A team sport is an athletic activity that requires collaboration, communication and cooperation among teammates in order to execute strategies, tactics and plays, while attempting to outperform and defeat the opposing team. Common examples of team sports include baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer. People can play team sports in leagues, with their schools and communities, or with friends and family members.
Team sports offer a multitude of pedagogical benefits that can benefit kids in every area of their lives from their social and emotional health to their academic performance. They teach kids important life skills like leadership, teamwork and sportsmanship that will carry with them into all areas of their lives.
In addition to their pedagogical value, team sports also provide youth with an opportunity to develop a variety of competencies including social skills that will contribute to positive outcomes throughout their lives (see Chapter 13). For instance, adolescents can learn to work well with others in a group which is a critical skill for the workplace and other settings.
Similarly, adolescent athletes can learn to be resilient and deal with setbacks by learning from their mistakes on the field and being encouraged by their teammates to try again. This can help them overcome self-limiting beliefs, such as believing that they are not good at a particular task or activity. Furthermore, adolescent athletes can gain a better perspective on winning and losing by learning the importance of fair play and by putting their own individual performance into context.