A Look into the Mind of the Competitor

What exactly goes on inside the head of someone in competition? This is a question that is constantly batted around with similar tangents like "what was he thinking?" or "How could he have made that move?" The reality is that we will never know truly what goes through the mind of a competitor, but what we do know is that it will drive someone to do stupid, risky, and otherwise quite unwise actions all in the name of competition and success.

Now there is a litany of dumb decisions made during competition. If there wasn't, there would not be stats for things like interceptions, fumbles, turnovers, or penalty minutes. Even looking at that kind of decision process could take many a blog post, and for sure we would need to setup an interview with Tony Romo (calm down Cowboys fans). Instead the stupid and risky decisions I want to analyze is that of pushing oneself to compete even when less than 100%. We can cite any number of sports stories where an athlete pushed themselves to play even though they were carrying an injury that would knock out a normal athlete. That has always peeked my interest, debating why someone would go to extreme lengths just to compete. It also peeked my interest because I am guilty of it just as much as the next person. So here we go, a look into the decision making process to compete when someone is hurt!

One of the biggest facets of the psychology of the competitor is the need to compete, affecting decision-making before we can even talk about in-competition decisions. This can manifest itself in a notorious way when we hear debates about whether an injured athlete should play or not. A competitor will always want to suit up and get out there, because competition can be like an addiction, regardless of personal impact and harm we still must be out there. It can create a high unlike any other when success is achieved, even at the expense of personal health.

If you somehow do not think this is the case, well I have the example just for you. I come from the amateur bowling community in Louisville, one that is quite competitive and one that has produced national champions at the Junior, Collegiate, and Professional levels. One of my friends was recently on a team that advanced to its league championship match, but he was being hindered by the onset of a balky back that made it nearly impossible for him to compete at even 75%. He let me know that my services were going to be likely needed to sub in for him about two weeks before the championship. We fast forward to the day of the championship and he still had not given me a definite answer of whether or not he was going to compete. In fact, he changed his mind multiple times throughout the day, and it was only an hour and a half before the championship match that he decided to sit out. Now let me tell you what was at stake that made this decision so tough for him: the pride of winning the league, and an extra $50 per person in the prize....wait, what??? My friend was willing to risk his personal health for a bowling league title that in the long run would earn him nothing more than the pride of saying his team won the league. But that was enough for him to go back and forth on his decision, torturing himself in his own head. That night as I competed for him, I could tell he was struggling to sit on the sidelines and not be out there competing.

I myself am guilty of putting the need to compete ahead of personal health and wellness. If I told you the number of times that I competed in college while hurt or not 100% I would be lying because it is a lot more than that. It is a thought process that I struggle to explain, because trust me I have been asked many a times before why I would compete with such and such injury. All I can say is that a narrow-minded focus develops that centers your mind on the goal of competing. You can't fathom sitting out, it is like having your heart ripped out. You almost return to a barbaric form that only knows competition and nothing else.

That is why I always argue that someone in "competition mode" or stuck in a competition mentality will risk personal consequence just to compete. We will go to extreme lengths to make sure we are not left out. My Sophomore year was a perfect example. I had tweaked my neck, with the original extent of the injury not allowing me to hold my neck straight but instead forcing me to walk around with my neck bent at a 90 degree angle to the left. What did I do? I told my coaches, who had not seen me yet, that I was going to be fine and I used an entire tube of icyhot gel on my neck before the bus ride so that I could at least hold my neck up straight during the bus ride. Of course when competition began my charade was up because the pain was near unbearable and I could barely stand upright. But that was the extent to which I was willing to go just so I could "compete."

Hmmm, let's think about that for a second. I was willing to parade myself around as perfectly fine just to have a chance to compete even though I ultimately was in no way physically capable of it. When in this mindset, we become hypocritical monsters. Our desire to compete pushes us to go out and participate even when we cannot compete to our best ability. Is that really competing then? Do we really believe that our effort when below 100% will equal the same as our normal competition effort? Well when stuck in the mind of a competitor you believe you can do almost anything, ignoring the signals your body is sending you. You even ignore the biggest signal of all: that even if you make it to the field of competition, you are not really competing because you aren't 100%. You aren't the best form of yourself. Outside of the remarkable instances of athletes like Kirk Gibson's game-winning home run on a bum knee or Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open on a broken leg with knee ligament damage, there are more stories of athletes further hurting themselves or not even coming close to their goals because they pushed ahead instead of healing.

That is the scary reality when it comes to peeking in the mind of a competitor. We would rather risk future injury, and at-times almost certain injury, to get a chance to compete instead of sitting out. We would rather "compete" at less than our best than sit out. We will think short-term and forget the long-term exists, because when you look at it competition is an addiction. For many that addiction will manifest itself decisions like many outlined in this piece. That leaves me with one conclusion for sure: we may not always call athletes and competitors smart, but man they are some of the gutsiest and most determined SOB's out there.