Benefit of competition

There is a trend to stop children from entering any sort of competitive sport or pastime, in the belief that such activity is not good for their morale, or self esteem, and that the upset that naturally occurs when failing to win is an unacceptable state for them to experience. What on earth are the powers that be thinking, to come up with such a policy! They are not living in the real world!

The adult world is competitive. Surely there is nobody who considers this not to be true. If you apply for a job, or go in for an individual sport like tennis, or a team sport like football, and you are not successful, you have not won, so you may then consider that you have therefore lost. This happens in the real world. How does the new adult deal with this situation if he hasn’t experienced such at an earlier age? Probably with difficulty, and certainly with more difficulty than had he had such an experience as a child.

A child’s right is to be fed experiences that they are going to encounter in the adult world, so they need to be trained or encouraged to deal with possible setbacks in a competitive environment. There is no doubt that if a person is unsuccessful in a venture, or a sport, then it can be extremely disappointing, and can be very depressing, but that’s natural. Whilst a child, there is opportunity for them to face these situations under guidance and to experience not being as successful as they would like, and to be trained or advised and encouraged on how to get over the disappointment and try again or pursue a more beneficial route, but certainly to accept that they are going to experience failures through their life, and know that they have to get over them.

Bringing a child up in a competitive environment where he knows that he can lose, but nevertheless does his best to win, means that he experiences the psychological effect of not being successful, and thereby develops a character where he can handle such an eventuality. How much better is that than going into the adult world without that experience? Not to provide this experience is not in the best interests of the child.

The child must be allowed to join in and fully experience competitive environments and learn and fully understand how he will feel from the result of such an experience where he might lose, and from this learn how to cope with it! The child has that right before he reaches adulthood!