Over the years, there has been one big debate throughout the world of sports, this being the battle between solo and team sports. While the athletes from each group tend to defend the category that they fall into, the answer to which is more difficult and more beneficial remains unsolved.

When arguing about solo and team sports, many people skip over most of the logical arguments and skip straight to the skill, and whatever they think is harder to learn is what they would say overall is the “best”.  And while I wish it was that simple, people have to look at the benefits of playing either solo or team sports. According to a “Northern Spinal ” article, playing team sports promotes cooperation, teaches good sportsmanship, and along with these, it also teaches you how to appreciate your teammates along with those around you. The cooperation portion comes from working with others who all have the same goal as you, winning. Sportsmanship comes with losing games and not performing well personally. And finally, appreciating those around stems from your teammates and coaches, and them having to do what it takes to win. 

In the same “Northern Spinal” article, the benefits of solo sports are brought up as well. Some of those benefits include higher levels of self reliance, higher levels of passion for the sport, and more discipline in the athlete. In solo sports, it’s on you to win or lose, so self reliance plays a big part in the athletes mindset. Higher levels of passion are also seen in solo sports as it’s just you, meaning that the sport will have to keep you entertained and hungry to keep going. The discipline comes with having to represent yourself. The better image that you provide for yourself helps a lot in solo sports, but also keeps solo athletes disciplined.

While both solo and team sports have their benefits, there are also some downsides to playing them. The previously referenced article talks about some of the cons of playing each, and how they can affect physical and mental health. It first talked about the cons of team sports, one of those being competition between teammates. When a specific player on the team is thriving, in many cases people will create a situation where they are now competing against them but the person playing well  doesn’t even realize it. Things like this lead to arguments and disrupted chemistry on the team. Another con of team sports brought up was the creation of a “pack like mentality”. The article states that teams tend to work as a pack which naturally ends up with a leader being brought to light, but the “leader” does not always have the best intentions for the team, rather just themselves. This leads to teams failing as there is one person constantly trying to steal the show. 

After discussing the cons of team sports, the article shifts to the cons of solo sports. The main negatives brought up are the lack of opportunity to form bonds with those around you, and an unhealthy relationship with losing. Because you are competing for yourself, you are likely to not bond with those around you, which takes away a lot of the social aspect of the sports experience in general. And when you lose in solo sports, you are the only person to blame, leaving a heavier burden on your mental health. When you look at solo sports, there are less cones than team sports, but because they can cause more personal downside, team sports seem more beneficial. 

The last point to this argument is skill, and according to an ESPN ranking sheet, the hardest sport is boxing, which is a solo sport. And while this may make some believe solo sports are harder, only 4 of the 10 hardest sports are solo sports, which gives the overall edge to team sports. So after all of the aspects of each are compared, team sports seem to be more beneficial, and if most of them are harder, that gives them a 2-0 win over solo sports.

After looking at the pros and cons of solo and team sports, and also comparing difficulty, we can conclude that team sports are superior, but those who compete in solo sports should not feel any sort of way as they are able to compete regardless of the mental health toll of not performing well.