We play for keeps
I'm going to take a moment here to address this idea of "winning isn't everything" and it's going to be a round about sort of post so bare with.
I agree that winning is not everything. There are ways to accomplish something in sport even when the final result is against you. However, I argue and will continue to argue that while it is not everything, it is something. Why else would one train so hard prior to a competition? Why do coaches try and put together the best lineup, the best team they can? Winning is something.
Ok so with that intro out of the way, let's move onto the meat of the matter; playing to win.
I'm sure that many sports fans and casual fans have seen the video of former Jets coach Herm Edwards and his rant about "playing to win the game." I was going to link to it but I cannot find a straight up video but suffice to say, it's fairly obvious what he is getting it. So where is this coming from?
Euro2012 is going on right now and they have advanced to the knockout stages. The game today was the quarterfinal match between Portugal and the Czech Republic. The game ended 1-0 to Portugal but that's simply the surface. The entire game, the 90 standard minutes plus stoppage time, the Czech Republic got off a total of 2 shots, neither of them on goal. They spent the majority of the game parked in front of their goal on their half of the field. They did not play to win the game. Portugal on the other hand took 20 shots, 5 on goal and got the all important result and thus have moved onto the semi finals.
What the Czech Republic did today was "play not to lose." You cannot do that because inevitably, you will lose. You cannot "save" anything. When the competition starts, you either compete or you lose. It's very black and white and there are only two outcomes: you win, you lose. When you play not to lose, you put yourself in a situation where if you make a single mistake, if you don't get your timing just right, if you lose focus for a split second, you are suddenly behind and that's what happened today. It's not as simple as the best team moving on. It's the team that came to play who moved on.
How does this have to do with rowing? Quick story.
When I was at Pacific Rowing Club we headed off to the regional championships. Not knowing the progression rule, the head coach and I decided that the best thing for our boats to do was to simply qualify for the finals. And most of them did. It wasn't till the second day that we realized our error, that by simply qualifying, we lost good lane draws and were pushed out to far lanes and exposed to the conditions. Very bad coaching decisions on our part and we were lucky to have a second chance to correct this mistake with our boat that we took to nationals.
In essence what we did was play not to lose. We didn't push to gain the advantage of protected water and we left our fate and draws up to chance and in doing so, we, the coaches, cost some of our athletes the chance to go compete for a national championship. The same thing happened to the Czech Republic today. By playing not to lose, they cost themselves any chance of moving on.
The lesson here is to simply play. It's what you trained for. It's the goal that your team had at the beginning of the season. It's the only way you're going to move on, get better, get faster, win bigger, win more. Yes you'll take some losses - sometimes many losses - along the way but that's sport, that's life, that's just how it is. But if you play not to lose, you in fact have already lost.
I agree that winning is not everything. There are ways to accomplish something in sport even when the final result is against you. However, I argue and will continue to argue that while it is not everything, it is something. Why else would one train so hard prior to a competition? Why do coaches try and put together the best lineup, the best team they can? Winning is something.
Ok so with that intro out of the way, let's move onto the meat of the matter; playing to win.
I'm sure that many sports fans and casual fans have seen the video of former Jets coach Herm Edwards and his rant about "playing to win the game." I was going to link to it but I cannot find a straight up video but suffice to say, it's fairly obvious what he is getting it. So where is this coming from?
Euro2012 is going on right now and they have advanced to the knockout stages. The game today was the quarterfinal match between Portugal and the Czech Republic. The game ended 1-0 to Portugal but that's simply the surface. The entire game, the 90 standard minutes plus stoppage time, the Czech Republic got off a total of 2 shots, neither of them on goal. They spent the majority of the game parked in front of their goal on their half of the field. They did not play to win the game. Portugal on the other hand took 20 shots, 5 on goal and got the all important result and thus have moved onto the semi finals.
What the Czech Republic did today was "play not to lose." You cannot do that because inevitably, you will lose. You cannot "save" anything. When the competition starts, you either compete or you lose. It's very black and white and there are only two outcomes: you win, you lose. When you play not to lose, you put yourself in a situation where if you make a single mistake, if you don't get your timing just right, if you lose focus for a split second, you are suddenly behind and that's what happened today. It's not as simple as the best team moving on. It's the team that came to play who moved on.
How does this have to do with rowing? Quick story.
When I was at Pacific Rowing Club we headed off to the regional championships. Not knowing the progression rule, the head coach and I decided that the best thing for our boats to do was to simply qualify for the finals. And most of them did. It wasn't till the second day that we realized our error, that by simply qualifying, we lost good lane draws and were pushed out to far lanes and exposed to the conditions. Very bad coaching decisions on our part and we were lucky to have a second chance to correct this mistake with our boat that we took to nationals.
In essence what we did was play not to lose. We didn't push to gain the advantage of protected water and we left our fate and draws up to chance and in doing so, we, the coaches, cost some of our athletes the chance to go compete for a national championship. The same thing happened to the Czech Republic today. By playing not to lose, they cost themselves any chance of moving on.
The lesson here is to simply play. It's what you trained for. It's the goal that your team had at the beginning of the season. It's the only way you're going to move on, get better, get faster, win bigger, win more. Yes you'll take some losses - sometimes many losses - along the way but that's sport, that's life, that's just how it is. But if you play not to lose, you in fact have already lost.
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