FACTA UNIVERSITATIS

Series: Physical Education Vol. 1, No 5, 1998, pp. 11 - 19

Professional paper

LAWFUL PRINCIPLES IN SPORT

UDC 796:167.6

Radomir Kostić
Faculty of physical education, University of Niš, Serbia and Montenegro

Abstract. Research on lawful principles in sport is an indispensable content of the

theory and phylosophy of sport. Which part of that theory is going to deal with those
principles is insignificant.
Phylosophy of sport should epmhasise some characteristics of the phylosophic
cognitive process.
Phylosophy of sport in relation to the exactness of the science in sport plays a role of
the predecesor. Phylosophy is able to create possible images of sport which science and
experience - practice with their methodology confirm of reject. A power of prediction is
not granted to the phylosophy, it is sought for from other sciences. Images of sport
created by the phylosophy of sport represent metaphysical categories and they have
nothing to do or at leat not apparent obligatory connections to the realistic – exact
categories of sport.
Lawful principles in sport show at the same time a unity of form and inner-spiritually
shaped being which belongs to sport as a distinct anthropological discipline.
Phylosophy and theory of sport do not take over the competence of the other science
disciplines by dealing with general lawful principles and categories of the overall
cognition.
Global principles of cognition and cognition in sport indicate typical relation of
cognition in general and specific (sports) cognition and bring about respectful shaping
of factual knowledge in sport.
This paper attempts to classify the lawful principles in sport into the principles of
synthesis, differentiation, sports development, elementary causalities,shaping of the
cognition and transformation of the lower laws into higher ones.
Key words: Phylosophy of sport, theory of sport, cognition, classification of laws

Received January 8, 2003

12 R. KOSTIĆ

1. INTRODUCTION
Presence of lawful principles in sport can not be recognized in the existing laws in the
same way as the natural substance can not be recognized in the defined laws of nature.
Sport, training session and sports acts exist and it is quite logical in that reality to asser-
tain that there are lawful principles which regulate the existance of the sports act. Com-
plexity of the sports act (at least body and soul) points out that it is differentiated in ad-
vance. Prior to the world record achievement the sportsman has already possessed mate-
riality, spirituality, phylosophic possibilities atc. It is not sport which has by its lawful
principles revealed that differentiation. The original differetiation of sport comes to the
natural, principled deliniation of the existance and action of the substance permanence.
Cognition of this is never absolute, as the nature is not absolute but in contrast, it is in
permanent flaw and gives opportunity that in one point of sports development certain
principle is applied. There is a variety of forms for the action of the laws in sport (nature,
soul and society). In such a situation coincidence in sport is not excluded, on the contrary,
it is quite common because of the limited abilities of the body, society and spirit. The
development of sport is based on the fact that it is not random. Nevertheless it is regu-
lated by the existance of the sports lawful principles.
Many of the single basic lawful principles i.e. in biomechanics, or biochemistry act in
their own right and always in some special surroundings in which other elementary laws
apply.
Sports anthropomotorics represents a quality of the sportsmen which appears as the
application of anthropomotoric principles whose action can be understood only through
the knowledge of the application of elementary laws, i.e. hystologic, mechanical, cogni-
tive etc. In human body single laws do not apply separately and purely, for example
breathing is not separated from the functioning of the nervous system. In training session
(sport) the wholeness of the sportsman is developed by the interwoven action of lots of
simple laws. However, in some of the sports disciplines, especially in extreme sports, the
rotation of this principle is observed. Thus the sportsman as a whole is developed mainly
in one ability or in the special raw of abilities (for example, a marathone sportsman is
developed on the raw of abilities predominated by endurance).

