Advantages And Disadvantages Of Individual And Team Sports A Case Study

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There are many sports in the world which are played outdoors. Pursuing outdoor sports keeps one fit and also makes one healthy. As children many of us would have played individual and team sports. While each of the sport is a different variety and variation which one can enjoy when they pursue it. Each of the individual and team sport have there advantages and disadvantages too. Let us evaluate the same in detail in a few sports which are famous worldwide. All of us have our icons whom we like to cheer in different forms of sports and what it shows that both the formats that individual and team are good and one can be successful if it is pursued properly by the person playing the particular sport.

Football – Here it is a team game and the player or players  playing the game have to have lot of individual and team effort it is a combination of both. But all said and done  out the the whole team only a few of the players playing in a place which is highlighted and is considered important and grabs maximum eyeballs  before a goal are the ones who are mostly successful. The others may be good professionals but their career does not rise beyond a point. Unless they are bought by another professional team which happens on a regular basis if they market themselves properly.

The advantages of one playing football are as a team sport it helps in building the team confidence and helps in the whole team performing as one whole well knit unit. When a cup is won the whole team is appreciated for the effort and it is not limited to a chosen few. It builds the understanding and interpersonal skills among the team members in the reaching the final goal of a win in the match and the championship for the team. The team is more important than the individual. Some of the disadvantages of this team game are that only the forwards, the defenders and the goal keeper are noticed well while other team members do not share the same limelight unless they possess some exceptional skills.

Swimming – It is an aquatic event the good thing about this sport is that it exercises all the parts of the body. There are both the individual and the team category. In the individual events you have the 50 meter, 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 and 800 and 1500 meter events to name a few and they  consist of  freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly categories. You also have the medley events which are both the individual and the team effort.

One also has the diving events in the spring board and the platform diving categories. Here too it is a team effort and an individual effort that is two categories. But in the water polo event you have a purely team event. The advantages of individual events are you are the master of your destiny and it is based on the individual swimmers focus and performance. You clock the timing and you are selected for the next round. You can constantly improve on the performance and timing which you clocked earlier easily when compared to a medley event where there are other swimmers too in the same team. The swimmers who participate in the individual and medley events have the best of both the worlds. That is both individual and team.

The disadvantages of team events are you may or may not be selected in the team here clocking the timing does not work. The selection method  for the team event is completely different when compared to the individual events. It is not as simple as clocking the timing and getting selected. There are many ifs and buts involved in the team selection. And one despite being the best may or may not be selected. When compared to the individual selection team selection is a bit tricky too. So despite all the effort that one puts the swimmer may or may not be selected in the team event as there is no timing which is kept in mind so selection becomes more cumbersome process.

Tennis – Who would not have heard of tennis. This again is a individual and a team event sport but it is not like  football where the team is of huge size. The team event consists of a maximum of two members. When compared to the individual event where there is only one tennis player on the court. Here again you have four main tournaments which are conducted in different parts of the world. The first being the Wimbledon tournament played on grass, then the French Open Championship which is played on clay court followed by the US Open tennis tournament played on artificial surface and finally the Australian Open tennis championship. These four tournaments put together are called the Grand Slam tournaments. There is also the Olympics and the Davis Cup which are also important tournaments in the tennis circuits. Of course there are many other tennis championships being held all over the world.

In the individual event we have the men and the women’s events and in the team events we have the mixed doubles where a man and woman pair together together as a team. Then we also have the doubles events in the men’s and the women’s category which are also held. But the individual events are given the importance as the crowd turn out for those matches is comparatively large and the prize money is the highest. Whereas in the case of doubles and mixed doubles there is interest but the crowd is less and so is the prize money. Both the individuals and the mixed events are interesting and the rallies are a treat to watch.  While in some  tournaments a match will be played for three sets while in other it will be five sets.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of both the individual and the team events in the game of tennis. Here the pairing in the doubles and the team events takes time as both the partners have to understand the each others game and play as a unit. They need at least a week’s time to understand each others game and develop a strategy to counter the opposition. This time may increase to some weeks too depending on the player. Which is a difficult and time consuming process. Where as in the individual events the player is clear that he is the only one there and whatever happens there is his or her responsibility and they alone are responsible for victory or loss. Burnout in the case of individual events is more compared to a team event. This is because  the amount of court coverage is reduced because of two members in the case of a team event. If the pairing between two players has been there for a long time the chances of a win are better as the amount of understanding required is there. Whereas in the case of individual tournament it is a lone ranger game. Both the varieties need lot of mental alertness, physical stamina, flexibility, agility and tenacity. The attitude of fight to the finish is also a must because in several tournament matches I have observed the game change in the last two points.

Athletics – It is a vast discipline where the number of events are so many that it is possible to name only a few. Here again there are both individual and team events and in athletics  the good thing is that you have both the individual events which are held differently and the team events which are different simultaneously. Finally the total individual tally is also considered for the score in the athletics team event. Some of the events in athletics are track and field events, high jump, long jump, discuss throw, javelin throw, hammer throw, triple jump, running and walking, steeple chase, hurdles and many more. The distance also varies and there is a great variation available for those who want to pursue the specialization of their choice.  Athletics probably has the most numbers of events in the Olympics. There are different track and field championships conducted worldwide and world championships are also held periodically. These come in the summer Olympic games.

The advantages and disadvantages of  athletics is discussed here. The advantage is compared to tennis and other such games the amount of money spent is comparatively less. But the prize money is quite high. Thus the cost of equipment is reduced. One more point is that this can be pursued even in rural areas where there is not much infrastructure which is present. Nationals of even the poorest countries can pursue the sport due to its cost effectiveness. If one has the stamina and the raw power to run a dash then there is no stopping him or her. Here the disadvantage is that both the individual and team events selections are problematic as the total unit goes as a team. Even if the individual runner clocks a good time chances of him or her being over looked for one reason or the other do exist. It is sad but it is true.  If the sportsman is injured during the regular practice he or she has to fend for himself or herself the cost of accidents may cost a lot of money for individuals in all the sports but in the case of athletics the sportsman does not seem to have proper support systems which are comparatively  better in the other sports mentioned above.

I have been able to cover only four of the important sports which are famous and pursued worldwide. There are many other sports which have to be addressed too. For that it will definitely take another article on an other day. The above four sports football, swimming, tennis and athletics are different and diverse from each other and hence have been used as a case study in this article. Sports in any form is good for the health and it is depending the interest, inclination, capability and aptitude of the individual that one has to carefully choose and pursue his or her sport of choice. Once they choose the same they should revel in pursuing the same. That is the true mark of a sportsman.