The spring and early fall is a time when depth charts start to sort themselves out for staffs everywhere, and for players it's a grueling period of proving that you belong on the top of those depth charts.
At Michigan State, longtime sports psychologist Lonny Rosen recently lent his ear to backup quarterback Tyler O'Connor and provided him with some advice that completely changed the way he looked at his spring position battle. The lesson is one that your players would definitely benefit from.
O'Connor told the Detroit Free Press that he grabbed an open session with Rosen to ask how he should approach the quarterback competition between him, starter Connor Cook, and Damion Terry (who is battling with O'Connor for the #2 spot). Rosen's response? There's no such thing as a competition between the three of them.
"He opened my eyes. It’s not a competition between the quarterbacks. It’s a competition between each quarterback and the defense." O'Connor explained
"I can’t handle with Connor does. I can’t handle what Damion does. I’m going out and I’m not trying to be better than them. I’m trying to go out and do what my skills allow me to do.”
That change in his thought process has completely transformed his thinking. Now, after watching a good play from one of the other quarterbacks instead of thinking, "I have to go out there and top that" and putting an enormous amount of pressure on himself, he now understands that the position battle is a process and that it's a culmination of his entire body of work against the defense, not the other guys in his position group.
How many players on your roster would benefit from that kind of change in approach when it comes to position battles?