Why play competitive sports

There's an important distinction between "competing to win" and "competing to excel. Athletes whose primary motivation is to "compete to excel" can see big benefits, according to a research study of high school athletes.

These benefits include higher self-esteem and less depression. Athletes who compete to excel are still driven to succeed. The focus shifts to using competition as a means of motivating individual achievement. Competing to excel has also been called "personal development competitiveness," "task-oriented competition," or simply the "need to perform well.

Praise your child when she achieves a personal best, even if she doesn't win a race. Notice and comment when he makes an important contribution to his team, even if the team doesn't end up with a win that day. Be sure to remind him how proud you are of practice, persistence, and effort , not just outcomes like wins and trophies. You can encourage personal development and confidence in competitiveness by focusing on incremental improvements and skill-building.

If your child joins a team, especially an elite or travel team, you'll be making a big commitment of both time and money. Will competitive sports cut into your child's unstructured playtime too much, stifling her creativity?

This isn't just important for little kids—part of the appeal of skateboarding, for instance, is its spirit of invention, imagination , self-expression, and, yes, risk. This doesn't mean you have to forego competitive sports altogether.

But you might want to safeguard your kids' schedule so they get enough free time too. Get expert tips to help your kids stay healthy and happy. Englert C. Front Psychol. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Fox KR, Lindwall M. Self-esteem and self-perceptions in sport and exercise. Hibbard DR and Buhrmester D. Competitiveness, Gender, and Adjustment Among Adolescents. Sex Roles Vol. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellFamily.

At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes.

Table of Contents View All. All Rights Reserved. So here are my 15 reasons why experiencing competition is good for kids: Competition drives us to learn at a faster rate and perform at a higher level. When the meet is on the horizon, we work harder and faster. We push a little harder. Competition teaches us to bring our best effort. Keeping score gives us extra motivation to do our best. Competition teaches us to manage the butterflies in our stomachs.

Competition brings those butterflies out, and we can work on managing them. Competition does not have to be feared. Often kids fear competition, making it into something scarier or more important than it needs to be. Competition teaches us to take risks and deal with failure. Once kids realize that competition is not a terrifying thing, they can take risks. No one is perfect. Everyone can and will make mistakes in performances.

Competitions provides a platform for children to experience failures and learn from them. They learn that failure is a natural part of life and necessary to making progress in any endeavor. Competition teaches us to cope when things do not go our way. Sometimes you work hard, and you still lose. Kids learn resilience and grit in these moments.

Resilience and grit are two traits that most certainly are essential in adulthood. And that can be good — a little stress helps the body face a challenge. But too much stress can take the fun out of a sport and make it hard to perform.

Besides competing, other things can make athletes feel stressed out, such as:. There will always be some stress in sports, so it's important for kids to know how to deal with it. Sports are about staying active, feeling proud, developing as a player, and making friends. Above all, whether they play on the varsity team or at a weekend pick-up game, the point is to have fun.

By keeping that as the priority, you can help your child learn to handle the stress that is a natural part of competition. Reviewed by: Amy W. Anzilotti, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Sports also teach important life lessons like: working as a team learning how to be a good sport overcoming challenges controlling emotions taking pride in accomplishments But it's not always easy to keep it together when it feels like winning is everything.

Check Stress Levels Competing always leads to some stress. Besides competing, other things can make athletes feel stressed out, such as: too much pressure from parents or coaches to win having too much on the schedule not wanting to play the sport If you or your child think there's too much stress around competing, consider: Changing the focus from winning to putting in the best effort and having a positive attitude.