Gamesmanship as strategic excellence

ABSTRACT

Contributors to the literature on gamesmanship typically assume that gamesmanship can be clearly distinguished from other legal strategies used in sports. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. Instead, we propose that gamesmanship is a form of strategic excellence and a proper part of competitive sport. Using Howe’s influential work on gamesmanship as a representation of the received view, we show how the current debate rests on a presupposition that fails to withstand critical scrutiny (Section 2). Further, we argue that once this distinction is shown to be untenable, Howe’s evaluative account of gamesmanship fails (Section 3). By contrast, our alternative analysis leads us to a more positive evaluation of gamesmanship. In particular, we contend that effective uses of gamesmanship are simply examples of strategic excellence that – by definition – fall within the boundaries of what is permissible in competitive sport. We conclude by considering the relationship between gamesmanship and the spirit of the sport (Section 4) and by addressing a potential criticism that draws an analogy between sport and professional practices that clearly do not permit strategies akin to gamesmanship (Section 5).

KEYWORDS:

• Gamesmanship
• sport
• athletic excellence
• Howe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sports contests can vary in their level of competitiveness, seriousness, and skill. While there is much to be said about the use of gamesmanship strategies in youth, developmental, and social sporting contests, the present article solely examines the domain of competitive sport, where the primary purpose of a contest is to identify the superior athlete or team.

2. Sledging is a form of trash-talking in cricket intended to disturb the batsman’s concentration. Sledges vary in their degree of offensiveness, effectiveness, and wit. A famous example was when Merv Hughes sledged to a struggling Graham Gooch, ‘Would you like me to bowl a piano and see if you can play that?’.

3. Here we follow Suits, where he claims, ‘To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude].’ (Suits 1978, 54–55).

4. Most commentators on gamesmanship in the philosophy of sport subscribe to this definition. For example, Summers claims ‘[t]he aim of a contest is to see which party is better at the athletic skills involved in the sport’ (Summers 2007, 68). Howe agrees: ‘the point of any given sports contest could be and often is taken as simply determining which of two or more opponents is the better at some skill or set of skills’ (Howe 2004, 217). For further examples, See Dixon (2007) and Triviño and Luis (2012, 74–75).

5. The Golden State Warriors finished with the best regular season record in NBA history, 73–9.

6. Pace is a statistic that represents the number of possessions a team has in a game. Cleveland restricted the Finals to a pace of 92.0 (90.7 in the deciding Game 7), significantly slower than Golden State’s 99.3 regular season average.

7. Hamilton adopts a similar position and builds a negative moral evaluation into part of his definition of gamesmanship as “using dubious methods to secure an unfair victory.” (2013, 138). Likewise, Devine and Lopez Frias (2020) define gamesmanship as “conduct that falls short of cheating … but is morally dubious nonetheless”. In Hamilton’s view, “gamesmanship uses maneuvers that threaten the spirit of the game and attains victory through skulduggery” (2013, 138). We consider the “spirit of the game” objection in section 4 below.

8. Cp. Jones’ and Fleming’s subtle discussion of the respective roles of the rugby enforcer, referee and World Rugby (formerly the IRB) (2010, 314–316).