What are competitions good for?
Are we competitive by nature?
Why do we often decline to compete, even at a fun level?
I am sure that all of us at some time or another have been invited to compete in some event or another, we either say yes gladly or decline saying we are not competitive.
The fear of losing is a strong motivator, no one wants to loose but in competition there is only one winner, that's the nature of the game.If we are obsessive about winning it can be a bad thing as for sure sometimes we will win and sometimes not, and the sooner we learn that loosing is not the end of the world the better off we will be.
The advantages of competition are myriad.
It encourages you to do your best and to improve
It teaches you to set a goal and not give up against the odds
You can always learn something positive , about yourself or your sportYou may win and take home a trophy
It can be a lot of fun.
Last week some of our Optimists took part in the European surfski championships in Spain. We have only had surfskis for about a year and only a handful of our paddlers have taken to them. In fact in Israel its a new sport but from whats happening its going to grow very quickly.
Back to Spain, our team spent a week there, learning and paddling with the worlds best surfski paddlers and did pretty well in the competition considering that they are new to the sport and amateurs at that.
Two of our lady paddlers were the only ones in their class and therefore by default brought home 2 Gold medals, this may sound unfair but consider that they trained, traveled and competed to the best of their ability, and if no one else wants to compete then they deserve their medals.
The men also acquitted themselves very well and all things considered put on a very good show
Most importantly they had a lot of fun and had a great learning experience, this helped them in their next competition held this last weekend in Israel.
The Fantastic Optimists took 5 medals in the Surfski Competition
Well done team Optimist, and good luck for the next one.
2 comments:
Interesting post. In my previous days of running I would enter competitions I knew I had ZERO chance of even coming close to winning. No matter what hard training I had put in.
Congrats to the team! Well done with smiles all around. Thats winning for yah!
Thanks Lee, your`e right, mostly we train and compete against ourselves, the competition helps with motivation
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