True Competition

There is something profoundly wrong with how we’ve come to view competition.

You see this manifest when you hear narratives about wanting to avoid strong teams in the playoffs, or get a soft draw in a tournament, or play an opponent when their best players are out.

Everyone wants to talk about how much of a competitor they are, but let me tell you something: avoiding the best competition is the opposite of being a competitor. 

As coaches, we drive our teams to pursue the perfect game. We have this mental picture of a perfect game consisting of complete domination, where the opposition can’t get the ball and we smash them off the park. (Perhaps worse, we build game models off complete domination, rather than the realities of competition).

But to play the perfect game requires you to play a worthy opponent. 

The perfect game cannot be merely attacking without resistance, it must contain periods of the other facets of the game - defense, transition, momentum swings, goals against. 

The perfect game is well-rounded. 

True competition is well-rounded.

In his book Finding The Winning Edge (described as ‘The Bible of Coaching’), legendary San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh sums up true competition in six bullet points:

• True competition does not exist when you have measurably better personnel than your opponent. In this instance, the basic standard of performance of your team should dominate.

• True competition also does not exist when you are totally outmanned by your opponent. In this instance, the intensity of your team’s play, the strategy you employ as an underdog, and the number of fortuitous breaks your team receives in the game can make the contest competitive.

• True competition is best achieved by meeting an opponent of comparable talent, or an opponent with better — but not dominating — talent.

• True competition can best be measured against an opponent that is very good, but whose style and tactics are difficult to understand or predict. Stepping into an arena against an opponent that has a number of “unknown” factors with which you must deal is the true test of competition.

• Your real test as a coach — as a competitor — will be how you deal with such competition. You can measure your performance against evenly matched opponents.

• Provided you retain your poise and stick to your game plan, competing against an opponent that has an ominous mystique and a reputation for being an extremely formidable team is a challenge that will truly test your skills.

To re-frame and re-configure how we think about competition, we must begin with revisiting the contentment found in the very act of competing.

We must begin to forge new bonds with the joy of testing our mettle, irrespective of the outcome.

And we must begin to seek out opportunities to play the best at their best. 

That is being a competitor. That is true competition.