Essay on ‘Remember the Titans’

Remember The Titans is an American biographical sports film that is based on a true story from the early 1970s. It looks at the beginning of integration in Alexandria USA. It focuses on a football team, racism, and friendships that result from overcoming prejudice.

At the beginning of the film, all players in the football team did not want to work with the other race and this caused much conflict and peril. It also caused issues due to the opposition of those that did not and will not accept the integration of black and white students into mixed-race schools. Both races were very standoffish, to begin with, there were a few sly comments here and there and they simply did not want to be around each other. Not only were the players divided, but the coaching staff was divided too, due to black and white being forced to coach together. Coach Boone, played by Denzel Washington started the resolution process when he saw that all players were divided into two buses with their own races. He made all players get off the buses, separated them into the team's defensive and offensive players, and then paired them with the opposite race. As expected, there were disagreements and fights, to begin with, but Coach Boone ordered his players to spend time, every day, with a team member of a different race and learn about that player until they had all met each other, with their punishment being more football practices in the day if they failed to do so.

I believe the teachers in the film used the behaviorist theory in psychology, to help deliver and educate the difficult students. The concept of this theory is that it objectively focuses on reinforcement and praise. In the film, it was very important for the teachers to recognize individual differences between the players because no two athletes are exactly alike. What is reinforcement for one athlete, might not be reinforcement for another. For example, some players might not like being pulled to the side and lectured, whereas others take it as a compliment. Behaviorism pays specific attention to cause and effect in the way people behave, especially in the way that reinforcement acts to condition the way our unconscious reflexes and reactions work in the brain (Roberts and Potrac, 2014). To really win, you have to get every player to go beyond his capabilities. He must feel great about himself herself They must feel that his coaches or supervisors have total confidence in his ability, and they must feel that hisher weaknesses are small, and their strengths are much bigger. You do that by positive reinforcement, making sure that no one thinks negatively at any time. Rick Pitino (University of Louisville). Smith (2006) explains how operant conditioning can be implemented to enhance athletic performance. In this respect, Smith discusses how coaches can shape athletic performance through the presentation and removal of positive (i.e., positive reinforcement, extinction, and response cost punishment) and negative (i.e., punishment and negative reinforcement) stimuli. (Roberts and Potrac, 2014) To enforce this theory, Coach Boone gave minimal water breaks to enhance discipline, he would awaken the team at 3:00 am for a morning run through a dark, damp forest and then would deliver a powerful speech, in which he said, If the team doesn`t come together, they too will be destroyed.

One of the strengths of the behaviorist theory is that it can easily be observed and measured to find out if it works. Research and experiments can be powerful tools to gain evidence about a certain theory and observations can do that. A limitation of this theory is that it is a one-dimensional approach, due to it only considering what is observable and measurable, whereas there are many unseen aspects of an individual, like personality traits and learning capabilities. Another limitation is that no matter what information an individual has learned in the past with the system of reinforcement, the individual is still able to change it when new circumstances offer new information.

Both coaches in the film had different leadership styles. Coach Boone was a dictator and showed this throughout the entire film. He punished the players if they did something wrong, either directly or indirectly, which allowed him to control the team with power. He encouraged them to respect and that to be successful, the players had to work together. Most importantly, he treated all his players equally, improved them as individuals to bring a certain standard to the team, and applied the same very tough standards to everyone.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay

• Proper editing and formatting
• Free revision, title page, and bibliography
• Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Place Order

Coach Yoast was more of a democratic leader and led every situation calmly. The team respected him a lot and with his calm approach, the players were able to stay calm. He discussed the issues with the players and personally tried to resolve them, without putting the individual in front of the other players. Coach Yoast taught the players about loyalty and equal respect. He refused the offer of the head coach and the offer for Coach Boone to be sent away by the football administration because he cared more about his team's future and putting an end to racial tension than the Hall of Fame that he worked his whole life for.

Coach Boone`s choice of method to develop the players thinking and reasoning was the best type of method that could have been used. He stated to the players that they did not have to like each other, but they would respect each other. When individuals have a passion for such a sport and the capabilities to progress long-term, they don`t want to jeopardize any chance they have to do that. Disobeying the Coach would risk their position on the team and the coach was not afraid to tell them this. Coach Boone realized that with no issue with the race of an individual, the team`s desire to win would be the gum that would hold them together and so this was the first thing he focused on, solving the racial differences. Coach Boone assisted the team in overcoming challenges and this is why I believe that this was the best choice of method. Secondly, Coach Yoast`s choice of method gave the players that secondary character they could go to for positive reassurance and someone that would calm them down, which complimented Coach Boone`s Alpha role very well. Both coaches gained respect with these methods and they worked.

A limitation of Coach Boone`s choice of method might be that the players are ruled by fear and are only doing as they are told because they are fearful of the consequences. It can be quite demotivating and demoralizing to the players to have someone demand things from them all the time. A limitation of Coach Yoast`s choice of method is that he risks being walked all over by the players, as he doesn`t come across as very authoritative and the players would most likely take advantage of the fact he can`t control the situation. Coach Yoast comes across with a laissez-faire attitude to life sometimes, which would not benefit him when controlling situations.

I think open-ending questions would be a great coaching technique, allowing the players to give their own ideas, opinions, and feedback in practice. A holistic style approach would be an effective coaching style, as it can give the players a new understanding of how they matter and more full of purpose. A cognitive constructivist theory supported by Jean Piaget (1952) stated that children learn best when they are provided with control and responsibility for their own learning and creating their own understanding of what`s going on. Therefore, players will learn far better when they are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction, instead of being fed information by the coach all the time.

Remember the Titans provides an excellent oversight of leadership principles and the challenges of integration. A coach`s authority was challenged out of characteristics, rather than capabilities which led to a lack of trust that Coach Boone could deliver the best style of coaching in order to be victorious. However, once the racial differences had been overcome and the player's respect for each other had increased, the leadership of Coach Boone and Coach Yoast united the players towards one goal and that was a victory.