I have been reading some of E.F Fitness's blogs on sports lately. In one blog she talks about how stressful competitive sports have become for our generation. When I read this I thought about how true this is for me and people I know, especially in high school when sports like football and basketball become a huge deal. Even people who don't compete get extremely enthusiatic and almost overboard competitive about who wins and who loses. Even the school staff get involved.
Of course this isn't necesarily a bad thing. I mean encouraging the kids at school to go to the basketball game to support their peer's team is great. It creates a sense of school spirit and unity for all the students, even those who don't compete. Everyone goes, we all have a good time it's great... unless we lose.
Losing in this sense meaning scoring less points than the opposing school, failing to get the big "W". But did we really lose?
These days, competing just isn't enough for some people, and maybe it's been this way for so long none of us really notice it's happening. We grow up in this ruthlessly competitive world where you either have to be the best at something or not be it at all. We forget that as a school we can compete and "win", without winning, without beating the other team. Working together as a team and scoring a goal, making a basket, giving eachother a highfive after a great play.. all "wins".
Something that happened to me the other day that really rubbed me the wrong way was when my tennis coach started a conversation about pro tennis players who spend their whole lives perfecting the sport. First he started with how hard it was to go pro, all the time and devotion needed to excel, how much money the pros actaully make, etc. But then the conversation took a turn. It was somehow now about me, and how since I only play once a week in the off season for an hour, I'm really not in the running to become a pro player.
Of course I'm not going to drop out of school and spend 6 hours a day practicing, playing matches.. But he made me feel like because I wasn't willing to do that, that somehow I was less of a tennis player than people who spend their lives devoted to going pro. That I wasn't ever going to be at the level I could be at, that I wasn't being competitive enough.
I didn't say anything, but I wanted to.
Why am I so limited because I chose not to be competitive in the way other people are?
Why can't I just play a sport for fun anymore? Is that not a good enough reason to do something you love, just because you love it. Why do I have to play to win, instead of just playing to play once and a while?
Think about that.
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