Why have competition

These 10 statements have been drawn up to help colleagues to articulate the place of competition in our work:

Competition statement:

• Competition is a natural part of life

• Young people like to be challenged

• In Physical Education and School Sport young people need to feel they are being successful

• Emphasis on making progress allows young people to feel they are being successful

• Emphasis on High Quality performance encourages young people to have high aspirations

• Emphasis on the result can leave young people feeling that they are not being successful

• Achieving a Balance is the key to young people developing confidence and a positive self esteem.

• Young people who experience an excess of winning can become arrogant and in time opt out of situations where they don’t win (Fear of Failure)

• Experiencing an excess of losing has a damaging effect on young people’s self esteem often resulting in them opting out of competitive situations (Fear of Failure)

• Young people going into a competitive situation need to know they are competing on a “level playing field” against “similar” opposition

Developing Physical Literacy:

• A multi-skill leading to multi-sport approach that includes aesthetic movement results in well-balanced physically literate people

• Specialization too early for most young people results in limited opportunities later on.