When Less Is More: What Curt Cignetti’s Indiana Practices Teach Us About Sustainable Performance

In sports, we often assume that more means better.

More repetitions. More instruction. More meetings. Longer practices. More time devoted to getting better.

But what if one of the keys to better performance is not doing more—but being more intentional about what we do?

A recent ESPN feature by Jake Trotter takes readers inside Curt Cignetti’s practices at Indiana, where the defending national champions have built a distinctly different approach. Practices are short, highly organized, fast-moving, and demanding. Players know the practice plan beforehand. There is little standing around. Cignetti rarely stops the session to correct every mistake, and practices—including walkthrough and stretching—can be completed in about 90 minutes.

The expectation is simple: when it is time to work, the work matters.

That philosophy has an important connection to sports wellness.

Quality Over Volume

One of the most striking ideas in the ESPN story is that Indiana does not rely on endless repetitions.

Instead, players are expected to perform fewer repetitions with greater purpose and intensity.

For coaches, that raises an important question:

Does every part of our practice have a clear purpose?

More training does not automatically produce more development. Repetitions performed when athletes are physically tired, mentally disengaged, or simply going through the motions may add volume without adding much learning.

Intentional coaching asks us to consider what each activity is designed to accomplish—and whether there is a more effective way to accomplish it.

Sometimes athletes need another repetition.

Sometimes they need recovery.

Sometimes they need an opportunity to think, adjust, and try again.

Knowing the difference is part of coaching.

Respecting the Athlete’s Time

Another theme running through Indiana’s approach is respect for time.

Players interviewed by ESPN described having more time after practice to recover, watch film, attend class, and move through the rest of their day without feeling rushed.

That matters because athletes do not stop being people when practice begins.

They are students, teammates, friends, sons and daughters. Younger athletes may move directly from school to practice, homework, family responsibilities, travel, and other activities.

All of that creates load.

Training is one part of that load—not the entire picture.

At the Sports Wellness Institute, we believe coaches should consider the whole athlete when thinking about performance. Sleep, recovery, relationships, academics, mental and emotional well-being, and time away from sport all influence an athlete’s ability to train, learn, compete, and remain engaged.

Respecting those areas is not lowering the standard.

It may help athletes meet the standard more consistently.

High Standards and Well-Being Can Coexist

Indiana’s practices are shorter, but they are not easier.

The pace is demanding. Expectations are high. Players move quickly from one activity to the next and are expected to compete with purpose.

That distinction is important.

Supporting athlete well-being does not mean removing challenge, accountability, or competitive expectations.

The better question is:

How can we create demanding environments without making them unnecessarily draining?

High standards and athlete well-being do not need to exist in opposition.

When training is purposeful, communication is clear, recovery is respected, and athletes understand what is expected of them, performance and well-being can reinforce one another.

That is sustainable performance.

The Coach Does Not Have to Fill Every Moment

There is another element of Cignetti’s approach that should resonate with coaches.

He does not constantly stop practice.

Players know the plan. Assistant coaches coach their groups. Mistakes are often addressed later in meetings or during subsequent walkthroughs rather than immediately stopping everyone.

That reflects an important principle:

Not every moment requires the coach’s voice.

Coaches naturally want to correct mistakes. But when every mistake produces another interruption, explanation, or instruction, athletes can become increasingly dependent on the coach to solve the problem for them.

Athletes also need opportunities to see, decide, respond, make mistakes, and adjust.

At SWI, we often encourage coaches to think in terms of:

Observe. Ask. Guide.

Sometimes an athlete needs instruction.

Sometimes the right question can create better learning.

And sometimes the best coaching decision is allowing the athlete another opportunity to solve the problem.

Research grounded in Self-Determination Theory also continues to support the importance of coaching environments that foster autonomy, competence, and relatedness—factors associated with stronger motivation, engagement, and performance.

Coaching Is Environment Design

The larger lesson from Indiana is not that every team should practice for 90 minutes.

Different sports, ages, competitive levels, and periods of the season require different approaches.

The lesson is intentionality.

Coaches are constantly designing an environment, whether they realize it or not.

Athletes notice:

How organized practice is.

How much time is spent waiting.

Whether activities have a clear purpose.

How coaches respond to mistakes.

Whether athletes are trusted to solve problems.

Whether recovery is respected.

Whether the coach’s words carry meaning—or simply fill the silence.

Those choices accumulate.

Eventually, they become culture.

And culture influences how athletes learn, communicate, recover, feel, and perform.

A Question for Coaches

Before the next practice, consider asking:

What could we remove without reducing the quality of the experience?

Perhaps it is unnecessary waiting.

Another meeting.

An extra set of repetitions.

A long explanation that could become one clear coaching cue.

Or a drill that has remained in the practice plan simply because it has always been there.

Whole-athlete coaching does not mean doing less for athletes.

It means being more thoughtful about what we ask of them.

Purposeful training. Clear communication. Appropriate challenge. Athlete ownership. Recovery. Relationships. Time away from sport.

They are not separate from performance.

They are part of the system that produces it.

Curt Cignetti’s Indiana program offers a timely reminder that more is not always better.

Sometimes better is better.

And for coaches, that may begin with one simple question:

Does everything we are doing need to be there?

Source: Jake Trotter, “Inside Curt Cignetti’s uber-efficient practice at Indiana,” ESPN, September 2, 2026.

Additional reading: Gao, M. & Zhao, D. (2026). The association between autonomy-supportive coaching and athletes’ personal best performance: indirect associations involving basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.