I’ll admit it: I spend a LOT of time watching the NCAA basketball tournaments (mostly the men). I can’t get over the quality of the play, the high level of skill, the speed of the game. Do you watch this tournament? How can you not love it? I mean
come on people, these are
kids playing high pressure ball (and, just for the sake of fun, let’s not get into the money-making machine that is Div. I basketball…the players didn’t make it this way). Can you imagine what it takes to become part of a team like that? The dedication? The hours on the court and in the weight room? And then, to win it all, go on a seven game winning streak with millions of people watching?
But here’s my question (and trust me as a Div. III coach from a very small school, I spend a lot of time thinking about it): are competitors born or made?
Coming from a family of competitors, I’m tempted to say they are born. And I’ve pretty much surrounded myself with friends who are competitive, although not always in the sports realm. So although I’ve read about people, hitherto non-competitive individuals, who get turned onto a sport and find a killer instinct, I think they are a rare and special breed and I don’t know any.
How does a coach (me) turn non-competitors (the majority of the athletes I've coached so far) into competitors? Or am I attempting the impossible? Where do all of the fabulous athletes in this tournament - and the great athletes who never get this kind of exposure - get their competitiveness from?
Coming from a family of competitors, I’m tempted to say they are born. And I’ve pretty much surrounded myself with friends who are competitive, although not always in the sports realm. So although I’ve read about people, hitherto non-competitive individuals, who get turned onto a sport and find a killer instinct, I think they are a rare and special breed and I don’t know any.
This is a tough one. In my case, maybe it's a bit of both--and I can see that with Eoin, too. I was the daughter of jocks, so sports and competition came with the territory. But I didn't become really competitive until later in life. Sure, I was competitive in a fantasy way (if I reach the corner on my bike before the truck crosses the street, I make it into the Olys), but not particularly aggressive. Ditto (big time) my son, whose cadence while swimming a warm-up lap as a young kid was exactly the same as while swimming a 50-yard race. I remember asking him if he was going as fast as he could during his races, and having him reply something along the lines that he was fine. And then there's now: the twenty-year-old with the giant quad muscles who wants to be as good a soccer player as he can. So: he and I had something to begin with, but we learned--perhaps from a family culture--along the way. Didn't answer your question, did I?!
ReplyDeleteI've re-written this twice already so here it goes . . . I think it is nature that needs to be nurtured. In other words, I think that you are either born with it or you are not, but many who are born with it won't recognize it unless they feel comfortable enough with who or what they are to take risks.
ReplyDeleteCompetition is definitely risky because no matter what the politically correct view is, there is a winner and then there is everyone else. So, to go for it you need to either be prepared to lose or so competitive you don't even see the possibility of losing.
So from the "nature or nurture" perspective, there are probably plenty of would-be competitors that never had support from a parent, sibling, teacher, etc. to put themselves out there.