Actually, I've seen it happen in sports. Be it basketball or football I've seen players go on tilt, some good trash talk can definitely take someone out of their game. I've also seen people do desperate and stupid things in sports when they start losing.
I do think a certain amount of competitiveness is a good thing for a poker player. But I think it's obviously best if used to learn how to be successful at poker (i.e., learn the proper way to play the game then have the discipline to follow that strategy). What's hard with poker is that even when you play correctly you can lose to an inferior opponent. And for a competitive person that doesn't like to lose, that's a hard thing to stomach. With sports, if I play my best I'm not going to lose to an inferior opponent. I think what's hard, for me at least, is that you really have to look at winning or losing as a long term proposition. Like with basketball you're not going to stop your opponent from making their shots here and there, you just have to concentrate on making more than they did when the horn sounds. I have to look at things in that light when playing poker.
It's funny, my ultra competitive nature has definitely flowed down to my youngest son who is 5 years old... he's on his first soccer team right now and has a meltdown if the other team scores even one goal... lol. I'll try the "long term" speech on him at our next practice.
