I’ve always been athletic, have sometimes been on teams, and have sometimes played on my own. All kinds of sports. Beach volleyball is my favorite. But it’s not necessary for me to be in a formal, keeping score kinda game for me to play my hardest.
When I play, I am enjoying the very act of playing. I enjoy performing well, and my motivation is to play as well as I possibly can. If score is being kept, I ignore it - if not, it makes no difference to me.
I’m worried that lots of kids today do not understand playing for the enjoyment of playing. Can you do it, or do you need the score to motivate you? I’m wondering if I’m odd in this respect.
For me it depends on the game. I can play raquetball or tennis with a friend just for the fun of it. Or a group of friends can bang a volleyball around without really taking it too seriously.
But when it came to something like baseball, I had to keep score. I had to know how many hits I got, what my average was, how many stolen bases, etc. Come to think of it, I was only like that with baseball. I got really ultra-competitive with baseball.
I’m like you, Grok - I can easily play without keeping score.
Several years ago, several other folks and I would head down to my school’s gym every Friday night and play pick-up basketball amongst ourselves. We never kept score. At intervals during the evening (whenever somebody suggested it) we’d rearrange the teams just to keep things interesting. We did try to keep the two teams more-or-less balanced, but that usually amounted simply to making sure the two best players were on opposite sides.
Occasionally, a newcomer would join us, and they were usually surprised by this.
My daughters soccer league doesn’t keep score. Scoring is not mentioned by coaches, refs, or parents. Of course the kids make damn sure they keep score. Their all 4 and 5, so I think they are just trying to show off that they can count.
Now when me and my friends play sports or any kind of game, we have to keep score. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses, but we keep track.
I think I must have missed out on the competitiveness gene.
I only enjoy team sports when they are played for fun, with either casual score keeping or none at all. I never played team sports as a child. I was on the swim team for one year; I love practices, but hated meets. I very much enjoy challenging myself, but I feel very uncomfortable performing for other people. I guess the athletic activities I enjoy most (swimming and running) I enjoy because I can do them on my own.
I love playing games (even those that I don’t play well) when everyone is just enjoying the game. Keeping score, and getting serious about it, takes all the fun out of it for me.
Score keeping was important to me, till I had kids. Then the games became just about having fun.
But, I think this is more about personality type. My unhusband HATES to lose, and will do almost anything to win. Playing ISN’T about fun for him, winning justifies him in some weird way. So, it doesn’t matter if he beats our sons, who are MUCH smaller than he is. He feels good about it. THAT is just plain odd to me.
I have never played a sport, but I love playing games. It’s the playing that I love, not the winning. I love dealing a hand of Gin and seeing how it will play out. I keep score only when I am challenging myself, like playing Scrabble against the computer, or trying to beat my own score at Solitaire.
My father-in-law (now deceased) refused to play Backgammon with me unless there was money on it (even a dime!) …but that’s a whole different thread!
I don’t usually have to keep score. If the other person wants to, then that’s cool; I don’t mind either way.
It really depends on the game, for me, though. If it’s something I’m good at, and the other person isn’t, then I don’t care if I keep score. If it’s something I’m really bad at, and the other person is really good, then I don’t care if I keep score.
However, if we’re pretty evenly matched, then I might keep score. I won’t mention it, but I keep a mental score. It just seems fun when the score goes from a lead for them, then to me, then to them, then to me, and so on. Though, if that is the case, usually I just stop keeping track pretty quickly, and it just becomes a fun game.
