Lesson video

Hello there.

Great to have you with me.

It's Mr. Broome here with a lesson called Aggression.

Quite simply, it's from the Sports Psychology: Mental Preparation for Performance unit.

Now, what makes people aggressive when they play sport? What do you think? I'm sure that you've seen acts of aggression maybe in PE lessons or in sport that you play or maybe even on TV in the sports that you watch.

So what leads that aggression and what different types of aggression are there? Well, we're going to discover a lot more in today's lesson about the reasons people are aggressive and be able to label different types of aggression as we go.

It's a great topic.

I'm really looking forward to teaching you this one.

So let's have a look, shall we? Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you should understand the difference between direct and indirect aggression and be able to apply them to specific examples.

Keywords for today are aggression, is a deliberate intent to harm or injure another person, which can be physical or mental.

It's direct aggression, which is an aggressive act which involves physical contact with others, e.

g.

a punch.

Or indirect aggression, which is aggression which does not involve physical contact.

It is taken out on an object to gain an advantage, e.

g.

hitting a tennis ball hard during a rally.

But we'll look at each of those in much more detail as the lesson progresses.

So two part lesson.

We're going to first of all describe direct aggression and then we're going to look at indirect aggression.

Okay, so, "What do you think aggression is?" asks Jacob, "Can you give a sporting example?" I wonder if you've ever witnessed an aggressive act in sport or maybe you've seen it on the TV or online somewhere.

Jacob wonders if you've got any good examples of aggression.

So aggression is a deliberate intent to harm or injure another person.

And it can be physical harm such as injuring someone by punching them, or mental harm, such as reducing their confidence by saying something derogatory towards them, okay? So aggression doesn't have to be physical punches being thrown or anything like that, it can be mental harm, psychological bullying perhaps.

Now sport and aggression have gone hand in hand.

Sport has been linked to aggressive behaviour for centuries.

Early sports such as mob football, which has been played since mediaeval times and still is an annual tradition in some areas today, includes a lot of physical aggression and violence between participants.

Every Shrove Tuesday, a mob football game is played in a place called Ashbourne in Darbyshire, and you can watch videos of the people reliving the way it's always been played, which involves a lot of aggression and a lot of physical contact.

Now of course some sports need an element of this aggression, but perhaps what we might call controlled aggression to be successful.

So it's being aggressive, but within the rules or within the laws of the game or the competition.

We've got two examples here, we have boxing.

Now boxing, of course, must be aggressive.

You are actually aiming to cause physical harm in the sport of boxing.

That's the aim of the game.

Rugby, not quite the same, is it, in terms of the aim of the game of rugby isn't to go and hurt the opposition? But a bit of controlled aggression is definitely needed when you are doing something physical in rugby like tackling or barging past people.

But other sports benefit from aggression much less.

In other sports, aggression is just completely against the nature of the sport, it's not gonna help you become a better performer.

And so I've given you here the golf example where someone's snapping their club in an act of aggression.

It's not something that's gonna make you a better golfer, whereas as we said with boxing and rugby, that could make you a better player if you have some controlled aggression.

Now, thinking back to the inverted U hypothesis, Jun's question is, "Do you think there might be a link between arousal and aggressive behaviour?" What do you think about that knowing what you know about arousal and performance? I wonder what you think.

Well, controlled aggression to enhance performance is more likely to occur at optimal arousal.

If you need to be aggressive in your sport, then you are going to be doing that at your very best when you are in optimal arousal.

However, what about those people who just get aggressive like the golfer for example, snapping his golf club What do you think happened to them in terms of arousal? Well, uncontrolled aggression, that's cases where the athlete is unsporting in their behaviour, maybe argumentative, maybe saying things that they shouldn't to other people in their team or on the opposition or the officials is much more likely to occur at high arousal.

If you think of some of those examples that might have sprung to mind immediately are perhaps players in a sport having a fight, maybe ice hockey.

