How to persuade her?

[Azula]

So, I'm involved in a sport (let's just say its soccer for arguments sake). I have a "friend" that plays soccer with me, and the only reason she started was because I did first. She has copied everything I've done since middle school, and at first I was flattered, but now it's getting very annoying. She's constantly competing with me to somehow prove that she's better. But here's the catch. She seems to be really into "tennis" (which I played before, but didn't like) but she hasn't been able to fully commit to it due to the soccer practices. I can tell she doesn't actually like soccer, and she just continues to do it because I'm in it. I'm thinking about trying to persuade her to drop soccer and fully take up tennis. But I don't know what she'll say since she's still completely obsessed with beating me at soccer. How should I go about this?

[snowangle]

I would start out a conversation in a non-confrontational way, such as a casual "so how's tennis going? you seemed to be really into it" and go from there. You don't have to bring up anything about her copying you and being annoying. Make it so you have her best interests at heart. Try to convince her to do what she enjoys. If she happens to bring up something like "but then I won't get to beat you at soccer!" then show your maturity and calmly say "is that really more important to you?"

I hope it works out! I love your username, by the way.

[katthedog]

Your friend shouldn't be your friend anymore if she cares more about beating you and not having a good time, rather than if she had a good time and wasn't so competitive.

A little competitiveness is good, but that's just worrying. Talk to her about it. She's probably annoyed or jealous about something and wants to prove you wrong.