2. PROBLEM AND AIM

Lawful principles in sport are in continuous endosmosys and egsosmosys with all the
laws of the environment in which sports take place.
Components of sport (training session, sports act, anthropomotorics) are just a part of
the culture matrix which is inseparable from the material. Despite the fact that sport has a
close system of causality new elements from the surroundings through senses and feed-
back introduce new content in sport and they still can not be anticipated and controlled by
the advance in science.
Application of single laws in sport, for example in mechanics, does not exclude en-
forcement of other laws, for example in psychy.Application of all laws is constant. A
question is raised in which area in sport the laws apply and would encompass the action
of single laws in different areas that make sport a complex phenomenon. Due to the vari-
ance in the conduct of sports training sessions, i.e. application of training facilities and
 Lawful Principles in Sport 13

the complexity of sports act content it is essential to define laws for all the differences in
training process and sports resources to make it predictable. (1)

3. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM

For the practice of cognition in sport (2) there stands out a unity of the action of single
laws. Single laws keep their differentiality in the wholeness of sport. However, in a
situation where the theory of sport can not explain with sufficient arguments the action of
single laws then the science in sport is taken as an interior limitation which hinders fur-
ther cognition. To acquire some further knowledge it is neccessaru to have science deal-
ing with those single laws. Therefore in sport one can notice the neccessity of application
of other scientific disciplines so much so that sport is thought of as a multy – disciplinary
phenomenon. That phenomenon contradictio in adjecto in the laws in sport is a relative
one, and is not enough to meet all the demands set by the completion of the sports act.
This contradiction is sharpened even more when the specifity of sciences in sport such as
psychology, physiology, sociology, physics, anthropology etc. is emphasised.
Limits of the application of laws in sport are set by man's life in nature, society, i.e.
his surroundings. It follows that natural, social, spiritual, cosmic and other laws are ex-
erting limiting influence on the application of laws in sport. By defined natural laws it
can be shown that in sport there are natural elements, and the existance of social laws
points to the existance of social elements ettc. By the presence of laws in sport it can be
proved and defined the existance of the sports act, sport, training process or anthropo-
motorics.

3.1. Role of laws in the creation of the images of sport in reality

For the creation and existance of the images of sport in reality besides the existance of
the natural, social, spiritual and other laws it is neccessary to have facts about sport,
training process and sports act. In order to make the laws become constructive elements
of the images of sport and part of the reality in life of man they should have at least three
important characteristics (3).
a) Characteristics of validity. Laws in sport should be valid no matter if they appear
just once or very often. After the appearance of A there should follow the appearance of
B. However, the appearance of B does not assume the appearance of A.
b) Characteristics of the alternative. All contents in sport, in cognition, are related to
some kind of alternative: in relation to their content, the form they have, the purpose they
fulfil etc.
c) Reaching the essence of the laws. The laws exist and that fact is undisputable but
they don't always show the gist of what they mean.
The content of the laws can be supported by the facts or show up in our mind as the
form of reality.
For the theoretical – cognitive process it is important to define the relations between
laws and facts in sport. The image of the reality of sport is not made of the laws without
facts. Sport is based on the chain of the facts of different structures (anthropomotorics,
psychy, biochemistry etc), which are grouped in the sports act as the unique facts of
sport. The way to reveal laws in sport is well known, first many different facts were
14 R. KOSTIĆ

