Cooperation and Competition in Sport

While sports are competitive by nature, two aspects of a healthy balance between cooperation and competition are important to take into account.

First, it is inevitable that in a competition, only one wins while the rest fail. Competition leads people, especially young athletes, to define themselves by the outcome. When this happens, their self- esteem and self-worth will be dependent on their ability to beat others. The detrimental consequence of this kind of process is that their self-esteem becomes dependent on other people, not on their own effort and/or talent. As long as there will be at least one person who is better prepared, more talented or gives a bigger effort, a person who is focused on winning cannot be satisfied and proud about himself. This, in turn, will lead to motivational problems, but also to unethical behavior (cheating) and unhealthy behavior (illegal performance enhancing drugs).

Cooperation, on the other hand, helps build self-esteem, helps children learn to communicate, and does not depend on the ability to beat others.

Second aspect is the normative competitiveness of modern western cultures. Both at organizational and family level people often believe that competitiveness is an advantageous personality characteristics and sport is a perfect environment for building it. Parents believe  that placing children in a competitive situation helps prepare them for an adult life in modern society that thrives on competition. One can also argue that sport setting provides challenges, helps children develop motor, social and emotional skills, teach discipline, and communication. However, when using this kind of argumentation for competitiveness, one should also remember that a competitive environment is not needed for these experiences. Cooperative activities also teach children about discipline and cooperation while helping them build skills in a challenging environment.

Competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive alternatives that coaches need to choose between. It is most likely that someone who is only cooperative is not able to cope with the competitiveness of sport environment. Also, an athlete who is focused only on competitiveness and does whatever it takes to win, she most probably cannot fully concentrate on her performance and will be too much obsessed by the idea of winning to reach her full potential. Therefore the term cooperative competitiveness is used to describe training environment where both cooperation and competition are focused on. Thus, a moderate, more realistic balance between cooperation and competition could be used. As long as competition does not stress only a “win-at-all-costs” mentality, some competition can’t be all that bad. This happens when coaches and parents help focusing more on mastery and cooperation during childhood. A gradual shift toward competition allows young athletes to build skills and focus on playing rather than winning. Once they have developed a necessary range of skills, self-competence, and an understanding of the game, then competition can be introduced. Importantly, at a higher athletic level and for professional athletes one or the other should take primary focus during different training periods.