The Competitive Spirit

What does it mean "to be competitive?" Where does the trait come from? Is it something a person is born with or can it be something developed like learning how to ride a bike?  When we see images such as the ones I've posted, one immediately concludes these guys are very competitive.  But really, what you see here is the reactive response to an outside stimuli.  Where it comes from is what I want to talk about in this blog entry.

On a chemical stand point, research has shown that high testosterone and low serotonin will result in a person being assertive, aggressive and thus competitive (Foundations in Neuroscience (2002), John T. Cacioppo- just to name one of many studies).  So coming back to the images.  In any competitive circle, these images show up regularly.  And they are prompted when a negative stimuli has been experienced.  Notice I did not put any images of "happy" reactions.  There's a reason for that and my point surrounds that reason.  You see, when success takes place, something else happens in the brain (dopamine release) which encourages the person to continue.  But what about when you fail!?  When you mess up a play?  When you get subbed out and you know it will be a while before you get back in the game?  What makes you come back for more? What makes you stay focused?  It's the Competitive Spirit.  It's not chemicals, it's not DNA and it's not mom and dad making you come back (although they have a large role to play in your Competitive Spirit development).

A Competitive Spirit is ambition.  It's a passionate and relentless pursuit toward a difficult goal.  It's a deep understanding that many failures will take place before a significant succeed happens (notice I said significant) and you are perfectly ok with that reality.  It's a deep understanding that persistence, determination, frustration and pain are four good friends.  The desire to do well at whatever you are doing, regardless if you want to be doing it or not, is the platform upon which one develops the Competitive Spirit.  It always starts with the person.  It's a choice!  Are people more incline to be extra competitive?  Sure!  That's where the Nature vs Nurture debate comes up.  But my stance is nurture has a far more important role to play.  If done correctly, an individual will take any sort of mistake or failure very personally (i.e. the images).  But they will immediately get back at trying to succeed again.  Being competitive has absolutely nothing to do with winning or losing.  But everything to do with the journey do succeed.  And then want more....and more.....and more.

One of my biggest pet peeves (and I have a couple hundred of them) is hearing someone say: "I hate losing!"  Well no sh*% you hate losing.  Nobody likes to lose.  How competitive are you?  Is it going to happen again?  Yes it will.  Is it going to happen the same way.  It better not!  And that is the Competitive Spirit.

I tell my teams all the time.  "Ok, we've lost a game.  Good teams don't lose two in a row!"  What I am trying to do with that line is tap into the Competitive Spirit.  It is rare that I see a mature aged player "get it".  But for high school players, it is the perfect time to teach them to have a Competitive Spirit. Get after it! Figure out what went wrong and eliminate that weakness.  Study your opponent more and find that detail that will give you an advantage.  Keep chasing for that win!  Live every aspect of your life that way!

My two cents on the topic. Comment away folks.

So you're not the "Go to Guy" on your basketball team.......it's ok....you're still special :)

If you find yourself looking like this guy when you are on the court

 

more times than you would like and this guy 

when a pass actually comes your way, you are not alone!  In fact, you are the majority!

Of course, I am exaggerating my intro with the picture I am painting but my point remains the same.  Every single basketball team will have 3 or 4 talents that are capable to create for others no matter the play or tactic used.  The ball MUST be in their hands as much as possible.  We only have one basketball out there for 5 players to "share" (don't like that word in the basketball world- more on that later) and since we (the coaches) want to make sure the right guy (or girl) has it in his hands most of the time, that means the other 4 players will not get to have the basketball come their way all that much in a typical, evenly matched basketball game.  So what to do?  You draw up a play that has the ball touch everyone's hands right?  And then, you HOPE it ends up in the player's hands you most want.  What happens in this scenario is the game is played on HOPE instead of LOGIC!

I like LOGIC (or intelligent play) so here's what I have to say about Role Players.  The go-to-guy IS a role player!  Let's be clear about that before we move on to the other 4 guys on the court. The GTG (go-to-guy) is the player that has the ability to create for himself and for others.  Creating for himself is the easy part for this player.  The difficult part is to include his teammates where and when appropriate to do so.  This player needs to have a deep understanding for time and score (no "early clock" shots unless it's a lay-up of course), moving the ball when secondary defenders are engaged and who to give the ball to with time and score in mind.  Most teams now-a-day have the Point Guards be this person.  But this person can also be your big man. I will not get into that aspect of team play because that is not what this blog entry is about.

As for the O4 (other 4) players, first thing they need to understand is the idea of "sharing" is very misleading.  Should the ball move on

offense?  Absolutely!  However, not every player will get a touch on every possession or every other possession for that matter just because.  This whole idea of "sharing" has created a monster with our teams today.  What I mean by that is if a player goes a possession not touching the ball, they feel they are entitled to not defend, rebound or run the floor in order to make a point about getting a touch.  But the real point is, coach has you out there playing!  He has you out there playing because he feels your skill set can help the team win.  But only if you understand sharing is not going to happen and it should not happen.  If your go to guy does not have the ball in his hands and we have 10 seconds left on the shot clock, you better be working hard to help him get open.  That is where the other 4 guys on the court need to have their minds.  It's really simple as that!  

Now let's talk about the guys coming off the bench (the BP-bench players).  These guys just like the GTG and the O4 are also role players. The BP need to understand, on a deep level how important they are to the energy being exerted by the 5 teammates out on the court.  No talk, bad body language or not reacting to good plays can have a very negative result for the teammates out on the court.  Is it fun to be a BP?  Of course not!  But then again, you are on the team.  So make your own fun.

Of course, there's a lot more to this than what I have posted on this blog entry.  Just about all of my coaching efforts go toward creating this sort of culture on my teams (defining roles).  At the end of the day, it's all about the state of mind.  Understand your place on a team, accept it and do it well.  Change your place on that team in the off-season.  Not during the season.  During the season, get better at being what your team needs you to be.

My two cents

Langis