found out and on their basis followed the laws. Facts in sport appear as the phenomena
which are in the area between cognition and laws. Thus sport is based on the reality of the
facts but at the same time on the cognitive processes by which laws are revealed. It would
be erraneous to build the image of sport just on one basis. It would be false as well to
build the notion of the science of sport just on known laws and not to take into account
the significance of the facts. (4).
Cognition of sport is still rudimentary.(5) Lifting of the barriers of cognition does not
depend just on the content and the quantity of the descrete components of the sports act.
For the natural conmponents there are more set laws and for the cognitive components
there are less set laws. It is certain that the knowledge for the latter will rely more on
compensatory facts on intelligence, volition,motives, emotions etc.
Knowledge of sport is principally threefold:
1. The factual body of knowledge on real components of sport
2. Knowledge on laws which regulate relations between thought components and
3. Intuitive knowledge.
On the basis of this threefold modality of knowledge cognition is expanded by the
existance of differences in the scope of the subject of research in sport: (a) as the separate
form of cognition and (b) as the cognition of the laws in sport. The difference in research
springs from the fact that knowledge refers to the real states and the reality of sport, and
the laws apply with no temporal and spatial limitations (for jumps in any sport the law of
gravitation applies in every corner of the globe and at any time).
The existance of global laws in sport (which comprise all energies generated in the
field of sport) and the existance of the specific laws referring to the components of sport
(the first relates to sport as a whole, and the second relates to the constituent elements:
basketball and basketball anthropomotorics, psychy, social surroundings etc.) direct cog-
nition to a continuous flaw between them.In the same way cognition must go between
cognition in sport and cognition of the laws.
There is no possible content of sport as a reality, as a multidimensional phenomenon
which within that multidimensional structure does not take into account and recognize
inner laws of the separate components (antrhropomotorics, psychy, techniques etc.). It is
a different question how much these laws stemming from sport come from the reality of
sport. Likewise one can raise the question of the origin of the components of sport.
Therefore expirience in sport is more than experience (Kant) because it besides experi-
ence in sport (for example in volleyball) cointains apriori forms drawn from physics, bi-
ology, and other anthropologic disciplines which in their own right mean more than they
mean in sport.
Anyway sport is a part human reality and that reality can be known by defining the
laws relating to natural, social, intelligent, logical being and maybe religious, although
religion does not recognize the existance of these forms of being. In all components of
the being of sport it is neccessary to differentiate the action of laws from the much sim-
pler defining of the sequence of facts. Cognition goes just into one direction. The fact that
something is proclaimed a law in sport maybe just a coincidential combination of some
laws which are not known. The real laws are "under the surface" and are still unknown.
The reality of sport is such that it can not be mirrored just by natural or social laws. Sci-
ence is still very uncertain and is in continuous research if under present basic laws (for
example diffussion of liquid through the cell membrane) there are some "deeper" hidden
 Lawful Principles in Sport 15

laws. It is as well sure that sport is not the most complicated real phenomenon in human
life, but by defining the laws one can enlighten at least that side which is formed on the
basis of the creation of the sports act as one characteristic image of reality.

3.2 Possible classification (typology) of the laws in sport

Although sport is a real special content of the separate "more simple" components it is
not simply a sum of these. Cognitive processes in sport demand special and separated
cognitive process, interest, which is to reveal originality and the connection of the com-
ponents of sport in one sports act.Sports act occur as special synthesis and unities and not
as separate sequences even though one can not deny the existance of the sequences. As
special unity of sports content the sports act of the basketball players of the Federal Re-
public of Yugoslavia (world champions in 2002) does not call for further decomposing.
"World champions for 2002" represents the eternal and irrepeatable unity of the basket-
ball players, training process and sports act. Laws in sport according to the markedness of
finity of the sports act differ from the laws in natural, social and spiritual spheres.
Apriori characteristics of the laws in sport represent their possibilities, strengths by
which prescientific matters of the sports reality transform into the possibility of reaching
cognition in sport thus making it part of the total matrix of the knowledge of man in gen-
eral. Such knowledge should make it possible for the equality of sports knowledge with
the knowledge in other anthropologic disciplines.
1. Laws of synthesis
Understanding of the sports act "World basketball champions in 2002" demands un-
derstanding of the objectivity of basketball in FR of Yugoslavia, of anthropomotorics,
selection process,psychy, of nourishment, knowledge, experience and other components
of the basketball players' sports act. Besides, it is neccessary to grasp the performance of
each individual basketball player as well as the team characteristics of the Yugoslav
players which of course are unevenly distributed within each person ("collective individ-
ual", Sartr (6); " spirit of sport", D.Tomic (7)). In this process of cognition, essential for
basketball, it is neccessary to have corresponding action of the characteristic laws of
synthesis which are typical for basketball. These laws should prevent atomization of bas-
ketball as the sports act into the constituent components (technique, tactics, psychy, an-
trhropomotorics, economy, politics etc.), or into the individual and collective. Those
synthesis defined as laws of action of the constituent components draw their force from
the parts and create a unique sports act of basketball which as a sports form can be de-
fined as the lawful phenomenon, surely not only in the sense of natural or natural – sci-
entific ideals but in the sense of social or social – scientific ideals.
2. Laws of differentiation
Laws of differentiation represent defining norms of sport. In sport there are basic
athropomotoric abilities which appear individually and differently in each person or
sportsman. With regard to the abundance of dirrerences in abilities and individuality there
is the abundance of sports. Within the realm of sport and sports acts bodyly component,
psychy, anthropomotorics, technique, tactics etc.,stand out by their originality. Among
sportsmen talented and genious ones appear. All actions of the mentioned differences
permeate their performances and can be attributed a notion of differentiation. This notion
encompasses everything which has certain power which in turn can be expressed by laws.
16 R. KOSTIĆ

