Can You Teach A Guy How To Compete?

If it won't bite as a puppy ...

One of the most fustrating things as a coach, is when you have guys that won't compete.  Its tough to motivate guys that won't battle in the paint, attack rebounds, and fight for loose balls.  Yea, talent is great and all, and you have to have talent to win games, but you have to have guys that are willing to fight and compete to win championships.

One year, I had two difference-makers who were just better than everybody else on his team.  The problem was, those top 2 guys just didn't know how/didn't want to compete on an everyday basis.  They didn't practice/play with toughness and grit, and it set a bad precedent for the rest of the team.  When things were going great and they were making shots, getting steals, and making plays in transition, we were a great team and everybody fed off the positive energy.  But, when things weren't going great, things started to snowball.  They didn't have the toughness to put the last play behind them, fix the issue at hand, and move on, and we as a staff didn't do a good enough job of teaching them how to be tougher, more competitive, and how to put bad plays behind them.

My head coach asked me if it was possible to teach a guy how to compete.  My simple answer is yes.  I think anybody with the right teaching can learn anything.  The human mind and body is capable of doing amazing things, so why can't a kid learn how to compete?

In practice, however, getting guys who aren't natural competitors is, in my opinion, the hardest thing to teach.  The quote, if he doesn't bite as a puppy, he won't bite as a dog, comes to mind when thinking about trying to teach guys how to compete.  Some guys are born to compete, born with that gene, born with those instincts.  Some guys just aren't.  But, I think there are some things you can do to teach competitiveness and to maximize your athletes potential.

Fight or Flight Response
I think the troubleshoot way to teach a kid how to compete is to create situations everyday in practice where they are forced to compete.  When you put a kid in a situation where they either have to compete or they get beat, you will see what they are made of.  Sometimes, kids don't know how to compete because they've never been in a situation where they have had to, and they've never been taught how to react, respond, and fight in those situations.  Create a situation where they have to compete, and see what happens.  If they 'figure it out,' celebrate that success and recognize the actions and mentality that the athlete exhibited in their success so they can repeat it.

Here are some basketball drills that I've used in the past to create situations that foster toughness:

-  1 on 1 on 1 - Have three kids stand at the free-throw line next to each other.  Have a coach with one ball stand at the top of the key, directly behind them.  When coach shoots the ball, they are competing to three.  There are no rules.  When somebody scores, the ball stays live.  They have to fight to get the ball, and fight twice as hard to score.  I lied about no rules - the only rule is you can't travel and double dribble.  If you pick up your dribble, you can throw the ball back to your coach and get it back.  But, the coach can only hold it for 3 seconds or less before he just passes it back in your direction.  If you can't get open and the ball is stolen, its still live and in the possession of whoever stole it.

-  Circle Rebounding - Have five offensive guys stand on the perimeter, outside the 3-point line, and five guys inside the 3-point line matched-up.  A coach with the ball should stand outside the 3-point line as well.  When the coach yells 'GO', the interior players circle, counter clockwise, inside the 3-point line.  When the coach shoots the ball, the game is live.  The guys outside of the 3-point line are going to the offensive boards, while the defenders inside the 3-point line are to box-out then go pursue the rebound. A team gets 1 point for a rebound, and if the offensive team gets an offensive rebound, they continue to play live trying to score.  If they score, they get another point.  If they miss and get an offensive rebound, they also get another point.  The game stops either when the defense gets a rebound or when the offense scores.  If the defense doesn't get a rebound after the first shot by the coach, they can't earn a point because they gave up an offensive rebound; they can only get a stop by getting the ball back.

-  4 on 4 In The Paint - Have a game of 4 on 4 where everybody has to stay in the paint.  in forces guys to be physical and tough in a confined space.  Still work with them on screening and back-cutting and making good basketball plays, but in a tight space.  You can score the game however you want, including awarding points for stops, scores, rebounds, and charges.

