Defining Your Ideal Athlete

Few teams know what they are looking for in a player. That’s right, I said it. Don’t believe me? Try this short experiment.

Call together your entire coaching staff, to include anyone with responsibility in player evaluation. Select a position and ask them to identify the five most important technical skills associated with that position. For example, “Write down five technical skills we’re looking for in a wide receiver (e.g., blocking, route running, ball skills).” Next, have them identify five intangible characteristics you desire in your players (e.g., coachability, toughness, commitment). After a few minutes, compare answers across the staff. Experience tells us we will see a wide range of responses with little congruence. Some may even struggle to identify five factors.

Talent evaluation is an inexact science. It asks the question, “Given our culture, our system, and our resources, which players have the greatest chance of succeeding in our organization?” While this may always include an element of coaches’ intuition, what if we were able to define the critical factors associated with each positional player across distinct dimensions of player performance? And how could this help a staff?

In Daniel Kahneman’s book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” the research suggests a surprising conclusion. Specifically, he asserts that for our most important decisions (i.e., critical selection decisions) it is better to rely on a carefully-crafted formula as opposed to expert intuition (coach’s instinct). Kahneman writes,

“First, select a few traits that are prerequisites for success in this position (technical proficiency, engaging personality, reliability, and so on). The traits you choose should be as independent as possible from each other, and you should feel that you can assess them reliably by asking a few factual questions. Next, make a list of those questions for each trait and think about how you will score it, say on a 1–5 scale. You should have an idea of what you will call ‘very weak’ or ‘very strong.’”

Using a similar process for athletics, we partner with coaching staffs to identify the critical factors, by unique position, across four holistic dimensions of human performance: the physical, technical, mental, and behavioral. In the example below, we’ve defined the four dimensions and identified one critical factor each considering the specific position of football wide receiver:

1. Physical — the physical traits and abilities required to perform at a high level. (Speed: pulls away from opponents in space or a 1-on-1 situation; quick start on snap of ball; accelerates and bursts; plays at top speed with pads on)
2. Technical — task-specific abilities acquired through learning, practice, and experience. (Blocking: contributes in run game; will make crack back block on LOS; attacks as a blocker; hustles to get blocks from the backside)
3. Mental — the practical application of one’s mind, intellect, and psychological readiness (Football Instinct: equal instincts as a blocker, receiver, and runner; feels blitz coming; knack for blocking; instinctive route runner that gets open in man or zone)
4. Behavioral — the intangible attributes that allow one to improve skill and achieve optimal potential. (Coachability: motivated to learn; humility; open to feedback/criticism; pen to criticism; able to learn the playbook; able to apply coach’s instruction)

The exercise is long, but invaluable. Coaches are experts in their sports, but they often fall prey to the adage, “I’ll know it when I see it.” This may be true, but is “IT” the same across your entire staff? Is the intuition of a 29-year old position coach the same as a 55-year old coordinator? By identifying the critical factors by position, you’ve essentially defined the ideal athletes for a specific team in a specific sport. More practically, you’ve determined the very things you must find in prospects and develop in players.

Defining the ideal is an essential exercise for any organization. Specifically, it accomplishes the following benefits:
- Ensures staff alignment.
- Lays the foundation for intentional recruiting and development systems.
- Fosters new staff integration.
- Creates deliberate, meaningful feedback loops.

To be clear, we are not suggesting you should abandon experiential instinct, rather to carefully balance intuition with a well-crafted system…your system…for selecting and developing the best teammates.