Have you ever seen ice hockey? How the players often throw their gloves off and have a fight in the middle of the rink? That's generally because they've hit some sort of high arousal level, they've over aroused and they've ended up fighting.

Well done if you could see the link there already between arousal and aggression.

Now direct aggression, which is the aim is in here to be able to describe direct aggression, is when there's actual physical contact between the performers.

We've got two examples here.

When people box of course, and they punch the opposition, that's physical contact.

We have another example here from football where the players elbowed the other player in the face.

That's physical contact isn't it? And an aggressive act.

If one of the performers deliberately inflicts harm upon their opponent.

And as we've said again, boxing, the aim of the game is to deliberately inflict harm.

That's the purpose.

But in football, not so much.

That would be a foul, wouldn't it? And depending on the sport, this may be within or outside of the rules.

Just check for your understanding.

Which of the following are examples of direct aggression? Is it A, shouting in the face of your opponent? B, deliberately tripping up one of the other runners in a race.

C, stamping on your opponent during a ruck in rugby.

Or D, throwing a ball at someone's face in handball.

What do you think? Well done if you said B and C.

Let's take a look at them individually.

A says shouting in the face of your opponent.

Now, shouting in the face of somebody feels aggressive, doesn't it? But it's not direct aggression because it lacks the physical contact that we must have if we're going to label it as direct aggression.

However, deliberately tripping up one of the other runners in a race, well, there is some physical contact.

It's an example of direct aggression.

Stamping on your opponent during a ruck in rugby, which certainly happens occasionally, it happens a lot less now than it used to, but you can certainly see videos from, of people deliberately stamping on people in rugby, and it used to be allowed much more than it's now, is definitely physical contact and is certainly an example of direct aggression.

Throwing a ball at someone's face in handball.

There's no physical contact there, and so it's not direct aggression.

Well done if you said B and C.

Here's another question for you.

Which of these images show direct aggression? So A, B, or C? Well done if you said A.

Okay, why was it A? Well, of those three images, that's the only one where we can see some physical contact, isn't it? So absolutely.

This is the example of direct aggression.

And as I said earlier, ice hockey is a sport where we seem to get a lot of physical contact and a lot of direct aggression.

Here's the task on direct aggression.

Let's have a look.

So rugby is a sport in which aggression and direct aggression is often seen.

First of all, can you define aggression and direct aggression from earlier in the lesson? And then secondly, can you give an example of how direct aggression might occur in rugby? Finally, give two other sporting examples of direct aggression that you can think of.

Pause the video here, complete those three parts to the task, and then rejoin me and I'll share some answers.

Okay, so direct aggression and aggression itself.

Can we define them well? What might you have said here, aggression is a deliberate intent to harm or injure another person, which can be physical or it can be mental.

A direct aggression is an aggressive act which involves physical contact, and that's the important part there, isn't it? Physical contact with others.

That was the definitions.

How can you give an example of direct aggression in rugby? What did you come up with there? Here's what I said.

Direct aggression might occur during a tackle in which the player puts a good deal of force into their movement in order to tackle hard but fair.

This might cause harm to the opponent and give the tackling player a psychological edge.

So this is within the rules, isn't it? Having a good strong tackle, but you might have this little hope that the other person gets a little bit shook up by the fact that you've been so strong in the tackle and give you a psychological edge.

Instead of giving an example of how it might be used in a tackle or something that's allowed within the rules, you might have said about how it might happen if someone gets frustrated, over aroused, and then goes on and punches and kicks one of the opponents or starts a fight.

Thirdly, two other sporting examples of direct aggression.

Now, there are all sorts of things you could have said here.

I'll give you a couple of examples, but I'm sure yours will be similar.

So deliberately fouling somebody in basketball is an example of direct aggression.

Stepping in front of somebody who's about to lay up in basketball.

So you barge them out of the way and they can't score.

Using an illegal move in judo in order to hurt your opponent.

