It really is the taking part ...

Perhaps our intuitions about it being important to do your best and not to have too much pressure and feeling valued are borne out in this research which "indicates that young athletes find playing for coaches who stress personal improvement, having fun and giving maximum effort is far more important and has a bigger impact on them than a team's won-loss record."
I have to say that, as a child I strongly preferred to play for fun, peer-acknowledgement, self-improvement and social cohesion than any amount of fraught competitive games which just overdosed my body with adrenaline and put at peril the esteem of peers. Probably this is because I was a loser. But then, over 99% of us are. Time to stop colluding in our own oppression.
Motivational Coaching Climate Outscores Winning For Young Athletes: