Sport. The word defines an athletic activity requiring skill or physical demand. An
aspect of where a person trains, or who they train with could make the difference
between winning or losing, and an aspect of if being in a team sport is harder than being
in an individual sport. All this related to one word, sport. Hockey, Soccer, Track,
Swimming, Figure Skating all are sports that are very well populated. Hockey for
example, demands skill and physical ability, while also needing mental strength. Track,
also needs skill and physical ability, but demands even more mental strength.
Team sport. A sport that involves competition between teams of players, and
includes any sport which involves players working together towards a shared objective.
Individual sport. A sport in which he/she competes as an individual. Both sides of sport
demand a lot of skill and physical strength, but they both do not demand the same
amount of mental strength. While being a part of a team, he/she has other people to rely
on if he/she makes a mistake. They have his/her back to help him/her correct it and
move on. While being a part of an individual sport, he/she has him/herself to rely on
after making a mistake. Imagine she is at her biggest figure skating competition of the
season, and she is just about to step on the ice. She has all the confidence in the world
in her training and in herself. She is half way through her program and she falls on a
jump that is very consistent. Suddenly she questions everything and her confidence
shatters. If she had been a part of a team, maybe her confidence wouldn’t have gone
down so much because she would have had people to back her up. But because she
was by herself, everything changes.
She was being judged. This is not a sport that is timed. Most team sports involve
some sort of time period that you have to achieve your goal. Most individual sports
involve some sort of judging, or at least how fast you can go. In this case, she was
being judged, and falling on that one jump cost her. Being a part of a team, you rely on
each other in a certain time frame to come out with the win. While being in an individual
sport that is judged, she has no control over the outcome, she can only go out there,
perform to the best of her ability, and that’s all. Not having control over the outcome
makes a huge difference between team and individual sports. Not all individual sports
are judged, but he/she still has to rely on him/herself to come out with the win, rather
than relying on the team, and playing as a team to come out with the win. The one
person he/she has in an individual sport is their coach.
Where you train and who you train with can make a huge difference. Not having
a very well experienced coach that does not know what they are doing could cost
him/her the win. Look back on the girl at the figure skating competition. She fell on that
one jump, which did cost her, but she was training with one of the top coaches in the
world, which only cost her the gold, but gave her the bronze. She had everything else
that helped her get there. Maybe now she is not the top in the world, but she is the top
in her coaches’ eyes. Where she trains, she is around some of the best athletes in the
world. That pushes her to be her best. Being part of a team, you may have the best
coach in the world, but not having anyone else around the team to push them to be their
best, brings them nowhere. As a team, they could have all the skill in the world, but not
having the drive, and enthusiasm as a team they will not succeed. Where they train, and
who trains around them could make the difference of achieving their goal or not.
There are so many advantages and disadvantages to being a part of a team, or
in an individual sport. The two types of sport are so comparable, but are so different. To
someone being a part of a team is more important, but to someone else being in an
individual sport and having their own drive is more important. Each person has their
own views on sport, and what it means to them.
Society and Sport
Student Name: Sydnie Baker
Date: September 30th 2012
Course Code: ENG3U
Teacher’s Name: Ms. Stensch