YBE 119: Building Competitive Toughness with Jake McKinley

Never back down. Never give up. Never lose hope. Players who embody these attitudes have competitive toughness. No matter the stakes, no matter the situation, these players are not only the ones you want to go to war with, they are the players who will want to be in the war with you. But are players with competitive toughness born or raised? And if they are raised that way, how do we as coaches raise that in them? In this episode, Milwaukee Brewers minor league pitching coordinator Jake McKinley answers these questions and more regarding competitive toughness.

Plus Austin Wasserman has the Wass Strength Tip of the Week on single leg RDLs. And Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to help hitters who adjust to umpires making bad strike zone calls.

In this 44-minute episode, you'll learn:

• when Jake began to realize he could have potential beyond high school
• how Jake got the Brewers job
• whether his passion for the game was innate or developed
• what drove Jake to persevere in baseball despite being one of the worst players on his youth teams
• how competitive toughness differs from having a strong mental game
• whether competitive toughness is a genetic trait or a trainable skill
• how to assess whether players have competitive toughness
• the key to a proper training environment for developing competitive toughness
• one pothole to keep in mind when assessing individual players' competitive toughness
• the three types of competitors
• how to assess players' competitive toughness
• how to nudge players towards healthy competitive toughness
• what is an ideal coach demeanor to instill competitive toughness
• how coaches can individualize their demeanor to different players
• what the 40/70 rule is
• why stress can be helpful, and why rest is helpful

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• videos for the Wass Strength Tip Of The Week on single leg RDL
• Michael Jordan's "Flu Game" highlights
• Michael Jordan's "Failure" commercial

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