- Game-Like Situations In Practice - Every practice, especially in-season, we would have 1 - 3 situational scrimmages where we would split teams, give them a situation, and play it out.  It might be 3 minutes left with the white team up by 4, both teams in the bonus, and the blue team has the ball under the basket.  It might be 2 minutes left, tie game, blue team shooting a one-on-one.  Somedays, we would say, one of the teams is going to get every call going against them.  Deal With It.  We would show them that there will be days/games where everything and everyone is against you and teach them how to deal with it.  Somedays we wouldn't tell them, we would just call against a particular team (we would do this later in the season after we have spent time building character - I don't want to ever set a kid up for failure), and most days we would try to call it as honest as possible. 


Here are some football drills that I've used in the past to create situations that foster toughness:

-  Cirlce Drill - See the video below

-  Oklahoma Drill

If you have more drills that put kids in position where they have to compete and play tough, please let me know.  Leave me a comment or link!  Always looking for more drills to build character and toughness.

If you have guys that don't figure out how to compete naturally through submersion, work with them, show them, and team them the actions and mentality that they need to have to be successful in that situation.  We spend so much time teaching our kids not to fight, not to push, not to be aggressive, and to share everything when they are young that we have to spend an equal amount of time teaching them how to fight in sports appropriately, how to push, how to be aggressive.

You have to 'coach' and 'teach' kids through every process; you can't just assume that they know or assume that they'll figure it out, or assume that they just won't ever get it.  Teach and coach them through it.

He Just Doesn't Have It In Them
I also believe that some kids just don't naturally have that 'toughness gene.'  They just don't have the heart for battle, that heart to fight.  I had a dog a few years ago, that was really timid as a puppy.  As he grew to be a bigger, stronger dog, he became more aggressive and intimidating.  He looked like a great dog and people were genuinely scared of him.  When we would go for walks and he would see smaller dogs, he would aggressively bark and try to attack these dogs.  He was labeled by a vet as 'dog aggressive,'  But, when he saw a dog his size or bigger, he wouldn't want no part of that dog.  Sounds like some of my athletes lol.

Some people are wired just like my dog.  Yea they'll compete and fight with athletes they know that they can beat, but they cower in the face of equal or superior athletes.  So what do you do when you have guys that don't have those competitive, fighter instincts?

I think you have to identify the skill-set of a competitor in as many basketball specific situations, and teach them how to acquire those skills.  

You might not be able to teach someone how to take a punch, but you can teach them how to dodge a punch, block a punch, roll a punch, and throw a punch to the point where they can win a fight.  

Some of those skills include:
-  How to box-out physically by putting your forearm into your opponent first, then sliding your body into position
-  How to bump cutters and not letting them cross your face
-  How to dive for loose balls
-  How to dive for loose balls with two hands instead of dribbling loose balls
-  How to cut people off defensively instead of giving up (I think the best thing you can teach a kid one-on-one defensively is how to make a guy turn when they are attacking.  Most guys attack to their dominate hand aggressively, but if you can turn him once, you deplete his effectiveness drastically)
-  How to spin off a guy boxing him out to get better position when going for offensive rebounds instead of just letting yourself get boxed out.
-  How to fight off a block
-  How to run through a tackle

I put HOW TO in italics to emphasize that you have to teach them HOW TO do something.

Every sport and every position has their own specific movements, that when mastered, can make you a better athlete and make you at least appear like you are competing and playing tougher.  To identify those, look at the guys who you wish were tougher and ask yourself, "What specifically am I asking them to do?" To answer, "I want them to compete or play tougher" isn't specific enough and isn't measurable.  It needs to be specific and measurable actions.

Some athletes are born to compete and born to fight; some just aren't.  Our job as coaches and leaders is to teach.  If you can break down toughness and competitiveness into specific actions, you can at least teach your kids how to perform those actions.  

If you have more to add, I am always looking for ways to help make my guys tougher and more competitive.  Leave me a comment.  Iron sharpens iron.