
Competition is all around us. It is present in sports, academics, music, theater, and business. It is what makes it possible for society to advance in all areas of life. Dictionary.com defines competition as, “to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.” It means striving to be better than the person next to you or across from you. Over the last 20 years, competition has been increasingly taking heat from parents around the country saying that it is damaging for their children to be exposed and partake in competition. They have been taking shots at it from different angles. Truth is, competition among children ages 5-14 in America teaches them lifelong skills at a young age that will help them in the long run. 

Parents are arguing that the negatives of competition are more damaging to children than they are beneficial. One specific argument that parents make against competition is there is a small percentage that will get a college scholarship and even fewer that will make money playing sports one day. The numbers are not in their favor. Approximately three to five percent of high school athletes get a college athletic scholarship depending on the sport. If they are lucky enough to get a scholarship, they have only a one to four percent chance to make it professionally (Georgia Career Information Center). They think it is a waste of time since it is unlikely to directly benefit them financially. This feeling has becoming increasingly prevalent in America because of the emergence of club sports and personal training. Kids no longer only play for school teams, now they do travel teams which cost large amounts of money. Parents also feel that spending extra money on a personal trainer will potentially provide the advantage needed to make it to college. This ultimately becomes very expensive and most of the time they don’t get their money out of it. These are all reasons why parents have started to dislike competition. 

Another point that they argue is that competition forces kids into injuries, to get burnt out on a sport, and to quit. Parents have noticed these things happening and concluded that it is best if they not even try rather than try and fail or dislike it. This is viewed as a direct relation to all the travel teams and training that young athletes are doing. Another big contributor to this problem is the new philosophy that kids need to specialize at one sport early in their athletic careers. This allows them to focus on the sport that they are best at and forget about the rest of them. This causes more injuries by wearing out parts of one’s body that is used over and over in a sport and not allowing one’s body to develop a full range of abilities and movements. Some research into this issue found that as many as four out of every ten emergency room visits by a child from the age of five to fourteen is related to a sports injury (Gordon). 

Now obviously, this is concerning for parents anywhere but I don’t see these issues as a result of competition. This is more from poor leadership whether it be coaches or parents. Teams need to have good coaches that know what they are talking about and how to get the kids into a position to improve but need to know when to let off the gas and give them a break. For example, in soccer having good stamina is a huge part of the game and being successful on the field, but if a coach just plans on having the kids run for an hour and a half straight they will be much more likely to be hurt. This can be fixed by having multiple coaches at practices and communicating before the season of what is expected of them and how to handle practice time and the safety of the kids. Even when people are responsible there is still the chance that someone might get hurt in sports as in any physical activity. This alone should not be a reason to be against competition. Parents can’t hide their children in the house. They must let kids be kids and skin some knees and get some bruises. Parents can’t let the fear of getting hurt be the reason to keep kids out of competition. This will hurt them as they get older because of a fear of anything that resembles any sort of danger or risk whatsoever.  

One of the main reasons that competition is starting to be viewed as negative is because that is how the media describes it. There are never reports of the positive things that can come from competition, just horror stories about the ways that it can damage kids. Ronald E. Smith and Frank L. Smoll explained an example of this happening in their book Sports Psychology for Youth Coaches: Developing Champions in Sports and Life, “One prominent sport psychologist spent 90 minutes with a newspaper reporter. For 80 minutes, he discussed the positive aspects of sport programs, and for 10 minutes he talked about the problems in youth sports. The newspaper article dealt only with the problems” (Smith). In addition to making the conversation lean the opposite way that the informant wanted, the reporter also misquoted the psychologist by claiming he said all organized sports should be eliminated until the athletes were at least sixteen years old. This clearly shows the reporter was simply trying to write a story that would stir up controversy instead of accurately depicting what the expert’s opinions were. The media has great influence over people and how they view specific topics or issues and the unfair representation they put out of competition has given it a negative tag by parents. 

There are some flaws with the way competitive sports are run and it is a longshot that they will end up reaping any financial rewards, but competition is a part of every person’s development into a functioning member of society. It provides plenty of opportunities for social interaction between a child and his or her peers. It is a starting point for people to learn skills that they will need in the long term. They are going to need these skills eventually so why not start exposing them early. Smith and Smoll went over some of the benefits in their book, “Within sport, athletes learn to cooperate with others, to compete, to deal with success and failure, to develop self-control, and to take risks. Important attitudes are formed about achievement, authority, and persistence in the face of difficulty” (Smith). Cooperating with others, developing self-control, taking risks, and persistent through difficult times are all qualities that most adults would say are important to success in life (Richtel). If parents were to see how competition will help teach their children these qualities every night on the news or on the internet each morning they would be jumping at the idea. These are just a few of the benefits that competition offers, other include learning at a faster rate, managing nerves, giving 110%, playing by the rules, being committed, and setting goals (Josephson). Again, if my children were to live their lives based on these qualities and values I would consider it a job well done. People with these attributes would ninety-nine times out of one-hundred go on to live successful lives in their career and relationships. If kids are taught this when they are young, they will grow up and do the same with their kids and all the sudden society as a whole has improved. One example of how competition can benefit children overall is Egyptian Squash player Mohamed El Shorbagy. El Shorbagy, 25, is the world’s best squash player (Segal). The strange thing about it is that his sideline coach is his mother, who has never played squash. She talks about how when he was only nine a private instructor approached her to coach her son for free at a squash club. The coach knew at that moment that Mohamed would be the best player in the world someday, which is why he started with him at such a young age. Without training against the best at a young age he never could’ve developed into the player he is now. 

