Sports as the Spearhead of the Mental Revolution

www.unesa.ac.id

Unesa.ac.id, Surabaya – Mental revolution needs to be encouraged to change Indonesian society towards a good pattern of thinking. One way that this can be done is by doing sports activities that teach the values of sportsmanship, cooperation, and discipline. Related to this, the Faculty of Sports Science of Unesa held a National Webinar with the theme "Sports as the Spearhead of the Mental Revolution" through the Unesa's official zoom platform and youtube channel, (24/11).

The webinar, which was held to celebrate Unesa 56th Anniversary, presented three speakers, including the Special Staff of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Drs. H. Mohamad Nasir, Ak., M.Sc., Ph.D., Governor of East Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, and Professor of Unesa Faculty of Sports Science, Prof. Dr. I Made Sri Undy Mahardika, M.Pd.

Unesa Rector, Prof. Dr. H. Nurhasan, M.Kes. in his remarks conveyed about the world megatrend in 2045 which has a big impact on the younger generation. Cak Hasan also invited participants to help the government prepare young people with physical and mental health to lead the year 2045. “Let us educate this generation with the values of sportsmanship, honesty, integrity, cooperation, discipline and commitment. All of that can be taught and formed in sports activities and even become a culture in sports," said Cak Hasan.

In this webinar, Moh. Nasir revealed that it was time for Indonesia to carry out a mental revolution, especially in the field of education. It is based on the loss of integrity values. "Indonesia needs a mental revolution, this is because we allow practices in a way that is dishonest, does not uphold ethics and morals, irresponsible and cannot be trusted," said the Special Staff of the President.

Furthermore, Moh. Nasir also revealed that mental revolution can be started from changes in thinking patterns and opposite behavior. "For example, from negative thinking to positive thinking, from lying to honest behavior and from undisciplined to highly disciplined," he said.

Meanwhile, Made Sri Undy argues that sport is the spearhead of mental revolution through character development, which is considered to be done through a conceptual model of the relationship between sports and characters that produce strong mentality. "There are sports activities that carry sports values, which are then combined by individual values obtained from family, school and communities. This is what will turn it into one’s character that will turn into a mentality that can be applied in life,” said Made.

Made also explained further about the values of sports that need to be owned and used as goals in learning Sports Physical Education and Health. "These values include respect, responsibility, care, honesty, justice, cooperation, discipline and tolerance," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Youth and Sports Service of East Java, Drs. Supratomo, M.Sc., as a delegation from the Governor of East Java, focused more on explaining the work concept of the East Java Provincial Government in supporting the mental revolution in East Java which is better known as "Jatim (East Java) Seger" program.

Jatim (East Java) Seger is an effort made by the Governor of East Java to make the people of East Java to be active. "It means that you enjoy exercising so that sports become part of life, through whatever sports you like, from games to martial arts," he concluded. (esti/ay)