Understanding Life, Society, Power and Structure, and Existence through Sports
And here's a guide to making you chew on it and think about it.
Yoon Ki-jun's "Concepts in Uniform"

141 concepts found in sports settings
Experience, space, time, record, rank, existence, substance, emotion, reason, idea, relationship, value, happiness, multiculturalism, relativism, class, hierarchy, nation, ethnicity, race, sex, gender, sportsmanship, doping, unwritten rules, unforced errors, unwritten rules, yips, etc.
Concepts in Uniform: 40 stories that carefully explain 141 concepts we find in television news and broadcasts at stadiums.


Why should we understand the concept?
This book explores 141 concepts within specific case studies from actual sports settings. By understanding and putting these concepts into practice, we can communicate smoothly with our neighbors and gain a deeper understanding and perspective on the world.
If we do this, our lives can become more enriched.

Why do we have to look for concepts in sports?
As the saying goes, 'sports is a microcosm of life', sports is a space and another concept where our lives and society are intertwined.
Moreover, sports venues such as professional baseball, the FIFA World Cup, and the Olympics, where our joys and sorrows conflict with each game and each action, are the most familiar and easiest places to discuss concepts because various concepts pour out like a waterfall.

“Sports is a place to learn concepts and a way to understand life.
The specific way I understand the concepts in this book comes from my own experiences and concerns about participating in sports.
I believe that the concept of learning through sports makes a crucial contribution to enriching our lives.
“Let’s welcome various concepts while paying attention to the connection between ‘sports, concepts, and life.’ - From the prologue

The world of life we ​​experience every day is concrete.
On the other hand, the concept does not actually exist.
It is represented by symbols such as letters and is abstract.
Although their personalities are polar opposites, they complement each other and work together.
We recognize the beautiful azaleas blooming in the park through the concept of flowers, and we can understand and complement the concept of flowers by viewing cherry blossoms.
--- p.14, from “Why Concepts and Sports”

Sports can greatly contribute to understanding and deepening concepts.
The expression 'sports is a microcosm of life' means that we can experience and learn various concepts we encounter in life through sports.
Through rules that apply equally to both you and your opponents, and strict doping tests, you can understand 'fairness', and by cheering on your national team and becoming a fan of a professional sports club, you can learn 'identity' and 'a sense of belonging'.
--- p.16, from “Why Concepts and Sports”

Another way to properly understand a concept is to look at its opposite concept.
The concept that contrasts with culture is nature.
As we have seen, culture is the result of artificial processing of something untouched.
The English word nature comes from the Latin word natura, which means 'as is'.
The untamed wilderness discovered by our ancestors, who first began farming, was nature, but with the addition of various human touches, culture was born.
--- p.38, from “Iran, the Marathon Hater”

The hierarchical function of habitus is also confirmed in sports.
Traditionally, rowing and rugby were sports enjoyed by the British upper classes.
Rowing and rugby, which are effective in fostering strong teamwork, self-control, leadership, and manliness, are sports taught at prestigious private schools such as Eton.
Students develop habitus related to upper-class lifestyles and attitudes toward sport through their participation in rowing and rugby.
On the other hand, soccer, which established itself as a representative sport of the early urban working class, played a key role in forming the habitus of the common people.
With its rough-and-tumble combat, relatively simple rules, and spectator culture, the football field became a place where working-class sentiments and a sense of community were shared and habitus formed.
In this respect, preference for a particular sport is not determined solely by taste.
It is formed through one's overall life, including hierarchical position.
--- p.77~78, from “Sports Fandom and Habitus”

Descartes proves existence through thought, and Haruki vividly experiences existence through running.
Each is an act of doubt and a recognition of existence in a runner's high.
In this respect, existence can be said to be not a static concept, but something that is constructed together with certain actions.
When do we feel most present? This question questions the reality of "being alive," a sense we often miss in our daily lives.
I feel more alive in every moment of basketball, where I collide violently with my opponent, tennis, where I watch the spinning of the incoming ball until the very end, and running, where I experience the runner's high.
Let's make another parody.
“I exercise.
Therefore, it exists.”
--- p.113, from “I Exercise, Therefore I Am”

The line between offense and defense is never clear.
Sports are full of scenes where offense and defense are intertwined, such as blocking in volleyball, tiki-taka in soccer, and full-court press in basketball.
The same goes for our living world.
The world is not divided into two.
Dichotomy may be a starting point for understanding, but it should not itself be the destination.
What matters is not which side you are on.
It is an attitude to understand how vague boundaries were formed and how they operate now.
A perspective that crosses boundaries provides us with the opportunity to view the world in a more three-dimensional and flexible way.
--- p.194, from “Breaking the Boundaries of Offense and Defense”

I think the third stage, 'enjoyment', is when the attitude and posture that can be learned from every scene are formed.
We can learn from every scene in tennis.
Every moment can lead to learning: reflecting on a stroke you made a mistake on, thinking of good manners from your opponent congratulating you on a victory, examining your own attitude by observing a partner who constantly points out your mistakes, learning the value of community through joining and participating in a club, understanding what you can gain from a losing match, understanding the importance of flow and focusing more during a crucial moment.
For those who have finally reached the point of enjoying themselves, every moment of playing tennis is literally enjoyable, regardless of the outcome.
Because the more you hit, the broader and deeper your learning becomes.
--- p.251, from “Mr. Happy Jinji”

Sports is one of the arenas where the collective unconscious is clearly revealed.
Teamwork, in which team members work together to subdue the opposing team, is largely no different from past experiences of inter-tribal warfare or cooperation in hunting wild beasts.
Street cheering during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup can be said to be a form of collective unconsciousness in which the public, sharing homogeneous characteristics and culture, responds with the same emotions.
In addition, the reverence felt during the national anthem and the unique feelings toward sports heroes such as Michael Jordan can be said to be collective unconsciousness that signifies group identity and hope for heroes, respectively.

--- p.293, from “The Unconscious That Moves the Body and Passes Through Clothes”