Former Virginia athlete, trainer shares No. 1 trait he sees that indicates future athletic success. It’s not physical: ‘You can see it in their eyes’

When Virginia-based sports performance coach Nate Daniels watches young athletes compete, he is looking for something besides speed or natural ability.

After more than two decades of training athletes, he says he knows it when he sees it.

In a TikTok video with more than 185,000 views, Daniels (@natedaniels_1) shares what he considers the best indicator of a child’s future athletic success.

“The number one attribute I look for in young kids is competitiveness,” he says.

He is quick to clarify that being competitive is not the same thing as hating to lose.

“No kid wants to lose,” he says. “If given a choice between winning or losing … I don’t think any kid would choose to lose. Some athletes just aren’t athletic enough to win.” 

‘You are willing to do anything and everything’

Daniels says genuine competitiveness is about how far an athlete is willing to push themselves.

“What competitiveness means is you are willing to do anything and everything to compete against who’s in front of you to ensure that they don’t get the best of you,” he explains. According to Daniels, this mentality reveals itself long before an athlete steps onto the field for a game.

“You can see it in the way they train … You can see it in the way they practice,” he says.

He continues, “They’re willing to do anything and everything to get better. Anything and everything to get the best of who’s in front of them. And they won’t have anything less.” 

As a coach, Daniels isn’t only paying attention to how well a kid performs physically. He also pays attention to how they respond to coaching and how hard they work toward improving.

It’s an important distinction, and one Daniels is familiar with. The coach played six seasons of professional football in the Arena Football League and was inducted into both the Ferrum College and Fairfax High School sports halls of fame. Today, he runs Daniels Sports Performance, where he works with athletes at various stages of development.

“As an athlete that was hyper-competitive as a kid, I know what that looks like when I look into another athlete’s eyes,” he says. “It’s very hard to articulate to someone who was not hyper-competitive.” 

“But we, as hyper-competitive athletes or people that train athletes, know what that looks like,” he says. “And if your kid has that, they’re well on their way.”

What sports psychology says about effort

A high school coach in the comment section of Daniels’ video chimed in, writing, “I could not agree more. Give me a competitive kid any day over a kid who just shows up to check a box.”

One viewer pointed out that “there’s a difference between not wanting to lose and wanting to win.”

Many others also stressed the importance of passion, or “having that dog” in you. “The killer instinct, it can’t be taught … [You] either have it or you don’t,” the top comment says.

There’s research supporting the importance of effort and personal improvement in youth sports, though this doesn’t necessarily form a strict competitiveness-to-success correlation.

A 2026 review from Frontiers in Psychology found that sports environments emphasizing personal mastery and autonomy were more strongly associated with positive outcomes for young athletes than environments focused mostly on outperforming others.

Likewise, there’s a big distinction between developing a competitive drive and prioritizing winning over anything else. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, young athletes identify “being a good sport, trying hard, and positive coaching” as the most fun aspects of organized sports. 

The organization recommends youth sports programs prioritize fun and design “developmentally appropriate scheduling and practices.” 

Can kids develop competitiveness?

One commenter under Daniels’ video agreed, but with a caveat.

“I have been leaning more [toward] the kids that are coachable, and you can see them actively listening to you and then buying into what you are asking them to do,” they said. “When they trust you, and they want to try what you are directing them to do, and they actually do it.”

There is research that suggests competitiveness can actually be developed. A 2026 study of 425 youth soccer and handball players found that coaches and teammates shape what they call athletes’ “motivational climates.”

The study found that an environment “focused on personal improvement, teamwork, and effort is linked to positive outcomes among young athletes, whereas a performance-oriented climate centered on social comparison and displaying superiority is associated with adverse outcomes.”

This story is republished with permission. It originally appeared on Subplot News.