Daria Wieliczko Team Sport Or Individual Sport --- Which One Is Best For Me?

Aisha and Tim from our school’s basketball and tennis sections will tell you about their experience and convince you that their sport is the best.

Aisha: Team sports rule! I am a basketball player and I love it. I used to be very shy, so I couldn’t make friends easily. When my PE teacher asked me to join the school’s basketball team, I had many doubts. But then I finally decided to give it a go. Working togetherworking together [work together]Working together with other players helped me to open up to people. When I focused on team effortfocused on team effort [focus on team effort]focused on team effort to win a game, I didn’t have to think about how shy I was. I also became a lot more trustful because in a team you have to rely on each other. There is nothing more unitingunitinguniting a group of friends than working together to achieve a common goalachieve a common goalachieve a common goal. The best thing is that they count on you, but everyone plays their designated roleplays their designated role [play their designated role]plays their designated role. So when you win, you celebrate your wins together. When you lose, it is easier to accept defeat together and not blame yourself for it. Also, being competitivebeing competitive [be competetive]being competitive used to be very stressful for me. But I learnt that I contribute to victorycontribute to victorycontribute to victory as much as anyone else.  That is why, competing has become much less stressful. The only downside of me playing in a basketball team is that my parents constantly worry about me. It is because it is much easier to get an injuryeasier to get an injuryeasier to get an injury than by playing an individual sport. I once broke my finger and they were so worried that I don’t know who was more in pain: me or them? LOL.

Tim: If you are like me, then you don’t like spending time with many people at one go. I have Asperger’s syndrome and for me, playing a team sport is a “no‑no.” I really don’t like all the shouting and touching, it makes me nervous. I have learnt to depend on myselflearnt to depend on myself [learn to depend on yourself]learnt to depend on myself and I like training alone or having individual sessions with the coachindividual sessions with the coachindividual sessions with the coach. Playing tennis has all these. Such personalised trainingpersonalised trainingpersonalised training is great for me. I also love doing things according to a plan, it gives me comfort and peace of mind. So, before training, my coach helps me with setting my personal goalssetting personal goals [set personal goals]setting my personal goals, both short‑term and long‑term ones. My short‑term goalsshort‑term goals [short‑term goal]short‑term goals will cover today and any time between now and in 3 months’ time. My long‑term goalslong‑term goals [long‑term goal]long‑term goals will be set for half a year and more. The sport has also helped me to have better organisationalbetter organisational skillsbetter organisational and decision‑making skillsbetter decision‑making skillsdecision‑making skills. Although having no support from the teamno support from the teamno support from the team when losing or winning can sometimes be more emotionally challengingmore emotionally challengingmore emotionally challenging, I don’t take wins and defeatsdefeats [defeat]defeats that personally. Solo athletessolo athletes [solo athlete]Solo athletes have staminastaminastamina and willpowerwillpowerwillpower and that is who I am.

1 Źródło: Daria Wieliczko, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.