Those distinct powers can not be classified under one common form of the power repre-
senting a unique source of power which creates a sports act. Notions of synthesis and
differentiation are not "pure" notions, and therefore they do not have completely pure
symbols for their designation.
3. Laws of sports development
Each sport as unity, each sportsman, each sports act develop through stages which can
be clearly or less clearly destingui- shed. Those stages are defined as: birth, youth, maturity,
getting old and death. Regardless of the fact that definition of the content (especially
material one) is hard to establish in these development phases certain true laws can be
recognized.
4. Laws of elementary causalities
causa materialis, causa formalis, causa finalis and causa efficiens (8)
Separate changes in some constituent element of sport (for example psychy) are
changes regarding elementary causalities. Some new knowledge in one element of sport
can substantially influence the change of the sports act. Evident consequences in one
segment of sport, for example the use of dope can reflect on the change of quality and
quantity of the sports act. The significance of recreation in the resting time of employees
"shaped" the process of production in many a big factory. In sport and work one needs
special knowledge of the objectivity of phenomena and of the elementary laws which are
the cause of the occurrance of those phenomena. By the aid of their content and form
bodies of knowledge have to provide the creation of specific true, for example the truth of
the effects of dope on the nervous system, and then to reveal that by the use of that dope
sports results or trainability can be upgraded.
5. Laws of the shaping of cognition
It is well known that cognition processes follow the set and for the time being scien-
tifically verified paths of cognition.Those fixed paths of cognition are applied in sport as
well. That is how a lot of confusion has been created in the most abstract notions for ex-
ample working – training, sport – art, profession - amateur, sports act – product etc. Re-
moteness of these notions has as a consequence relatively pure products which can not be
mixed. But in default of the laws on cognition in sport, the truth of sport has not been
purified yet, so much so that some theoreticians of sport in the truth of sport recognize
partially the truth of work, art, politics, religionm ideology and others.
6. The rule of transformation of lower laws into higher laws (sublimation)
If the number of those who go in for sport increase this means that there are favour-
able conditions to use the law of the great numbers and figures. such a law reflects the fa
ctual state of affairs but it does not show the cause of that phenomenon. In this case it
does not matter if the cause is real one, truthful of false one.
It would be wrong to conclude that from such a number and according to the necessity
of the results (of those who are not in sports) there follows the same derivation of the
certainty as for the sportsmen. Statistical structure comes as something merely external in
regard to direct causalities of the constituent elements in sport, training and sports act.
That external does not have a possibility to express that which is internal, or to express
that causalities of quality or essence appear as external manifestations.
Significance of statistical corfficients (parameters) should replace the quality and
"power" which the phenomenon contains and out of which the sequence of figures is
 Lawful Principles in Sport 17

