For instance, a rivalry can be one way to measure the progress of your play. If you become competitive with a long-standing rival who has dominated play in the past, that is a sign of progress. Rivalries can provide the spark that athletes need to push themselves to better performance even though their body and mind are tired. Moreover, most coaches like rivalries simply because a heated rivalry can help them motivate their players, according to the Penn State Sports Medicine newsletter. The key is to have athletes respond to rivalries in positive rather than negative ways.
Some athletes allow rivalries to become distractions.
They get caught up in the emotion of the event and everything that precedes it, rather than focusing on preparation and performance. The rivalry can also become a negative experience if an athlete builds up unreasonably hostile feelings toward an opponent, the newsletter notes. The killer mentality not only devalues the whole sport, it can hinder athletic performance. In contact sports, that kind of misdirected energy can cause penalties or missed assignments. If a rivalry is diminished by the attitudes or behavior of one player or team, both sides lose.