportsmanship?

Sportsmanship is the ethical framework and standards of conduct that define the honorable pursuit of victory in competitive activities and the covenant that character will never be subordinated to the desire to win.

Athletic competition offers intrinsic advantages for society. The manners and morals of millions of participants and spectators can be directly and dramatically influenced by the values conveyed by organized sports and its participants. Thus, sports provide an extraordinary setting for learning and character development.

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Why is sportsmanship important?

As many aspects of society are competitive, opinions as to what is permissible and proper in the pursuit of personal goals are strongly influenced by values demonstrated during athletic competition. This places a significant social responsibility on those who influence sports to uplift and improve the nature and character of society.

A 2006 Josephson Institute national survey, What Are Your Children Learning? The Impact of High School Sports on the Values and Ethics of High School Athletes, revealed that more needs to be done:

• Both boy and girl athletes cheat in school at a higher rate than non-athletes (65% to 60%).
  
• Nearly 50% of boys approve of using another team’s playbook (if obtained).
  
• Nearly 50% of boys say it’s proper for a coach to order his pitchers to throw at opposing hitters in retaliation.
  
• More than 40% of boys say it’s proper for a coach to show them how to fake an injury to get needed time-outs.
  
• Nearly 40% of boys think it’s proper for a coach to swear at officials to pump up the team.
  
• More than 40% of boys approve of trash talking and excessive celebrating.
  

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Whose responsibility is sportsmanship?

Everyone’s, but the primary obligation falls on coaches. While other groups influence student-athlete conduct (school administration, parents, officials, spectators, the media, etc.), coaches are the decisive element who ultimately determine—by teaching, enforcing, advocating, and modeling—which sports values will prevail.

Do sportsmanship programs work?

A sportsmanship initiative won’t make people ethical, bad people good, or people with poor judgment wise. But it can help define what’s right, instill an ethical culture, and establish standards of conduct.

Sportsmanship develops positive lifelong qualities such as:

• Preparation
  
• Hard work
  
• Self-discipline
  
• Mental toughness
  
• Courage
  
• Perseverance
  
• Leadership

In South Dakota, a five-year study of CC! showed that since the initiative was implemented, incidents of students who said they had:

• Broken into another’s property dropped 50 percent.
  
• Defaced or vandalized property dropped 46 percent.
  
• Used physical force against someone dropped 33 percent.
  
• Taken illegal drugs dropped 32 percent.
  
• Drunk alcoholic beverages dropped 31 percent.
  
• Cheated on an exam dropped 30 percent.
  
• Received a detention or suspension dropped 28 percent.

Bottom line: The more exposures per month students have to the program, the better they behave toward others and authority.

• No other national program has unified entire communities and states around its principles.
  
• No other national program has collected as much data evaluating the effectiveness of its techniques and documenting its impact on attitudes and behavior.
  
• No other national program has established a certified training course for coaches and administrators.
  
• No other national program has developed a more extensive and effective organizational structure and set of delivery resources.
  

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What values should be implemented?

Although athletes have competed ethically on the field ever since sports began, substantial disagreement exists over what “ethical” behavior means.

Josephson Institute believes the essential elements of character-building in sports are embodied in six core principles called the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

• Trustworthiness
  
  • Honor the letter and spirit of rules.
    
  • Never cheat.
    
  • Don’t fake injuries.
    
  • Have the integrity to call plays against yourself.
• Respect
  
  • Win and lose with class.
    
  • Show appreciation for your opponent.
    
  • Help a fallen opponent.
    
  • Refrain from taunting, cursing, or celebrating.
    
  • Respect your teammates.
    
  • Respect officials.
• Responsibility
  
  • Exercise self-control.
    
  • Pursue excellence.
    
  • Be a role model.
    
  • Maintain safe conditions.
• Fairness
  
  • Play by the rules.
    
  • Treat everyone fairly.
    
  • Refrain from gamesmanship tactics.
• Caring
  
  • Ensure the safety and welfare of athletes.
    
  • Be sensitive to what you say to athletes and how you say it.
• Citizenship
  
  • Abide by the rules.
    
  • Uphold the principles of sportsmanship

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What makes a sportsmanship program effective?

• It’s purposeful. Clear and explicit objectives are articulated, and all elements of the program are designed to influence values and behavior.
  
• It’s pervasive. Core values permeate the school environment and all contacts with athletes, parents, and the public.
  
• It’s repetitive. Character messages are frequently and conspicuously repeated.
  
• It’s consistent. Attitudes, words, and actions match your goals.
  
• It’s creative. A variety of direct and indirect teaching/learning strategies engage student-athletes and teach them how to analyze situations and make good choices.
  
• It’s clear. Values are expressed clearly and explicitly using common examples and relevant scenarios. “Accept no gifts or gratuities” is vague.
  
• It’s readable. Legalese, vagueness, jargon, and platitudes are absent.
  
• It’s concise. The entire U.S. Constitution is shorter than many sportsmanship ethics codes.
  
• It’s inclusive. Everyone participates, from senior administration on down.
  
• It’s valid. Content is consistent with standard ethical principles.
  
• It’s authentic. Policies and values are enforced and reinforced in both word and deed.
  
• It’s flexible. Codes are regularly tested and changed as needed.

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What are the 12 myths of sportsmanship?

1. Sports build character. More accurately, sports reveal character.
   
2. Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. Vince Lombardi’s famous quote haunted him for years. Shortly before his death, he said, "I wish to hell I’d never said the damned thing. I meant the effort. . . . I meant having a goal. . . . I sure as hell didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality."
   
