If TEO's opinion is a touch hyperbolic, I must still agree with the core of his opinion. Competition can be a wonderful thing. Painting competition as bad, or as some sort of antithesis of cooperation, misses the point, I think.
I'm one of the most competitive people I know, and I'm also the least competitive person in my family. It makes family dynamics quite fun. (If you really want to see competition, join us sometime for a family game.) My kids have all grown up competing because they love to, and far from being the opposite of enjoyment and fun, it is enjoyable and fun, whether it was ski racing, chess tournaments, little league, or racing Dad to the tree (somehow they always won those races). At some point they decided that skiing wasn't something they wanted to do competitively any more, but that was their decision, and it had less do do with pressure or a philosophical opposition to competing as to the realization that they had more fun free skiing than standing around on the race hill. In contrast to that, the boys race cross country in high school now, and it's the competition that is a major motivating factor. The running itself isn't so much fun without the competitive aspect. The main thing is that the decisions have always been theirs (including the decision to start ski racing in the first place), so whatever pressures they experienced are ones that they chose to face. IMHO that has produced nothing but benefits. Like the majority of athletes, they are walking testaments to friendly and sociable competition.
Having said all that, there are certain competitions that make little sense to me, and where I don't see the benefit but do see harm. Musical competitions are one -- I think they miss most of what music is about, and worse, often produce lifeless music. Fishing competitions are another -- some pastimes are just not competitive by nature.
Regarding the article, which I enjoyed, I think the point was that the important thing is the attitude and words of the parents, and not whether ski racing itself was good or bad.
Dave G., more competitive than you
On 09/29/2010 10:04 PM, Matthew Kulas wrote:I believe that if you truly dislike competition, then you have a genetic flaw. Competition is one of the essences of life--no competition, no evolution.
Furthermore, competition makes things more fun. Case in point: sailing a boat in <5 knots wind=not so fun; racing a boat in <5 wind=fun.
--Matt K.
On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 8:13 PM, roger Klinger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SkiVt-L is brought to you by the University of Vermont.
And then again, there's always the pursuit of enjoyment and fun, without the pressure of competition.To unsubscribe, visit http://list.uvm.edu/archives/skivt-l.html
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