In lots of the contact sports, there are moves which are illegal because there will cause a lot of pain in a way that the rules don't allow.

And punching below the belt in boxing.

This is an example of that.

Punching below the belt in boxing is not allowed, but it will be painful.

And so one of the boxes may decide to be directly aggressive towards their opponent by punching below the belt in boxing.

It brings us already to the second part of our lesson today, which is to describe indirect aggression.

So we've had direct, now indirect.

Let's have a look.

So a tennis player smashes the ball to win the point, but much more powerfully than is necessary.

Let's imagine they were in a rally, the opportunity comes to smash the ball.

They didn't have to hit it as hard as they did, but they absolutely put everything into it and smashed it really, really powerfully.

Andeep says, "What might the tennis player be trying to achieve by doing this?" What do you think? So chances are they're hoping that they might harm the opponent's confidence through this aggressive act by being quite intimidating, aren't they? By smashing the ball really hard.

The same player later loses an important point and smashes their racket on the floor.

If you follow tennis, you probably know that that commonly happens out of frustration, doesn't it? Again, "How might this act of aggression affect their opposition?", wonders Sofia.

Why don't you think about that when you see players smashing their racket on the floor.

Well again, it might unnerve them or make them feel worried.

They don't enjoy seeing that act of aggression from their opposition, and it sort of affects their confidence, affects the way that they are feeling, affects their focus.

And so it could be deliberately done by their opponent to try to affect them psychologically.

So what do both of these examples of aggressive behaviour that we've just talked about from tennis have in common that sets them apart from all the other examples we've looked at earlier in the lesson? What do you think? Well, of course neither of them involved physical contact, did they? You didn't involve the tennis player physically contacting the other tennis player, so they're not examples of direct aggression.

I'm pretty sure you'll now understand perhaps what they are examples of instead.

Instead, the aggressive act was taken out on an object.

It could be the ball or a racket.

And this type of aggression, as I'm sure you've kind of worked out already, is called indirect aggression.

True or false, check for your understanding.

Smashing a shuttlecock really hard into the opponent's side of the court is an example of indirect aggression.

What do you think? Is that true or false? Hold on if you said true.

It's very similar to our tennis example from earlier, isn't it? And why is that true? Well, it's indirect aggression because the aggressive act was taken out on the shuttlecock.

It didn't involve physical contact between two people.

Okay.

Here's another example of indirect aggression.

I wonder if you follow cricket or know enough about cricket to recognise what might be happening here.

Well, indirect aggression does not usually cause physical harm.

Instead, it causes worry or a loss in confidence, which is mental or psychological harm.

Now in cricket, the bowler will sometimes bowl a bouncer in which the ball is bowled aggressively hard and short into the pitch so it bounces up towards the batter's head, and more often than not, the batter has to move out of the way to let the ball go past them.

And remember, that ball is really hard and it's balled quite fast.

And so they have to be very quick about moving out the way, and undoubtedly, that will put a little bit of fear into them that they're going to get injured or get the ball smashed them on the head.

Bouncers and bowling bouncers is allowed in the rules, and it's an indirect aggressive act which aims to worry the batsman into making a mistake.

They're concerned that as the bowler runs into bowl, they're thinking, oh, are they going to bowl another bouncer at my head? Am I gonna have to dodge this so I don't get hurt? And that means that if they're having to think about that, they might not think about playing the shot properly and it will lead to them making a mistake and that the team will get them out.

So it's a way of worrying them and making them lose confidence, perhaps.

Check for understanding.

Which of the following acts listed here are examples of indirect aggression? Is it A, punching somebody below the belt in boxing.

Is it B, smashing the ball towards someone in volleyball.

C, pushing an opponent to the floor in netball.

Or D, bowling a bouncer in cricket? Have a look at each of those and decide whether you think they're indirect aggression.

Well done if you said B and D.

Two examples there of indirect aggression.

Let's look at them individually.

