We all know it when we see it. The “X” factor, it’s sometimes called. When a player of seemingly lesser ability, seemingly messy fundamentals, just turns it on. The killer instinct, the clutch gene, the fire behind the eyes.
This is the love of competition. As a coach, you need to find a way to harness it in your players, not impede it. One of the greatest challenges of coaching at a high level is getting players to recognize when to focus on specific training versus when to just let it all go and compete. Coaches and players alike invest hours dissecting technique, perfecting mechanics, and analyzing strategies, but sometimes the best path to improvement is putting players in a controlled competitive environment.
Mechanics and Technical Training
There are two goals in deliberate mechanical and technical training: building good habits and breaking bad ones. Those are the only goals, no matter the level of play. An MLB star may incorporate a toe tap in his swing to help with timing since he’s been late on fastballs, so he spends hours in the cage working the new technique until it’s muscle memory. Similarly, if a high school pitcher’s elbow is consistently dropping, causing the ball to float, it might be time to drill the arm angle.
Mechanics will always have their place in sports training. They are the fundamental building blocks to performance and as a coach you play a pivotal role in recognizing mechanical weaknesses, guiding players through specific drills, and offering personalized feedback.
But too often, we use technical work as a crutch when the situation doesn’t call for it. It’s a common philosophy: work on the fundamentals, and everything will just fall into place. But the truth is that, at a high level, real progress comes from putting players in uncomfortable situations; forcing them to adapt, rise to the challenges, and COMPETE.
Competition as Training
I’ve seen it time and time again in other athletes and other sports. Competition breeds excellence. How many times have you seen a tooled out prospect struggle while your average player excels? Being able to COMPETE is the tide that raises all ships. As an athlete, you’re asked to perform on intuition and adrenaline, and as a coach, it’s your job to try and recreate that environment as early and often as possible. Yes, there’s an old adage for this one too: Practice how you play.
But it’s easy to talk about, to try and instill that intensity through words. But it’s really the environment that creates the intensity. That means gaming up drills, manipulating practice plans and stoking rivalries to get the desired competitive atmosphere on a daily basis.
Creating internal competition is something that you, as a coach, CAN control. In drill settings, make things a competition between athletes. Any time you can create intrasquad teams in practice - DO IT - Train your players on how to be a competitor and how to have a true desire to win.
During my time at UCLA, Coach Savage put a premium on competition in practice and looked for guys to show themselves as true competitors. As I look back at my time at UCLA and my time with the Minnesota Twins, more often than not the best players and the best competitors were the same guys.
POSITION PLAYERS:
At UCLA three guys come to mind - Ryan Kreidler, Chase Strumpf & Michael Toglia. We would all compete in different ways. Ryan & I would compete in catch play. How far can you throw and how accurate can you be. Every single day we would compete as we warmed up for practice or games. Ryan made me a better player and I saw an uptick in arm strength & health personally. Chase and I would compete with pre-infield work. We would do short hops and pick prior to taking ground balls. How smooth could we be, could we be disciplined enough to watch the ball into our glove every time, could we catch the ball in the same place every time. Chase made me a better infielder. Toglia - we would compete in the weight room and sometimes in the classroom and now sometimes with pickleball! Michael and I would try to outlift each other every time we were in the weight room - whether its sprints, box jumps, pull-ups, push ups, squat or deadlift we were going head to head. We even continued that after UCLA in the 2019 & 2020 offseasons. All three high level competitors in different ways & all three made me a better player and competitor.
PITCHERS:
I was not a pitcher after high school, but I became a catcher as my collegiate & professional careers started to progress. One guy that stood out in my career is Matt Canterino. Matt Canterino went to Rice University and I didn’t meet him until I was with the Twins. Matt is one of the most competitive people that I have ever met. A quick example is how he approached his bullpens. I was catching a bullpen for him in Spring Training in 2020, we got through about ten pitches of a 35 pitch pen and he wanted to go straight into counts - simulating game ABs. At first glance, this seems like pretty standard for a pitcher to request. But Matt took it to another level - RH vs. LH hitters if he threw a chase pitch in a leverage count he would ask how the nonexistent batter took the pitch and what his body language was. I got so into this such that we would create a very gamelike scenario in the bullpen. This type of attention to detail and desire to manufacture competition and intensity allows Matt to train and flex this competitive muscle.
It is essential for players to create competition in their training because of how seasons are structured at the amateur level. In high school you may play three games a week, if you are a pitcher you may pitch in one of those games. In college, you may play four games a week and if you are a pitcher you may only pitch in one of those. Tapping into the skill of competing more than just the time in the game is paramount.
How to communicate the need for competition:
If you’re clear and honest with players about expectations – what exactly they should be focusing on – you’ll begin to equip them with the mindset to gauge when to hunker down for rigorous technical training and when to switch gears and get competitive.
Define moments or drills or settings where you are putting a premium on competition rather than mechanical improvement. This will improve your player’s ability to differentiate the two and work on what is important.
The true art for coaches comes in the art of knowing when to make that switch. Sometimes it’ll be scripted, a practice that calls for an intense scrimmage or live hitting, but sometimes it’ll have to be improvised. This is when your connection with and knowledge of your players is paramount. When you see a kid overly frustrated with their mechanics and they’re overthinking it, it might to design a competitive situation so they can let loose and just play. These moments will reveal themselves to you, but you will need to be flexible and have the ability to switch gears when the time calls for it.
The 85% Rule
As we discuss competition as training, it’s important to mention the difference between forced maximum effort and competitive design. A friend of mine who played college football told me a story about when Jason Garrett, the former Dallas Cowboys head coach, spoke to his team. He talked about what he does and doesn’t look for in a player during the NFL combine.
Paraphrasing, he said that he hesitates when he sees a player that has what he calls “finish-line anxiety” during the 40-yard dash. We all know what this looks like: gritted teeth, strained neck muscle, a desperate leap at the end of the sprint. This athlete is tense during competition. That’s not what we want.
By now, the study of “finish line anxiety” is famous. A group of researchers in 2011 found that when athletes are told to give “100% effort”, they actually run slower than if told to give “85% effort”.
The best designed competitions for training will employ the 85% rule. You want your athletes to be loose, agile, and in flow. This is why “gamification” and designed competition are such strong training tactics: you’re giving the athlete something to focus on other than pure “performance”.
Developing the Competitive Mentality
I’ve talked a lot about training and giving players the time and the space to be competitive, but The Futures App can help not only aid in mechanics, it also helps clarify, strengthen, and enhance that competitive edge for your players. Our drill database, video breakdown tools, and video comparison feature provide your team with the fine-tooth comb needed to evaluate, adapt, and train proper mechanics. Then, when it’s time to bring out the intensity, The Futures App has insider tips and exclusive interviews with top MLB players on the mental side of the game.