The Importance of Teamwork

Teamwork is invaluable in sports because achieving team success or getting a win almost always requires the complete effort of every team member. Even sports that are considered individual sports often form teams to benefit from success from the other players for the individual athletes. One or two players on any given team may dominate some team sports like Lebron James in basketball, or Aaron Rodgers in Football but in many team sports, every athlete’s performance matters and they must play well enough in order to win.

In a sport such as baseball, each player relies on his teammates to play well because not all players can directly influence the outcome of the game. Football and soccer are similar in these respects, as a defensive player strives to keep the other team from scoring, but must rely on the offensive players to do the scoring for their team. Sports such as swimming or gymnastics rely on the team’s overall score, but each participant is active at different times. Tennis is usually a single-player sport, but in doubles matches, two players form a team and feed and rely on each other to make plays and do their job.

In general, the fewer players that are active at a time, the more each player is responsible for the outcome. Accordingly, a single player can dominate team sports such as basketball, which uses only five players at a time and usually only has about 9 or 10 players who actually contribute in a game. By contrast, football teams feature 11 players at a time, and 22 total. This is why championships in football are much more considered a team success. Take Basketball for an example, no one talks about how a team has a championship, but rather how a singular player has a championship.