Team sport is an umbrella term used to describe sports that involve the use of teams and teammates for the purpose of achieving specific goals. These games can include soccer, basketball, softball, and football (known in the US as “soccer”).
In many of these sports, players work together to facilitate a ball’s movement in order to score points. These types of games are popular across the world and can be played by all ages and abilities.
The game of lacrosse, for example, is unique in that it uses a stick rather than a ball and is very fast paced. It requires communication and practice to master the skills required to win the game.
Another characteristic of team sports is that athletes are expected to report to practice sessions, follow the instructions of the coaches and put forth strenuous effort during competitions. These standards of effort are known as group norms, and they represent one of the main features that distinguish a group from a random collection of individuals.
As such, sport team participation is an attractive model domain for the study of human behavior and psychology. It provides a platform for testing multilevel selection theory, which suggests that performance varies and is selectively retained at the organizational level of teams (e.g., Kniffin and Wilson 2005; Dawkins 1976). Moreover, it offers an arena for testing such critical research questions as the extent to which team-based apparel can influence real-world interactions among its wearers (Kruger et al. 2018).