Team sport refers to games or sports played

Team sports have been associated with the development of not only children but even adults. Still, some critics consider team sports as not always beneficial to children especially when “winning” is emphasized more than having fun (Hedstrom and Gould, 2004). Nevertheless, the in adolescent development is usually centered on the adaptive skills associated with adolescent team sport athletes.

Team sport refers to games or sports played by groups of different teams, involving specific rules, to achieve a specific goal through interaction and collective effort among members of the same team.

Although it also involves rules and the achievement of specific objectives, team sport is highly distinguishable from individual sports in terms of the collective effort required from its members. Unlike individual sports, team sports do not emphasize individual excellence. Examples of team sports include: soccer, basketball, football, baseball, hockey and volleyball. Individual sports include: tennis, swimming, boxing and martial arts (Team sport, 2006).

It is important to note that different team sports are different from each other in terms of rules, which also makes each one different from another in terms of the activities involved and how winners are determined. In darts for example, the players and opponents do not necessarily have to play at the same time and at the same board (Team sport, 2006).

In this game, players are not required to play simultaneously but as with all games, the score is what matters and winners are determined by the summation of scores of players of the same team. Any sport as long as it involves collective effort among team members is considered a team sport. This exact nature of team sports is believed to help in the development of its players.

This paper aims to give an overview of how team sports contribute to the development of the middle school adolescent. In so doing, principles on middle school psychology are integrated to better understand the relationship of team sports and development.

The human environment, like the wild, involves so much conflict, chaos and problems which may arise by interrelationships between different factors that may or usually may not be controlled by man. But unlike the wild, whose inhabitants; main goal is basic survival, humans are equipped with reason which afforded them freedom.

And with this freedom lies the responsibility and the requirement for the people to think creatively and more competitively, making survival more complex for humans. This can be seen in many different settings in man’s social environment such as the home, school and the workplace. In other words, the human environment is filled with stress and it is important for everyone to be able to handle it effectively (Sports and Teenagers: Can Parents Handle it Effectively? 2006).

It is impossible for any one person not to experience stress in his entire life. Stress is natural and ubiquitous. A person, no matter how sheltered and protected he may be will experience being stressed at some point in his life.