Milestones & Moments
There’s a version of a rivalry game where the player looks back afterward and doesn’t quite recognize who they were on the field.
The comment they made that wasn’t like them. The play they made that crossed the line. The way they responded to a provocation that they wouldn’t have responded to in any other game. The rivalry brought something out of them that their normal competitive self doesn’t do.
That’s the emotional logic of rivalries at work. And it’s worth having a conversation about it before the whistle blows.
Read this passage slowly.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Do not let yourselves be burdened again. Paul is describing the temptation to return to a constraint that was already broken. In the rivalry context: the constraint is the pressure to be something other than who you are because the game has elevated stakes.
The rivalry game creates a specific temptation to let the environment determine your behavior. The crowd, the history, the opponent’s tactics, the emotion of the room — all of it can combine to produce a version of you that the normal competitive environment doesn’t. Sometimes that’s more intense and focused. Sometimes it’s less controlled and more reactive.
The athlete who competes in a rivalry game from their own foundation — who brings their character into the elevated environment rather than letting the environment override their character — is the athlete who competes best in it. Because they’re not spending energy managing the emotional pull of the rivalry. They’re channeling the intensity into the game itself.
Know who you are before the whistle blows. And be that person for the full ninety minutes — not the person the rivalry tries to make you.
The athlete who brings their character into the rivalry rather than letting the rivalry override their character competes best in it.
What’s the specific thing that this rivalry is most likely to pull out of you that isn’t the competitor you want to be? Name it and pre-decide what you’re going to do instead.
Pre-commitment before the trigger arrives. The specificity is what makes it actionable.
Know who you are before the whistle blows. Be that person all the way through.
Best delivered the day before the rivalry game. The pre-decision needs a night to settle before the game environment arrives.