Team Sports vs Individual Sports

Some people think that it is more beneficial to take part in sports which are played in teams, like football. While other people think that taking part in individual sports is better, like tennis or swimming. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Annotated response

7 correction notes

Showing 7 correction notes.

Some claim that team sports such as football are more beneficial to players. Meanwhile, others hold a belief that sports that are played individually have . In my opinion, both types of sports bring equal advantages.

On the one hand, by participating in team sports, we learn to collaborate with others. , individual ambition takes second place to . Every team member is working towards a common goal. To achieve this goal, cooperation and coordination are of the essence. Members must work as a team and achieve the maximum synergy even if that means someone has to make certain sacrifices. For instance, a cyclist may take the leading position for half of the game and then drop out so as to ensure the victory of his teammate. Or another case in point is that in football, a player may have to sacrifice the opportunity to score a goal to pass the ball to his if the chance of a goal is higher with his teammate.

On the other hand, solo sports can bring players a number of benefits, one of which is the cultivation and maximization of personal capacities. To be precise, the assistance of others, one has to exert himself to the utmost to come up with solutions to win, and this challenges his own limits. For example, in tennis, a player has to strategize his ball serves, predict where the ball falls and be agile in his movement, and he has to multi-task all these on his own. Besides, when doing sports individually, people are liberated from the constraint of rigidly following a previously agreed plan, thereby having the freedom to new ways of playing. Therefore, such players often have a high sense of satisfaction.

In conclusion, each type of sport has its merits in cultivating players’ personality development. It should depend on each player as to what sports they should do.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The essay explains both views with concrete examples of cooperation in team sports and independence in solo sports. These reasons support its balanced opinion. The conclusion could connect individual choice more clearly to the initial equal-benefits position. Some awkward collocations and grammatical slips, including 'a goal being score', reduce precision without obscuring the argument.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

Both views are explained with relevant examples, and the body paragraphs support the writer's view that each form of sport offers valuable benefits. The final preference for individual choice could be connected more explicitly to the introduction's equal-benefits judgement.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are logically organised with clear paragraphing and generally flexible cohesive devices, with only occasional mechanical linking such as 'Or another case in point'.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is sufficiently wide and precise, using less common items like 'maximization of personal capacities' and 'synergy', with only minor awkward collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex structures is used with generally good control, and errors such as 'a goal being score' are minor and do not impede meaning.