made. Figures (entities in sequence) are just appearance shapes and in no way single
occurrances containing the qualities that one wishes to research. Statistical ways reflect
relationships generated by the scientific synthesis,which is defined by figures and which
are summed up in the unity of one group. When establishing muscular explosive power
certain number of subjects is used but nobody is asked about the energy through which
explosive power is exerted as a quality of each and single entity. In that way a unity of
the group of subjects with explosive power is established within the bigger group which
is strong. In all statistical studies of the relation of quality one starts with certain number
of subjects which are classified into sequences and one holds to the relations of those
sequences and the individual causes under superficial forms o f sequences are not re-
searched. Thus on the basis of surface occurrances in sport, anthropomotorics and sports
act one assumes about relations which are "under" the surface and should point to the
genesis of the occurrance to be researched.
According to the law of great numbers it follows that in sport as a big unity inner
strengths, actually depending on the size of figures, are developed. On the basis of "big
figures" one can scatch two rough assumptions: firstly, a great number of sportsmen cre-
ate competition, so one can expect sportsmen on both ends of the extremes continuum
and secondly, in such a vast number of participants there has to appear, in some defined
relation, sportsmen with some expected qualities. Therefore in statistical studies there are
at the same time two paralel sequences of occurrances: one is on the surface, external
one, expressed by figures and the other is more profound, and it is expressed by the rela-
tions of causalities.
Thanks to the abstract categories statistics is used to make conclusions about the en-
ergy which is to cause the occurrance of quality. Running speed at 30 meters does not
give answers about the essence of speed as the quality of organic processes in the body of
the sportsman.
To make it possible for the theory of cognition to define cognition in sport as one
complex unity and to make such knowledge comprehensible this theory has to separate
methodology of cognition carefully and consistently (according to the surface and deep
sequences which reveal forces pulling together the unity of sport) from the other unities
in the real word and scientific disciplines. Of course, some forms of knowledge appear
more often than others, some methods are not consistently consequential, such as for ex-
ample, consistency of natural laws is.
It is obvious that sports factual state and the structures of these facts represent special
forms of cognition. The image of the sports act is made up of surface, apparent forms
which someone in the surroundings perceives as the phenomenon, an event, (a goal,
smetch, etc.) and at the same time does not consider real forces which create that image,
and which are under that surface image (processes in the central nervous system, in the
muscular tissue, in the inner of the body). That surface appearance never goes into the
essence of some deep element, for example, never separates the influence of the explo-
sive muscular power of legs in the pole jump, but it only uses interrelations with other
qualities.
Surface (external) viewpoint of sport systemizes sport according to the other irrele-
vant categories such as types, different notions or numerical (statistical) relations etc.
These categories are based on abstract knowledge and real causalitis or the quality of the
phenomena are put in the focus of attention (9). But cognition of sports always relates to
18 R. KOSTIĆ

the individual, to the sportsman as the individual because the cognition of sport is di-
rected to the individual - sportsman or non-sportsman as well.

4. CONCLUSION
Finding and researching laws in sport is the necessity of the theory and philosophy of
sport. Philosophy of sport emphasis general and special features of the cognitive process
and the cognition. Cognition is the basic precondition for the creation of image of sport in
philosophy. Creation of the image of sport in philosophy renders scientific methodology
able to use its means and methods in order to accept or reject those metaphysical images.
Theory of sport has up to now dealt mainly with general and specific facts of sport.
However, it is certain that facts are somewhere between laws and cognition.
In sport there are limited general laws which encompass specific and elementary laws
on lots of contents of sport. Elementary laws represent forces enabling the appearance of
global laws.
Laws in sport can be applied in each area and at any time.
Laws in sport can be classified as laws of synthesis, differentiation, sports development,
elementary causalities, shapability of cognition and transformation of the lower rank laws
into the higher rank ones.
Laws in sport show the unity of apparent, (surface given) forms and within the being
of sport which acts under the surface (appearance forms) and which defines the quality of
sport.
By dealing with general categories of cognition, general and elementary laws theory
and philosphy of sport do not take over competence of the other scientific disciplines but
on the contrary, they emphasise their contrubution to and the significance for the essence
of sport.
Finding out and exploring laws in sport is not a special and separate aim of the theory
and philosphy which is abolished once a certain socio – economic system (and even a
system in transition) fulfills its interest, but it represents a stable feature of the theory and
practice.
Laws in sport are imanent contents which permanently exist in it so they can not be
excluded as utilisable aims, especially not as ideological ones, as was the case in physical
education.

