Why sport is for fun, not competition-persuasive

30MIN

-you can't enjoy it if you're constantly pushing yourself

-nothing is enjoyable under pressure, stress

-influence on others, moving should be for enjoyment, others would exercise more if they saw it was fun

Most of us have mixed opinions on whether sport is enjoyable or not-however this usually depends on the type of sport involved, and often the latter is said about competitive sports. Grueling exertion, or lighthearted fun and games? Which one sounds better? It's impossible to enjoy sports if the competition means you're constantly pushing yourself and stressing yourself out. And since exercise is such a good thing, others should be able to see that sport for the fun activity it is instead of the drudgery that competition turns it into. Because what is life if you're not enjoying it?

In competitive sports, you're always pushing yourself to do better than others; otherwise you'll fall behind. If you simply did exercise for the fun of it, participating wouldn't be so hard because you'd have the passion for it, and you'd know you could pace yourself. In cases like these you may even perform better because you'd have the motivation. I mean, why try competing and pushing yourself so hard when you don't even enjoy all the forced effort?

The stress that competitive sports bring can be destructive. The desperation to win this or do better than others (instead of simply doing it for your own personal enjoyment) can drive people to do dangerous things such as take drugs or medication to cheat-which is already a bad thing in itself. If you do sports for fun, you're only concerned about the amount of enjoyment you're experiencing-not a medal! This is why many athletes also become slaves to competition, and it's sad how their lives revolve around trying to better others. 

If you want to convince others that sport is fun, they'd be more obliged towards participating in enjoyable sports rather than something as daunting as training for hours just either wallow in your own guilt for losing, or live in glory for a few seconds before you're back to square one and have to keep competing. Exercise is healthy for your heart rate and internal organs. Even your mindset improves with stress-relieving sports. But the only way to convince society that they should participate in sports is to make movement enjoyable-this simple solution would fix things such as health problems with the elderly, or the growing population of obese people.

Exercise is fun-perhaps one of life's greatest gifts. And a bit of friendly competition is always interesting and enjoyable. But to strain yourself and not even enjoy it? To go to extreme measures just to win something? That is what convinces so many people that they shouldn't exercise, and it's time we put that behind us. Sports is a pleasure, not a punishment.