So A, punching somebody below the belt involves physical contact, so that's direct aggression.

B, smashing the ball towards someone in volleyball is similar to the tennis and that's the (indistinct) versions that we've had so far.

Again, the object is being aggressively hit here, isn't it? And so that is definitely an indirect aggression.

C, pushing an opponent to the floor in netball.

Well, there was a push there, that's physical contact, so direct aggression.

And E, bowling a bouncer in cricket.

Well, we've looked at that in some more detail in previous slide, and so that is indirect aggression.

That brings us to the task for this section.

So Sofia plays a number of sports, including tennis and rugby.

In which of these sports, tennis or rugby, is Sofia most likely to use direct aggression, and which is she more likely to use indirect aggression? Briefly explain your answer.

Secondly, write an example of how Sofia might use indirect aggression in one of those sports, tennis or rugby.

Pause the video here, complete the two parts of that task, and then come and rejoin me and we'll have a discussion about how Sofia might be aggressive in her sports.

Okay, so we said in which of these sports is Sofia more likely to use direct aggression, and in which is she more likely to use indirect aggression? And then briefly explain your answer.

So what you have said here.

Well, the nature of the two sports is very different.

The nature of rugby means that it's more likely to provide opportunities for direct aggression because it's a contact sport and the players are in close proximity.

Indirect aggression is more likely in tennis because the players are separated by the net, physical contact isn't possible, therefore aggression might be taken out on an object instead.

Does that make sense? So the closer people are and the more opportunities they have to actually make some physical contact with each other, plus the nature of rugby being a contact sport means that you are more likely to see direct aggression if you watch a game of rugby than you are if you watch a game of tennis, that's for sure.

Indirect aggression more likely to occur in tennis.

So when tennis players get frustrated, they're much more likely to take it out on the racket or on the ball than they are on somebody else.

Well done if you said that.

And how about the second part of the task? Well, the second part of the task was to write an example of how Sofia might use indirect aggression in one of these sports.

So what might you have said? You might have said back, in rugby when Sofia gets hold of the ball, perhaps there's a reason why the game is stopped while she's holding the ball.

She might throw the ball down or slam the ball down in an act of indirect aggression or intimidation.

How about in tennis? Well, we've talked a lot about indirect aggression in tennis already, so it might be hitting a volley with lots of power to win the point with the aim of lowering the confidence of the opponent.

More than a few, gave an example where aggression is shown as an aggressive act, but it's aimed at an object and not a person.

That brings us to the aggression summary.

Read through this with me.

So aggression is the deliberate intent to harm or injure another person, and it can be physical or mental.

Direct aggression involves physical contact between the performers in an attempt to inflict physical harm.

An example would be someone throwing a punch at their opponent.

Indirect aggression does not involve physical contact, that's the major difference.

Instead, the aggressive act is taken out on an object to gain an advantage over the opposition.

So an example would be someone smashing the shuttle hard into the opponent's court in badminton.

Okay, so thanks for joining me for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed that lesson.

Hope you've learned now much more about aggression and how to label different types of aggression.

Next time you're watching sport, I challenge you to have a look at different acts of aggression that might occur in that sport.

Ask yourself, is it direct aggression or indirect aggression? And then ask yourself where it came from or what led to it.

Could it be that the sport or the game you are watching allows direct or indirect aggression, that it's within the rules and actually the person's trying to gain an advantage by doing so, but perfectly fine within the rules to do so? Or could it be that one of the players is acting a little bit unusual for that sport? Maybe they've got to the point where they are over aroused, and I wonder what led to that? Are they acting aggressively against the rules and perhaps starting a fight or punching somebody or tripping somebody up, which is against the rules, and therefore is going to lead to them perhaps being excluded from the game? Lots of fascinating examples of aggression out there.

Keep looking out for them.

See if you can consider where that aggressive act has come from and why.

Okay, I look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.

Bye-bye.