Team sport involves group activities that involve two or more teams and are played against other teams. Examples of team sports include baseball, football, hockey and basketball.
When you play a team sport, you work with a large slate of people – coaches, teammates, parents – who can provide positive role models for you. These people can help you deal with problems, learn from mistakes and overcome setbacks in life. You also learn how to respect different opinions and ideas, even when you disagree with them. This can be useful in the workplace or at home.
Many researchers have investigated the relationship between team and individual performance, but less attention has been given to cooperation. Previous studies showed that team athletes perceive competing and, simultaneously, cooperating with the same others to be a greater requirement of their sport than do individual athletes. Moreover, the first study to apply a cognitive representation of competition found that cooperating and competitive thoughts are not mutually exclusive for team athletes.
Adding to the literature on teamwork in sport, recent developments in tracking systems have led to the development of more complex analytical tools that combine physical and tactical data. This alignment of the data has allowed for more detailed descriptions of team characteristics such as space occupation, off-the-ball scoring opportunities and risk-reward.
Whether you’re playing baseball, soccer or basketball, working with a team requires memorization, repetition and learning — skillsets that are directly applicable to classwork. In addition, fighting for a common goal with your team teaches you determination and encourages you to set goals for yourself.