⏳ Read Time: 5 min, 1,036 words
📌 What’s inside:
🔁 Why reps alone don’t lead to improvement
🧠 The difference between training and learning
📊 A simple framework to actually grow this offseason
⚠️ The trap that keeps athletes stuck year after year
What should we name this?
Last week, we told you this Tuesday would be the first edition of our athlete-directed newsletter. We plan to loosely follow the same themes as the coach newsletter.
Not always, but most of the time. But, we need your help! We are working through a couple of different names for this edition of the newsletter. We’re gonna make the case for each below, but what do you think??
Built for BETTER:
Clearly communicates what we believe to be a quality of all great athletes. Not that they are the best. But, that they might be the best at getting better. Plus, bonus that it matches the BETTER brand in the name.
The Work Between:
Between games, between seasons, between who you are and who you could become. It’s about the work between.
Which do you like?
Which name do you like better?
📖 Anecdote: “I’m Working Really Hard”
Every year, there are a few athletes who come back after the offseason looking completely different. They’re not just more skilled. It’s not that they’re only stronger or faster.
More confident. More mature. More consistent. It’s like the game has slowed down for them. But most athletes do only a little work. Or, maybe they even work really hard, but not much has changed.
They’re making the same mistakes. Same reactions. Same habits.
So what’s the difference?
Usually, it’s not effort.
It’s awareness.
🧠 The Big Idea
A lot of athletes think improvement looks like this:
More reps = more improvement
But that’s not always true.
Because if you repeat the same habits over and over again, you might just get better at being the same player.
The athletes who improve the most don’t just work hard.
They pay attention. They notice things. They ask questions. They make adjustments.
We’ve gotten to sit with a lot of athletes the past two years. At BETTER, we’ve worked with:
- A Top 10 golfer in the world
- An all-SEC women’s soccer player
- A Top Junior pickleballl player
…and just about everything in between. And not just in the team setting. We’re talking 1-on-1 for multiple sessions.
Not usually in our first meeting, but right about our second, we’ll evaluate how they’re evaluating themselves.
In other words, we’re evaluating their system for getting better. We believe the easiest area to improve as an athlete is simply in how and what you’re practicing.
What are you trying to grow in?
How are you practicing it?
How are you tracking and measuring your growth or performance in that area?
So, we wanted to share some of the insight we’ve gained here with you.
📊 5 Things Athletes Who Improve Regularly Do
1. They know what they’re trying to improve.
“Getting better” is too vague. The best athletes are specific. We know we are working with an elite athlete when they have an extremely specific answer for us right away.
They’ve reflected, they’ve used data. They know how they need to move their inchworm.
(Golf Example Incoming) You have to be more specific than you think.
Are you working on your putting? Or are you working on your speed in putts inside of 10 feet?
Clear goals create focused work.
2. They don’t just train. They reflect.
After practice or training, most athletes immediately move on.
The best athletes pause and ask:
What did I do well today?
What hurt me today?
What needs attention tomorrow?
That’s how learning happens.
3. They stop blaming everything else.
A lot of athletes will have plenty of excuses for why they didn’t play, practice, or train better.
Great athletes ask:
“What can I control right now?”
They become masters at controlling what they are able to control. But, they do that by building mental reps every day. What are you in control of? Get really good at that.
4. They track their growth.
What gets measured gets improved. Most athletes track outcomes.
Whatever you’ve said in number 1 - how are you measuring it?
What’s your plan for it?
What are you doing every day to improve?
What is the “test” you are using to see how you’ve improved?
Pick 1–2 things. Track them every day. Make improvement visible for yourself.
Guess what? If you do this - it basically turns into your reflection!
5. They understand confidence is deeper than a feeling.
Confidence has nothing to do with how you’re feeling today, tomorrow, or anytime in the future. It’s not how well you feel like you’re playing.
It’s a deeper state of being. One that comes from understanding that one game, one week, or one practice doesn’t define you because with a good development system (see above), your improvement is inevitable.
It will happen. You don’t need one at-bat, one shot, one good game to prove that to yourself.
Nothing to lose. Nothing to prove. Nothing to hide. That’s confidence.
⚠️ The Real Trap
A lot of athletes will stay busy this offseason.
Very few will actually change.
Because improvement doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from becoming more intentional about what you’re doing.
🏁 Concluding Thought
Don’t just settle this offseason for saying that you worked hard.
Build a proven system for yourself where you can guarantee to yourself and anyone else that you got better because you have an area, reflection, and data to prove it.
🛠️ Want to Build Elite Culture?
Get BETTER’s Culture Playbook. A system designed to install a thriving, healthy, high-performance culture. Join over 1,000 coaches who use our Culture Playbook from youth club teams to national championship NCAA programs and everything in between.
Our first book, Lead Yourself First, is our field manual for coaches to build their Leadership. We’ve heard from many coaches who have read it, love it, and are taking their staff through it.
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