While I understand what you are saying, respectfully I disagree in the majority about only head to head competition.
One of the “features” suggested, one that I tend to follow and want my athletes to follow, when setting goals is to resist the urge in making a goal to beat “XYZ” unless the time also reflects your current abilities.
Granted much of the time when achieving a final round, beating the other athletes is exactly the goal but in the process of goal setting and wanting to beat someone, do you not always run the risk of the, “I was not at my best” if you do not beat them, and the, “I was not at my best” from the competition if you do beat them? What happens if the day of one or the other(s) is clearly injured?
On a more technical level outside of a certain time frame, assuming all athletes are striving for that same competition, you have no way of knowing where exactly in a training cycle the competitor is, that competition may not have the same importance to all competitors.
There are situations where I agree more with what you say such as the early generation of the Gracie (sp?) family but I suspect as soon as you put yourself in a “combat” arena the “beat the competitor” becomes the only thing; and of course head to head “competition” in training circumstance can have benefits but it can also have pitfalls.
