A context in which an athlete, either alone or as part
of a team, seeks to become superior in comparison to a
previously defined standard (e.g., personal best), another
athlete and/or team (e.g., a tennis match or a basketball
game), an animal (e.g., a bullfight), and/or an inanimate
object (e.g., a mountain climbing expedition) (Loy,
1968). While some conceptions of competition generally
indicate a need for a victor, competition can also be conceptualized
as an interaction between two and/or more
parties in pursuit of the same goal. This humanistic
conceptualization frames competition as an experience
from which all parties benefit, and involves the use of
several criteria to evaluate the competitive experience,
not simply winning or losing (e.g., improved performance
against a superior opponent resulting in increased selfefficacy)
(Cashmore, 2008). Athletes’ experiences during
competition, and more specifically optimal performance
during competition, have been studied extensively and
resulted in several theories including Hanin’s (2000) individual
zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model and
Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) concept of flow.