3. Win, and everyone’s happy. In fact, their greatest enjoyment is playing. When winning supersedes everything else, sports and sportsmanship suffer.
   
4. If you’re not caught, it’s okay. Gamesmanship, lax enforcement, and personal morals don’t outweigh what’s right.
   
5. It’s part of the game. Separating personal ethics on and off the field can cause decent people to justify doing things during a game that they would never do at home.
   
6. It helped us win. Actions and/or behavior by players, coaches, parents, and spectators are vulnerable to rationalizations when their team’s in jeopardy.
   
7. No one got hurt. Ethical values aren’t factors to consider when making a decision; they’re ground rules.
   
8. Everyone does it. Treating questionable behavior as normal because it’s common is a false rationale.
   
9. I didn’t do it for me. Personal gain isn’t the only test of impropriety. Improper conduct done for a team, a school, or others is wrong.
   
10. I’ve got it coming. Being underappreciated doesn’t justify unsportsmanlike behavior.
    
11. I can stay objective. If you’ve lost your objectivity, you don’t know you’ve lost it. Gratitude, friendship, or anticipation of future favors can subtly affect one’s judgment.
    
12. I'm just fighting fire with fire. Misconduct is unacceptable even if others routinely engage in it.
    

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What is Josephson Institute?

Founded in 1987 by Michael Josephson, the Institute is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the ethical quality of society by changing personal and organizational decision making and behavior.

The Institute offers ethics training programs, consulting services, products, and publications in the areas of business, public administration, policing, character education, and sportsmanship.

What is Josephson Institute’s approach to sportsmanship?

The Center for Sports Ethics offers programs, trainings, and materials to help coaches and other adults equip youth with values to meet life’s challenges and to improve the ethical climate of society.

Pursuing Victory With Honor (PVWH) is Josephson Institute's sportsmanship campaign. Nearly every American amateur athletic organization has endorsed this initiative.

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What sportsmanship programs and services does Josephson Institute offer?

The Center for Sports Ethics provides a variety of ethics-related information, services, and products.

• Training
  
  • PVWH Sportsmanship Seminars. These two-day certified train-the-trainer course equips coaches, athletic directors, counselors, and officials to integrate the CHARACTER COUNTS! (CC!) framework into their sports activities.
    
  • Customized in-service sports program. These one-day professional-development workshops are for coaching staffs, either to introduce a PVWH initiative or to enhance the effectiveness of an existing one.
    
  • Olympic Ambassador Program. These mandatory training modules, in partnership with the U.S. Olympic Committee, are designed for U.S. coaches and athletes from all Olympic sports. All members of the 2008 summer U.S. Olympic team were given a booklet summarizing the presentation.
    
  • Team Leadership Academy. These one-day training courses, designed for school sports team captains, help promote sportsmanship and character in fellow athletes.
    
• Education
  • The PVWH sportsmanship campaign equips teacher-coaches and others with training and support materials to be more effective character educators.
    
  • Gold Medal Children’s Activity Centers. In 2004, the Institute initiated a certification program to designate and provide services to gymnastics centers that pursue and uphold the highest standards of character and sportsmanship.
    
  • The Arizona Sports Summit Accord. This manifesto of 16 principles (one for intercollegiate/Olympic sports and one for youth/interscholastic sports organizations) has been adopted nationwide by hundreds of organizations.
    
  • The Gold Medal Standards for Amateur Basketball. This comprehensive document contains more than 100 proposals to help improve and transform the sport.
    
  • The Gold Medal Standards for Youth Sports. This framework of requirements for organized athletic competition is effective in developing character.
• Publications
  
  • PVWH monthly e-newsletter. A round-up of good and bad sportsmanship around the globe, plus tips, quizzes, lessons, and trivia.
    
  • The Ultimate Sportsmanship Toolkit. A complete how-to manual for implementing a sportsmanship campaign – from codes of conduct to PA announcements to awards programs, plus tips on coaching, hiring, and practice (youth and interscholastic versions).
    
  • What Every Educator and Youth Leader Must Know (paperback, 91 pages). An overview of character education and why it’s so effective.
    
  • Parenting to Build Character in Your Teen (paperback, 239 pages). How to teach, enforce, advocate, and model exemplary behavior.
    
  • Parenting: The Most Important Job of Your Life! (booklet, 72 pages). An all-in-one guide chock full of personal-assessment guides, questionnaires, character-planning charts, teen conversation starters, age-specific advice, and much more.
    
  • Making Ethical Decisions (paperback, 33 pages). Blueprint on vital ethical decision-making principles.
    
  • The Power of Character (paperback, 387 pages). Essays by 40 influential Americans.
• Apparel
  
  • PVWH embroidered patches
    
  • PVWH lapel pins
    
  • Six Pillar lapel pins
    
  • CC! lapel pins
    
  • CC! T-shirts
    
  • Six Pillar wristbands
    
  • Six Pillar dog tags
    
  • Six Pillar zipper pulls
    
  • Six Pillar fabric stick-ons
• Products
  
  • PVWH posters and banners
    
  • CC! posters and banners
    
  • PVWH wallet cards (coaches and athletes)
    
  • John Wooden DVD
    
  • CC! wallet cards
    
  • CC! bumper stickers
    
  • CC! ribbons
    
  • Six Pillar pencils

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