How to Build Competitiveness

Yin and yang is real. What seems like an end is really a beginning. Losses are gains…it’s all about perspective, right? In that regard, the end of me coaching college due to COVID issues gave me time to think–it was a step back to reset, reevaluate life priorities–and think about a ton of stuff…because–if you read the blog regularly…you know I do a L O T of thinking.

So…I’ve seen quite a few people in coaching forums (baseball and volleyball) post about “How do I get my kids to be competitive?”…and that got me thinking. (You saw that coming….)

It’s a broad question. That means broad answers, mostly. It also means thinking about how we define the term ‘competitive’. –I won’t do that here…that’s really part of your own coaching philosophy and with where your program is currently, not to mention the age of your athletes.

So here are my random thoughts–hoping that they get you to think about things, consider different perspectives. Under all circumstances, it’s YOUR program and you should come to your own conclusions. Don’t accept dogma as The Word regarding what to do. The blog’s name is ‘Thinking Beyond the Box’ for goodness’ sake…so do that!!

* Is competitiveness something that can be taught? Can it be learned? Or is it something innate and already there (or not) before they’ve come to you as an athlete?

I think it can be learned personally. The thing to me–it’s always the quiet kids accused of not being competitive…and I think that’s bogus. Loudness =/= competitive. So how do we learn it?

I think it has to start with the relationships between the players and the coaches. Athletes have to feel safe, that the coaches have their backs. Likewise, coaches need to know athletes are committed to improvement. That’s a matter of trust–and trust takes time to build…and is much easier to screw up than regain.

That trust is important because kids have to learn how to succeed–and learning is a process of making errors. One error made by a ton of coaches is to try and suppress errors, to get kids to play safe rather than extend their maximum abilities from the start. If you don’t learn how to hit hard at the start, you won’t be able to do it later on as one example. Shut a kid down while they are making mistakes and their skill development slows and they lose self-confidence.

* Is confidence important?

I think there are three ‘confidences’ at work. Self-confidence; confidence in the team; and confidence in the coach…back to the trust issue already.

Self-confidence is important–a kid who believes they are capable will want to show that off–they’ll want to use their serve or armswing, want to be the kid with the dig. Once they have the skill and it becomes better/more successful, they’ll want the ball at crunch time, they’ll want to use it against better opponents–what’s the use of a 90k/h jump serve against a winless JV? Nah–better to hammer that serve at a nationally ranked team!

Team confidence–again with the trust. You have to believe in your teammates’ skills obviously–but I think the key here is during practice. You have to know everyone’s working to improve–and that if you are a hitter, the defense/block is capable of challenging you. It also becomes important that your teammates are supportive when you screw up–that they see the mistake is part of getting better. They’ll hold the player accountable–but also accept that they, themselves, will also be held accountable when making mistakes.

Confidence in the coach–kids know BS, kids know indecision. I think it is important that a coach be clear with what he knows–and also that if he doesn’t know an answer, to be open with that. Why lie or bluff? I think kids gain trust/respect in a coach in that situation if she goes and finds an answer and improvers her own skills. –kids need to see that coaches are also working to improve…that it isn’t ‘do as I say, not as I do.’

* Yeah, so what about actual competition, you know–being competitive?

In most cases, I think this question comes from coaches who are taking over teams that do not win often on the scoreboard and it seems that those programs tend to run through new coaches every year or two, so there’s no consistency of instruction or personality. No matter the qualification of the coaches involved–when there’s a transition between people, they WILL see things differently.

So I guess that’s a question–did the previous coach think they were competitive–or is this endemic to the program? I’m going to assume it’s pervasive–and that the coach wanting to improve intends to be around for the long haul.

Again, Jim, what about competitiveness?

I think there are a number of options to practice competition.

• If they have a solid skill base and you don’t have 20+ athletes on a single team, you can use a ‘cauldron’–playing tons of games within a practice and then giving those who score the most the starting positions and to be the first people coming off the bench. The problem is if you have too many people–this loses its effectiveness quickly.

• Most coaches penalize losers in a practice drill. Why not reverse this since punishment is the least effective too for psychological conditioning over the long-term? Why not create rewards for winning? –winners could skip a drill they dislike, get to pick the rules for the next game to be played, receive a popsicle after practice…nothing major, just acknowledgement that ‘Hey, winning’s good!”

• Can you do something like football helmet stickers for certain statistical performances? Get 10 aces–you get a patch for the uniform…something like that. Yes, this looks ‘selfish’, but if you explain that kills are a result of passes/sets and that all of these sorts of achievements are built from what the TEAM does–this can help with self-confidence/esteem. Perhaps you give them ‘coins’ that can be traded in/used to purchase benefits for the team…players could pool these, too–to do cool stuff for the team (EX: Turn in 20 coins and there’s no conditioning for the day)

• Can you create means of competition within drills? First player to get 5 perfect passes gets “Benefit X” as winner. You can declare one side of the court to be the ‘winning side’ so that everyone can see who is doing well at that point in the drill…and push to get over to that side…and also help with the toughness of being ‘demoted’ from the winning side if someone replaces that person.

• Do you have rigid rosters? Once you select your varsity and JV–is that the way it is? Do you permit players to be moved up and down? Fighting for a place on a varsity roster is being competitive–and it’s something all players want a chance at.

• When you are doing 6v6 stuff, do you keep score–whether it is ‘just’ scrimmaging–or a serve-receive drill or a blocking drill? In competitions, the scoreboard is omnipresent, so shouldn’t that be the case, too, then in practice if you are trying to build competition?

• How do you score things? Can you build competition through adjusting/rigging the scoring for a drill? Want to get your passers to help the team–what about a bonus point for any/all perfect passes made by a back row player?

• Do you split players into teams on practice for drills? Have you considered having the players split the teams instead? What about selecting two players and having those two pick the teams?…you may find the selection process curious…are they picking friends–or are they picking people they think can win?