Another major lesson that is learned from competing is that losing is a part of it, but so is winning. In competition, you are going to experience both even if they are at different rates. Knowing how to act after a big win or a tough loss is a life-long skill that will make yourself seem much more professional and respectable if you can do each with class. As I writing this the NCAA March Madness tournament is being played and you can see how coaches and players know how to respond when a game ends. It makes the whole process much smoother when it ends civilly. Another example of how competition can benefit a kid is the video that has gone viral of a young Northwestern University basketball fan crying as he team was beat in the tournament (Media TV). Obviously at first glance I feel bad for the kid but after thinking about it will probably be helpful to him. Almost every competitor has been brought to tears by a loss when they are young, this kid just happened to be on national television. This is part of competition for youngsters, but as they grow older and become more experienced they will be able to handle losing or not getting what they want with more grace and maturity. Competition allows for people to turn the negative events in their life into positives. 

Another benefit of the social aspect of competition is the relationships that can be built. There is a certain bond that is formed between people that spend hours together each day working hard trying to improve and achieve a common goal. A term that is used a lot of the time is “brotherhood or sisterhood.” These are one of the most fitting terms that there are for the friendships that are formed from competing with another person. When you are grinding three to six days a week with the same group of people you earn a certain level of respect that couldn’t have been formed without that commonality. If people were just casually participating in something without putting forth their best efforts there is no way to achieve the same level of camaraderie. 

One common misunderstanding about competition is that it is only prevalent in sports. This is untrue, competition is also very big in academics, music, theater, and business. Competition is basically everywhere you look. In schools, there are competitions to see who is the best at math, reading, or writing. When kids get older they compete to be the valedictorian or salutatorian. In music, bands compete in contests and singers are in competitions against others. Both are trying to be the best they can at their unique talents. In theater, kids audition for main roles that have more lines and stage time than secondary ones. This helps them as they move into bigger and bigger productions. Businesses are always competing between companies or even with-in companies. Coke and Pepsi are one example of two different firms that have to compete day in and day out to get customers to buy their products. Employees also compete for promotions, bonuses, and raises. Competition plays the same role in these areas as it does in athletics. 

Competition can benefit all different types of people no matter their skills or talents. An example is kids with special needs. Competition is a way to give them confidence in themselves and their abilities (Udvari). Some children that are special needs might lack self-confidence and this is a way to help them grow and gain momentum to want to continue to improve. The same thing goes for kids who are extremely talented for their age. Competition against other people who are on their level of ability makes it easy for them to keep interest in an activity (Riley). Without this competition, they would get bored because the lack of challenge that it provides. It gives them a goal to aim for. Competition is still beneficial for kids whose skills aren’t on the same level as their peers. Instead of worrying about trying to beat others worry about improving yourself. Competing against oneself can be done with any activity or sport. The goal of it isn’t to out due your opponent but to out due yourself or your previous best. An example would be a runner. Instead of trying to run faster than other kids, keep track of the time that you finished in last race and compete to beat that. This is a way for kids who might get discouraged by losing to gain the same benefits of competition. It also allows for them to improve their skills enough over time to reach other kids’ levels of talent. Another group of kids that benefit from competition and often are left out of consideration when discussing whether they should have to deal with competition are the kids who actually enjoy competition. There are plenty of children who would fit into this category, kids who love to have both a winner and a loser and get frustrated by non-competitive sports (Lizfraser1). I know plenty of kids that would share this viewpoint. It would not be fair for them to take away something that they enjoy doing because others and parents don’t enjoy it. Competition is like any other activity, there are going to people that enjoy it and others that do not. There are plenty of alternatives for children that do not like competition such as backyard sports and “B-teams.” Since the beginning of time children have been playing in yards with their friends, not caring the outcome, but just enjoying themselves. Another alternate that almost all schools offer is “B-teams.” These teams are normally much more relaxed than ones the athletes try-out for. They are more about having fun and staying active without a large focus on winning.  

Competition is a topic that has been under fire in recent years. Parents around the country have started pulling their children out of it for multiple reasons, including not wanting them to have to deal with losing. When they do this, they are taking away a great opportunity to prepare their children for what the future holds. Competition is all around, it is in every aspect of life and it is here to stay. Nothing can affect the fact that competition is a big part of adults’ lives. So why not embrace it and become prepared at an earlier age? Imagine if parents had the opportunity to send their children to a class that prepared them to get a high score on the ACT or SAT and they could have fun while doing this. They would jump at this opportunity to prepare their children so they would have a higher chance to be successful. So why not allow competition to prepare children for their futures?
