All together now

Anyone who has read enough of my here blog-thingy over the years, will know of my love for words. How they sit on a page, how they come together to belong, to construct things; a careful choice can embalm themselves in history. Yet we increasingly live in a digital world where visuals have become our daily bread. We are bombarded with images, many of them fleeting as we scroll through our social media feeds. Well, this photo above, is exactly that, but done well, one that stops you scrolling. It speaks a thousand words.

Those of you who have never played a team sport may not understand just how potent this photo is, so let me try to explain and put words to visuals. Actually, you don't really have to play a team sport to understand it from this photo. This incident at this year's Euro Football Championship aside, let me try to help anyone reading who doesn't get this group in red and white, standing firm and flying high like a flag on a towering pole. May it help you understand better, and help encourage you to do team sports or at least sponsor them for your children.

Yes, I am biased. I have been a sportsman all my life. I still live and breathe my chosen sport of hockey. Not long ago I hit my gym deadlift personal best - in my forties. Following a knee injury a few years a go, I found yoga and slowly discovered its benefits -  in line with Motorways of my Mind, it is something that is more of a journey than a sport, but excellent for the human body and has helped prolong me playing. We need to move these robust, complexed and wonderful machines that we have been gifted and born in to, to keep moving, we are built for it, we have evolved with them. Keep on keeping on. So of course I am going to be an advocate for sport - and especially team sports.

But let's just move away from sport itself and back to the incident where Denmark's Christian Eriksen collapsed out of nowhere on the football field last week. Long minutes of distress where medics worked to bring him back from darkness and in to the light. There were some critics that criticised broadcasters for showing these harrowing moments and said it should have been cut to the studio. I think as long as Eriksen and the medics themselves were not in clear view, showing what we actually saw was right. Because what we saw was a stance, a wall, a joining bond of brothers in arms. Eriksen's team mates - led and linked together by their Captain, Simon Kjær, and despite their own distress - came together much like a bouldering herd of elephants fiercely protecting their young calves when under threat. From that moment I no longer saw individual team mates, all I saw was one solid mass. A vast, fluid movement of almighty sea with its lulls and swells and waves, commanding respect against anyone who dares to differ. 

So that is why I encourage kids to do team sports. I really learned it was my thing from my teenage years, growing from U16 to U18, to U21 and then to the first team, where one year we reached the English National Cup semi-final while not being a 'big' national league team. We had our U21 coach, who brought us all together as a father figure and prepared us for the first team to come, who called us all 'son'; so much so that I was Granny-son, there was Pete-son, Marty-son, Moo-son, Dave-son, Skinny-son and the rest. We were the sons of Stockton Hockey club to who we still belong to this day, wherever we are in the world. We did it playing all together. Because that is what mattered, that a group of 18 guys with Musketeer spirit, each one doing their bit for the greater good. All for one and one for all. Because we all benefited, we could only have success setting our sails as one in the right direction, together. You join the team as the junior and you work up to be a senior, even though age doesn't matter at all. Instead we all have our roles to do, whether aged 16 or 36. Over the years I have also played in Italy, Gibraltar and Spain, different countries with different players of different nationalities. We come togther for the same target, it is more than just sport. This togetherness is what sport teaches us, something dividing and scheming politicians will never understand. 

In a team we learn life. We are social beings, we learn how to come together and unite - Think about how many football teams are call 'United'. Just really dwell on that word for a moment...We learn how to be self-disciplined and how to take one for the team, for the greater good. No one player is bigger than a team, Sir Alex Ferguson knew that at Manchester United for over 26 years as their manager and look at the long-term success he had. 

We make mistakes because nobody is perfect, but we train together to get better and we adapt. We learn how to lead and drag each other forward. Let me tell you from experience, there is no better feeling than when you win a cup as a team, that blanket gathering as you lift it high among you. No divided changing room ever won anything. Even the man-of-the-match cannot get that award on his own. Writing one word can have an effect, putting them together in to a sentence like a jab-jab-right cross from a boxer will give them more punch.

Above all we all need to belong to something in life. It is our nature, every single one of us on this planet, no exceptions. We can have all the riches in the world and satisfy our every want, but what are they really if you cannot share them with someone?

As the Danish press reported the day after, Denmark lost, but Life won. As a sportsman, no matter how successful you are, you will lose many games. For those players to come out and continue playing once knowing Eriksen was ok, took great positive character, something we all need to build. No match will ever be bigger than the game of life, and to win that, we need to do it as one big team.

Read more stuff like this here: A whole nation