Sports and Improv in the Same Family?

Ok, so you've probably guessed by now that I love improvisation; in fact, I'm practicing it for my major quest. While doing this week's readings, something really stood out to me. I'm not a huge sports fan, though I do know a lot about them thanks to my dad. Needless to say, I've been thoroughly educated in hockey because I spend most of my childhood waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning to go with my family to my cousin's travel hockey games back in New Jersey. In this week's New York Times article, Adam Gopnik was cited in saying that hockey is “in part an improvisational game played on a frozen street, in part a brutal game of rugby played at high speed, in part a form of soccer on ice.”

The word "improvisation" caught my eye, and so my friend and I got into a debate of how much sports come down to improv. Sure, teams devise their plays ahead of time to score as many goals as possible. But how can you really devise plays against a team before you've even played them, or before you even know what situation you're going to be in? My opinion is this: hockey can be very heavily improved. Once players find their opponent's weaknesses, they can devise a new plan or play. If a team member gets put into the penalty box, the player must come up with a new way to pass the puck. When the opposing team comes out of the blue with a spectacular new play, players must find a new way to get to the goal and score. 


This can be applied to most sports of this sort, like soccer, lacrosse, and basketball, where action is constantly taking place and you're never sure what you're going to get next in the competition. And, of course, like I've been learning, improv takes a lot of skill and talent--as does thinking on your feet (rather, skates) in the middle of a hockey game. That's not to say planning plays is insignificant; don't get me wrong, strategy is a HUGE component in competitive sports. But we shouldn't ignore the improv on the rink! The pure talent and skill that comes out in those deciding moments will be what the crowd of fans, and the team, will remember at the end of the game.