Racing your siblings to the car, playing board games, seeing who can get a higher test score, fantasy football…competition is in everyday life. Everyone and their mother says they enjoy competition. However, there is a clear difference between those that like it purely for the result (winning) and those that truly have a passion for competing. These are the fake competitors versus the true competitors.
The fake competitors are the ones that want to compete when they know they can be successful putting in minimal effort and have a clear advantage over their opponent. As long as things are easy, they want to compete. We all know of players in Little League, high school and even college who can just show up, shut everybody down and leave.
However, once adversity hits them and their natural talent can’t support them, they crumble. They give up a few hard hit balls and everything unravels. Their confidence goes away, they lose control and the only way to make it stop is to take them out of the game. While these players have the natural talent to succeed at one level, they’ll watch as others slowly pass them until they don’t have the talent to compete and quit.
The true competitors are the ones that pass them. True competitors love competition, even if the odds are stacked against them. They want to continue competing when they’re down big in a game, when they’re playing a tough opponent and when they’re clearly outmatched. While these situations may seem extremely hard to win, the fact that there is even a slight chance to do so makes it worth the effort.
As a coach, it is fun to see these qualities play out. You can see which players will give the effort when you’re down 6-0 in the 2nd inning versus the best team in your conference. You see who folds first and who doesn’t stop fighting until that last out is recorded. You see who fights until the competition is actually over.
Anybody will admit it’s hard to be a true competitor all of the time, especially against the biggest challenges. If you want to transition from being a fake to true competitor, or become an even better true competitor, you need to learn how to compete all of the time. You have to play hard no matter the situation, no matter how much you are losing or how miserable the competition is. To compete all of the time, you have to find those smaller battles to compete for.
You are not going to make up a big deficit with one swing, but you can move yourself in the right direction with it. A true competitor will break down the game into mini, controllable competitions that allow them to chip away at the large competition. They focus on executing a single pitch, getting ahead in the count, fielding the ground ball coming at them. This removes the distractions and negative thoughts that could come in competition. It directs their focus to beneficial tasks and confines their thoughts to what can help them succeed.
Breaking down the game is essential to use all of the time, not just when you are playing a tough team or losing. As a pitcher, focusing on one pitch at a time and executing that plan is what gets you into a “groove.” If you miss a few pitches or walk a batter, avoid letting the game unravel by refocusing your mind to the small competition. True competitors are great at finding and re-finding those “groove” states.
Coaches want to put the best competitors on the field. They want the players who will fight when it’s tough and rise to the occasion. If you want to be that true competitor on the field, learn to compete all of the time by attacking the small battles. There is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.
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