I don't do much sports or concert photography these days--or indeed a lot of photography outside of my iPhone--but I observe that while I still have some photos from film days that I think are pretty decent, being able to just shoot thousands of photos of some event helps to get the few keepers.

Getting expressions/the way people are aligned/etc. is just so unpredictable that, even if you're in the a reasonable location to shoot and the light is generally good, high-speed shooting and maybe thousands of frames helps to beat a few rolls of film. Even pros with motor drives were relatively constrained.

As others have observed though, there's also planning and just spending the time. The favorite photo I've taken in Death Valley over many visits is a fairly standard location/view but the sky is just really unusual for the area. I suppose these days (or really at the time given enough skill and imagination), I could just have done a photo-composite.