My friend is showing interest in VGC but is too scared to try battling online. He complains about how there's nothing to do in Sword and Shield but when I suggest he tries battling people online he says that there's no point because "everyone uses the same smogon meta mons" and "tryharding is lame"

I get the feeling he's just a little scared of failure and is parroting some of the stuff he reads on here so how do I make him stop being such a little beta? He's not stupid, so I'm sure he'd do fine but he's just scared of competition sometimes. He's the kindof guy to call someone a "sweat" or "tryhard" if they beat him, even if they were just messing around and not being serious. What can I do to get him away from this kind of mentality?