Capital City Articles
Improving Your Competitive Edge | By Steve George
What does it mean to compete? When someone is identified as "very competitive" or a "real competitor," what characteristics separate and identify that individual? Are there methods athletes can employ to improve or increase their competitive nature?
Coaches often talk about needing their players and teams to be more competitive, but are there sure fire, can't miss methods for developing more competitive players and teams. Simply put, if there was such a method, all coaches would be using it to help guide their teams to stronger performances.
A prominent component of competitiveness is mental and emotional toughness, which is defined in the book Mental Toughness Training for Volleyball as "the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances." Put another way, "mentally tough athletes think and talk tough, feel confident and energized, and perceive situations as being challenging rather than threatening." Does this sound like you, or are you someone who is more focused on the "Fear Factor": afraid of making errors, which leads to more and more errors?
So, what can an individual athlete or coach do to stimulate competitiveness, thereby enhancing the individual and teams ability to consistently perform at a higher level? The first element is coming to a determination if being competitive is really that important to the individual and/or team.
You often hear about how much someone wants to win, but who does not want to win in sports or in life? Essentially, everyone would like to be successful, so that is not really a good barometer for measuring competitiveness. After all, if success was easy to achieve, wouldn't everyone be successful?
Many top professional athletes have indicated that it is not winning but "hating to lose" that fuels their competitive drive; that their ambition to be successful is based on not wanting to fail more than on enjoying the fruits of success.
Let's go back to one of questions posed at the beginning of the article:
"When someone is identified as "very competitive" or a "real competitor," what characteristics separate and identify that individual for distinction?"
When you read that question, what image or player do you recall? I'll bet it is someone with a fiery court personality, someone who is very vocal on the court, someone who fights for every point. So, are there methods or drills for improving competitiveness? Yes, but only if someone wants to actually be competitive and is willing to make definitive changes in their personality and court demeanor, which can be easier said than done.
A coach can create a competitive atmosphere during practice by incorporating drills that require a player to compete for court time, such as a defensive drill in which you stay on the court only if you continue to make positive plays, or an attack drill where you must beat the block and hit certain shots to keep your spot. However, this methodology can only be successful when athletes "hate to lose" their spot, as opposed to being "satisfied" by giving their best effort.
A coach can create a competitive environment by demanding performance or by stipulating a punishment if success is not achieved-run on missed serves, rotate out on an error, not allow a player to hit if she does not pass accurately-but again, a player's competitive nature will not be improved if the player merely accepts the punishment as opposed to "hating to lose" court time, etc.
Of course, a coach can also attempt to make players more responsive and competitive by curtailing the playing time of an athlete who does not rise to the challenge in tournaments or matches.
So how can an athlete improve her competitive ability? One word: Attitude! As player has to determine for herself how important it is to succeed? How important is it for her to achieve to her highest ability level? And, what she is willing to change about her personality to make this happen?
Change-whether skill development or mental/emotional toughness-only occurs through a concerted effort by a player to make corrections by refocusing her energy and concentration on new "programming." If fear and anxiety over making errors or not being able to make corrections dominates a player's psyche, than learning cannot take place. Simply stated, a player focuses on success, failure, or nothing. Two out of three of those options results in a player getting nowhere in terms of improving her game.
If you want to learn how to be more competitive, the first key is to understand that it begins in your mind with an attitude of success. Mistakes and errors are part of every sport and certainly a part of everyday life. Learning to cope and refocus your mental/emotional efforts is paramount to becoming a confident athlete who will enjoy competition for exactly what it is-competition-no more, no less. And the best place to start is where you have the best opportunity to develop a stronger mindset and feeling of success through repetition-practice!
Practice is study time, where you develop and enhance your ability to focus, play with determination, learn how to perform consistently, and dedicate yourself to becoming the best player you can be. Games/matches are the test; a time to display the personality and athletic skills you are developing.
After all, the real competition is you! Ultimately, being competitive means working to be the best player you can be and not being satisfied until you have reached the zenith of your abilities.
