Individual Sports – Concept and Examples


We explain what individual sports are and some examples of these practices. Also, what are team sports?

individual sports
In individual sports the athlete seeks to achieve his personal goals.

What are individual sports?

Individual sports are those sports practices or disciplines that do not require accompaniment to be carried out, that is, they can be done alone.

In them the competitor does not compete with other athletes or practitioners, but with himself: with his recorded times, with his total trajectory or with his endurance time, or with other personal abilities on which the sport in question depends.

In this way, the athlete’s goals are set in advance and have to do with the development of certain skills.

The athlete’s opponent and partner is himself. Similarly, self-assessment and self-discipline are part of individual sports, since there will be no one to blame in case there is no progress.

Most individual sports thus consist of a record of the effort made so that each time you can go further. For this, chronometers, length meters, depth meters, targets, among other methods are used to inform the athlete how close they are to reaching their individual and personal goal.

Examples of individual sports

Some recognized individual sports are:

  • Stunts.
  • Martial Arts.
  • Athletics.
  • Billiards.
  • Cycling.
  • Ski.
  • Rope climbing.
  • Gymnastics.
  • Rhythmic gymnastics.
  • Golf.
  • Weightlifting.
  • Power lifting.
  • Shot put.
  • Javelin throw.
  • Motorcycling.
  • Gun shooting.
  • Archery

Collective sports

Group sports
In team sports it is necessary to learn to work as a team.

Unlike individual sports, in which the athlete is alone, team sports are those that integrate the athlete into a more or less ordered group, either collaborators or opponents, or both at the same time.

Sports such as soccer or athletics consist of the competition to score the highest number of points to the opponent or to reach the goal before him, respectively, either through joint effort or on their own.

Team sports not only exercise the athlete’s body, but also their social thinking: teamwork, integration with respect to a purpose, trust, reciprocity, planning, etc.