Introduce Competition in Active Recreation

When you are exercising and taking part in sport for fitness reasons you may not initially see it as important that you have some kind of marker to measure yourself against. But as you start to do more and more exercise you will find that it becomes important to introduce competition in active recreation.

Competition becomes important for two main reasons. The first is because it simply gives the participants something to aim for when they are training, rather than work hard without having anything to aim for. And the second reason is so that every participant has something to measure themselves against and is able to take some stock of their progress within their chosen field.

Something To Aim For

The idea of introducing competition into active recreation and sport is something all coaches will strive for when training people, no matter what their skill level. This is because in order to gain from the experience of sport, the participant needs a benchmark for which they can aim.

If they do not have this benchmark to aim at, they can become disillusioned because there will be no way of knowing when they are improving their game or their performance.

This does not mean that the competition has to be of as high level, or even necessarily against another team.

Healthy competition can be introduced within a team’s own training session or even with one person competing against themselves. Competition, in this sense, means only to have some form of measurement which makes a training session interesting and gives participants something to aim for. This could be in the shape of an individual trying to score ten baskets out of every 20 shots or it could be a team divided into two smaller teams and having a practice game. But as long as everyone knows how the scoring works and what the end result is which is desired, they will benefit from the competition.

Peer Measurement

Competition is also important so that those taking part in sport can measure themselves against their peers.

Whether it takes the form of actual matches or competition between teammates, if there is some form of competition, all participants should be able to see how they compare to their contemporaries. Again, this does not have to necessarily be in some form of regimented competition, but could just be an informal contest, using a crude form of scoring.

The important thing is that participants are able to gain an idea of how they compare to others which in turn will help them decide what they need to aim for next.

Active recreation, even something as basic as running, is all very well and good, but without some form of competition, is meaningless. This is because everyone, no matter how good their intentions, will lose interest if they do not have a measurement scale.

Competition is the best way of obtaining this measurement, no matter what level the participant is competing at. So, if you are a coach, make sure you introduce some competition. Iif you a participant, make sure you seek it out so that you may benefit from everything competition brings with it.

But above all, remember the old mantra that it is not the winning but the taking part which counts – the whole point of competition is to use it as a way of measuring yourself rather than insist on winning every time.