Anson Dorrance is the women’s soccer coach at the University of North Carolina. During his tenure, the Tar Heels have won 23 National Championships.

It’s hard to wrap your head around that stat. While Dorrance had done endless things to create his dynasty, one stands out. . .

The Competitive Cauldron.

As coaches, we prize competition. We expect our players to compete to their highest level in everything they do. But, if we are really honest with ourselves, we know that doesn’t always happen.

Players are clever. Over time, they realize what are the most “important” parts of practice. They notice what you pay the most attention to. And they adjust accordingly. They pace when they can and push when they need to.

Now, is that every player? No - there are a few special ones who only know one way to play.

But it’s the majority. Even at a program like Alabama football, which has set the standard in college football for the last 15 years, Nick Saban said the following:

“It’s not human nature to be great. It’s human nature to survive, to be average, and to do what you have to do to get by.”

If that’s Saban’s experience working with the best college football players in the country, would you expect yours to be different?

It won’t be . . . unless you create an environment where competing at all times isn’t a choice!

In the 1st part of this 2 part series, you’ll learn:

• Where the competitive cauldron comes from

• How the cauldron makes extrinsic motivation your friend

• Why it will dramatically improve your culture 

• How it helps you in dealing with playing time issues

• Next steps & related resources

The Origin Of The Cauldron

While Dorrance is now associated with the idea of the Competitive Cauldron, he credits legendary North Carolina men’s basketball coach Dean Smith with the general idea.

In his book, The Man Watching, Dorrance talks about going to watch Smith’s team practice.

While there, he noticed that managers were tracking players' stats throughout practice. At the end of practice, they would tally the stats and those with the best stats would have less conditioning. (Those at the bottom were not so lucky - they “ran for weeks”, according to Dorrance.)

Dorrance took the idea and made it his own. He began to track stats that applied to soccer. He made the standings public. He even shared them with parents (more on that later!).

What was the result? Their program became known for its competitiveness. And the results speak for themselves.

Using Extrinsic Motivation To Your Advantage

We all want our players to go hard every second of every practice. We want them to do so because that’s the type of person they are - someone who is intrinsically motivated to do their best at all times.

However, many players don’t operate that way. For many players, effort is a means to an end.

• They work hard in order to get playing time.

• They also work hard if they know they’re accountable for their effort.

The cauldron combines both those elements into one document.

• First, it becomes a way for you to determine playing time. I am NOT saying it is THE determinant of playing time. Some coaches use it that way. The top 5 players in the standings are the starters. That’s up to you.

  Even if you don’t use it to determine starters, it should be a major factor in determining playing time.

  The cauldron is a great way to fight entitlement and complacency. If players know that the standings factor into their minutes, they will compete to move up the standings.

• Second, it’s a publicly shared document. I post mine on our team’s Google Classroom, where it’s updated daily. I also print a copy and post it in the locker room before practice each day.

  At first, it didn’t garner a lot of attention. But once players realized that I valued it, I saw them start to go over and look and talk about where they ranked.

Some of you might be concerned about the players seeing themselves at the bottom of the standings.

While I understand that, I think the benefits outweigh the costs. They will be evaluated throughout their life. The cauldron is not demeaning.

There is no editorializing. It’s simply a sheet with data. In this way, it’s no different than the stats packet you give out at the end of the year.

If you have already established a culture where all players are respected no matter their role, posting the cauldron will enhance that culture, not diminish it.

A Culture Where EVERYTHING Matters

Once you start using the Cauldron, you’ll see the level of competitiveness in your practice go through the roof. 

Players will know they can’t take plays off. They’ll realize you are serious when you say “everything matters.”

Coaches talk about how playing hard is a skill. I agree with that. Over time, the goal is to build players who only know one way to play - all out!

The long term goal would be that even if you took the cauldron away (I wouldn’t do this), players would still go hard all the time because that’s how they’ve learned to practice.

In other words, you shifted their motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic. That’s a powerful and transformational moment that extends beyond the court.

The Stats Don’t Lie - The Cauldron’s Effect On Playing Time Conversations

Another positive about posting the cauldron is that it gives support to your coaching decisions. Assuming you’re using it to guide playing time, you have OBJECTIVE data to back you up.

Whether we like it or not, parents (and players) have come to expect explanations to many of our decisions. The days of respecting coaches’ decisions from a distance are gone.

No one likes being questioned. But if you can answer those questions with data, you are more likely to resolve those issues positively.

As coaches, we know more than the parents. However, if our playing time decisions are purely subjective, it opens us to more criticism.

Having data to back up those decisions is a huge deal. The fact that it’s practice data helps, too! We all tell our parents that practice matters. We tell them practice is where playing time is earned.

They don’t physically see what happens in practice. But now, they can “see” what is going on through the Cauldron. The data is our “evidence”.

Next Steps To Make The Cauldron Your Own

I hope you’re interested in trying your version of the Competitive Cauldron. I would say this - what’s the harm? The upside can be great.

That said, I realize there are still a number of unanswered questions.

• What should I track?

• How much should I track?

• How can I do this when I don’t have 10 student managers like UNC?

• What if the data doesn’t match the eye test?

• How should I use it?

Stay tuned, as those will be addressed in Part 2 of this series!

A Tailor-Made Basketball Specific “Cauldron” You Can Use TODAY!

If you’re looking for a way to do this that’s tailored directly to basketball, check out The Value Point System And Daily Drills With Danny Miles. Coach Miles, who won over 1,000 games in his career, details the system he used to track player value. It’s a simple and effective way to go beyond the box score and truly capture your players’ value!

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