REFERENCES / NOTES
1. For the process of the sports development in time a logical law is emphasised. Željaskov,C., Daševa, D.
(2002). Osnovi na sportnata trenirovka (Basics of the sports training). Sofia: Gera Art, p.22.
2. Basic sources of cognition are the following: sensual experience, mind and intuition.
3. Modified according to Zimel, G. (1994). Problemi filozofije istorije, saznajno-teorijska studija (Problems
of the philosophy and history, cognitive - theoretical studies). Novi Sad:Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana
Stojadinovica. Sremski Karlovci, p. 214.
4. "But in the essence of a scientific method is to constrain its own aspirations", Coen, M., Neigel, E.
(1977). Uvod u logiku i naučni metod (Introduction to logic and a scientific method). Beograd: Zavod za
izdavanje udžbenika i nastavna sredstva, p. 405.
5. In philosophy logic is a part which studies laws of thinking and especially principles of thinking which
were formulated by Aristotel, (principle of identity - truthful, principle of contradictory - wrong, and the
principle of the exclusion of the third - possible) and Leibnitz (the principle of sufficient reason).
 Lawful Principles in Sport 19

6. Sartr, J.P. (1983). Kritika dijalektičkog uma II (A critique of the dialectic mind. II). Beograd: Nolit.
7. Tomić, D. (1990). Naukovanje u sportu (Science talk in sport). Beograd: SIA, p.194.
8. "For centuries philosophy proposes the existance of the four causes: 1. causa materialis, material, matter
out of which for example, a silver bowl is made; 2. causa formalis, a form, shape that material takes on;
3. causa finalis, purpose, for example, ceremony in the act of sacrifying according to which the said bowl
is defined to its form and matter; 4. causa efficiences, the one that brings about completion, finished, real
bowl: a goldsmith". Heideger, M. (1955). Šta je to filozofija (What is it - philisohy). Zagreb: Biblioteka
centra (bc), p. 94.
9. Among the initial bases when forming the laws of training Malacko J. mentions "directability of the
training process, its adaptability, continuity, discontinuity, overlapping of the overload in the training, its
cycle mode and heterechronology". Malacko, J. (1991). Osnove sportskog treninga, kibernetički pristup
(Basics of the sports training, cibernetic approach). Novi Sad: Author, p. 96.

ZAKONITOSTI U SPORTU
Radomir Kostić
Proučavanje zakonitosti u sportu je neophodan sadržaj teorije i filozofije sporta. Koji će se deo
teorije baviti zakonitostima od drugorazrednog je značaja.
Filozofija sporta treba da istakne neke osobenosti filozofskog saznajnog procesa. Filozofija
sporta prema egzaktnosti nauke u sportu ima ulogu prethodnice. Filozofija ima mogućnost da
stvara moguće saznajne slike sporta, koje nauka i iskustvo - praksa svojom metodologijom
potvrđuje ili odbacuje. Moć predviđanja filozofija ne dobija sama po sebi, već je crpe iz moći
drugih nauka. Slike sporta koje iscrtava filozofija sporta su metafizičke kategorije i nemaju nikakve
ili bar ne nužne veze sa realističko-egzaktnim kategorijama sporta.
Zakonitosti u sportu pokazuju istovremeno jedinstvo forme i unutar-duhovno oblikovano biće
koje pripada sportu, kao posebnoj anropološkoj disciplini. Filozofija i teorija sporta ne preuzimaju
kompetencije drugih naučnih disciplina time što se bave opštim zakonitostima i kategorijama
opšteg saznavanja. Opšte zakonitosti saznanja i saznanja u sportu izražavaju tipičnost odnosa
saznanja u opštim i specijalnim (sportskim) saznanjima i izazivaju odgovarajuće oblikovanje
činjenične građe u sportu.
Ovim radom učinjen je pokušaj klasifikovanja zakonitosti u sportu na zakonitosti sinteze,
diferencijacije, sportskog razvoja, elementarnih kauzaliteta, oblikotvornosti saznanja i preobražavanja
nižih zakona u više.
Ključne reči: filozofija sporta, teorija sporta, saznanje, klasifikacija zakona.