Who Wants it More?
I was just
reading an article about an upcoming football game. One of the quotes from a coach was,
“It will
all come down to who wants it more.”
This has
always been my favorite bull-dinky coach comment. Just incase your team loses, you can just
say,
“The
other team wanted to win more.”
Sort of hard
to disprove I guess, but what does it really mean.
I remember
when I was in high school playing football, and I must have heard a thousand
times,
“You guys
don’t want it bad enough!”
Like that is
supposed to get a player to try harder.
“You don’t
want it bad enough”,
or “They just want to win more than you do” is a coaches way of saying, “It’s
not my fault, I coached the hell out of you and I have a great game plan, if
you lose it is your fault.”
I suppose
coaches think they are inspiring their players.
Sometimes inspiration works…for maybe five or ten minutes, usually inspiration
loses to superior players.
When I was a
170-pound high school defensive tackle, and a 230-pound offensive lineman
pushed me around the field, he didn’t do that because he wanted it more than
me, he pushed me around because HE COULD.
A sporting
event is won or lost because one team is just better. Maybe they are just a little better on a
given day, maybe they just caught a few lucky breaks, but a team never wins because
they wanted to win more than the other team.
That is especially true when the game is for a championship and or lots
of money.
Sports
experts love to espouse this crap. Well,
I guarantee that the team that wins a game does not win because they wanted to
win the most…it does not work that way.
While I’m at
it, no one, no matter how much they want to win can ever give more than a 100%
effort. You can not give a 110% effort
coach; take a math class dickhead!
The reason your
team is not blocking and tackling very well is because the other team is better
at avoiding blocks and tackles than your team is at blocking and tackling.
Telling your
team that they need to execute better is really just saying “You need to
play better.”
Telling your
team they need to try harder is really just saying,
“You need
to play better.”
Telling your
team they need to play better is not coaching, it is a coach’s copout.
It is like
saying that in school I would have had the number one grade point average, except
543 people wanted it more than me, I just didn’t execute, and I should have
tried harder.
Come to
think of it, that explanation is better than,
"I was just stupid!"
"I was just stupid!"
When I was young I wanted to win the Lottery. To win big and live in luxury with beautiful women, wine and song. I could perhaps give up the song for more women! Anyway, there is nothing I wanted more! I really wanted it more than anything else. I prayed about it time and time again that God would make me win the Lottery.
ReplyDeleteIt never happened. Years later I learnt, like you say, that wanting it more than anyone else is not enough. To win the Lottery you should at least buy a Lottery ticket.
God bless.
33 years of buying tickets hasn't worked either. Yet.
DeleteThe words 'try harder' still resonate in my brain. Perhaps it's time to give the brain a rest haha.
ReplyDeleteNever thought of it that way but it does take the coach off the hook.
ReplyDeleteTwo or three times a week I play racquetball ~ mostly with the same group of 10 to 12 women, and sometimes pick up games with the guys (which is always a little risky, 'cause they hit the ball really hard, and those bruises are ugleeee!). I always want to win. I try really hard to win. There are times when I can hit exactly what I want to and win, and there are times when I just struggle to get the ball to the front wall. :-) Desire just isn't enough.
ReplyDeleteLol, Victor!
That is pretty silly advice to give. Must have some coach guide out there with moronic pep talk sayings.
ReplyDeleteBetty
If you aren't that good, work hard to become better, don't just throw platitudes around.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, all the hard work in the world can't build a championship team. A past principal once told me, "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t." Matter-of-factly, not in a mean way.
ReplyDeleteThis is why some of our Prized teams aren't winning, they keep swapping (Buying) players from one team to another so none of them gets used to playing with a particular team method, which means they're at a loss out on the field.
DeleteI just watched the Ohio State - Michigan State game. I think the reason Ohio State won is because they are better.
ReplyDeleteOur football is different to yours and I don't know if we have "game plans" other than "kick more goals and win". but I did once hear a father say to his daughter's netball team, "pretend you're on the other team, think about their next moves and foil them. They won 90 to 0 that day. So that seems like a good game plan.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I could never play on a team.
ReplyDeleteWhen my boys played sports growing up they would play their hardest. Sometimes they would win, sometimes they would lose. We just said, " well, that's the way it goes...lets get some pizza".
ReplyDelete"Insult them and make'em mad and they'll miraculously play better" is what I believe is the strategy of some coaches.
ReplyDeletei don't appreciate such encouragements that comes with weird words ans specially negative emotions dear Joe
ReplyDeletei so agree that winning is not about being better team it depends upon day to day performance and
how psyche of each player works at that day
it also depends on collaboration among player on specific day