Football players shaking hands after four quarters of knocking each other around, boxers bumping gloves before each round of fighting. These are examples of demonstrating good sportsmanship and pride. As a team or individual athlete the concept of winning and losing helps build confidence. Sportsmanship is an aspiration of a sport or activity that allows an athlete to show fairness, respect and fellowship towards their competitor. The focus of athletics should be on competition and victory rather than the purpose of healthy living and enjoyment. Victory and competition teaches athletes to demonstrate sportsmanship, persistence in setting and accomplishing goals as well as allowing them to discover their weakness and strengths through motivation and determination.
Despite how athletes are told winning is everything they are rarely taught the importance of losing and disappointment. The value of loss educates an athlete to always try their hardest - in everything they do. This is best learned through their own experience because it pushes the athlete to adapt to their weaknesses and improve for the future. As a motivated and hard-working competitor that is willing to play their hardest and try their best to win will eventually be disappointed by their performance resulting in a devastating loss. A young athlete should capitalize from their opponent’s strengths and enhance their weaknesses to achieve a greater accomplishment than in the past.
Aside from the conception of loss bringing important athletic skills and characteristics, with perseverance and in the mindset of victory and competition an individual grows toward the significance of success. A hardworking athlete will find a goal in their sports career and try their hardest for it. This might be a gold medal at their national sports tournament, a certain weight or time they'd like to achieve in an amount of days. After trial and error it introduces failure to them and soon they learn they