WHO'S WORLD OF FANTASY WILL YOU DIVE INTO NEXT?

Previously, we focused on rugby as a team sport to highlight a few pros and cons of being in a team sport. Picking up from there, let’s delve into individual sports.

These are by far the easiest and possibly the most convenient to practice since one does not have to rely on others to succeed. In 7s rugby, you need 6 other people to form a complete team, and to train and play together. In tennis and swimming, all you need is yourself (and, of course, the relevant equipment).

Drawing out tennis, however, it differs from swimming in the fact that you need another person to practice with. Tennis is more of scoring points in rallies while swimming involves completing lengths. You certainly don’t need a training buddy to achieve this. Of course in tennis you could use a tennis wall, but how effective would it be in training you on receiving service?

Having a great coach in both swimming and tennis is a great bonus! In tennis, you get to have a training buddy (ideally with lots more experience and who pushes you to your limit) while in swimming you get to have someone draft up your training program and monitor your progress…and even also mock-compete with from time to time.

A coach also tends to have a relatively easier time coaching an individual sport as the focus can all be directed on a single person or even a group of people without the actions of one directly affecting the other.

It’s also easier as far as discipline is concerned, since again, the focus is on an individual. Whether or not one participates in a competition is not dependent on how those around the individual behave.

That said, it can also be a daunting experience for some athletes. For example, having all that attention on you could harness feelings of self-consciousness thus affecting your performance. Making a mistake could even become harder since you have no one to hide behind as in a team (which also helps with developing at your own pace). In an individual sport, determining your own pace of development can be tricky.

Unless there are other individuals training with you in your individual sport, or even unless your coach is the fun kind, one misses out on the bonding experience; and so the sport’s practice turns into more of a job without the fun element. With other individuals in the swim team, for example, you can get to play water polo on Fridays. Laughing at other’s mistakes is forbidden of course, but there are those characters who can liven up a training session.

There are some awesome coaches who take the time to bond with their athletes, find out how they are doing…develop a rapport with their athletes out of the training/playing arena. But what about those athletes who barely have a social-support system? Who do they turn to in case of a financial crisis (as an example)? Who do they get to have dinner with? Share a training or sport joke with someone who understands the jargon?

In the end, I suppose it’s best to conclude that regardless of whether it’s team or individual sports, training with others is a huge boost not only to performance but also motivation. And I remember writing that choosing a sport first based on your preferences has a huge standing on your intrinsic motivation.

The advantage of training with others in an individual sport is that their actions do not directly affect your sport’s practice. In a team sport though,….

And so I ask again: to team or not to team?

(This article is fully opined, so please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below).