Sport-Blog.com

What really turns you on in sports?

For me the real excitement in sport has to be in the formulation and execution of individual or team tactics for specific games.

Every team, and every individual sportsman or sports woman in whatever sport you care to think of will generally have strengths and weaknesses. No matter how strong and invincible they look, as long as they are human, they will have some soft under belly that somebody can take advantage of to win a game.

I remember the time not too long ago when people were convinced that Mike Tyson was invincible, undefeatable. More on Iron Mike later.

Even computers programmed to play chess against mere mortals have weaknesses and that's why they draw games with humans instead of beating the hell out of them. Well, that is the subject of another article so let us not digress too much here.

The idea is to use your strength to take advantage of the weaknesses of the opponent to register a stunning win. How many memorable games have been won using this basic sports tactic? Actually more than you and I can count.

Mohammed Ali, went into the ramble in the jungle in Congo with George Foreman knowing very well that his opponent was much stronger than he was. He had no illusions as to what would happen if he let a left hook from Foreman catch him off guard. The fight would be over pretty fast and he would be the loser.

So what did Ali do? He tired out and frustrated his opponent by protecting himself and dancing around the ring, always out of reach of Foreman's heavy punches. Then when the fighter was tiring, Ali simply bounced off the ropes and ended the fight.

In fact this was really the essence of Ali as a fighter. His secret of success so to speak. He would always carefully weight his opponent and then use the correct tactics to win. I am sorry to keep on bringing up this great fighter's name in my articles, but it is good to examine the reasons why he deserves the title of "the greatest."

Still on boxing, the first boxer to defeat Mike Tyson was not a great boxer. He simply used the correct tactics to defeat "iron Mike" at his prime. He noticed that as Mike Tyson's reputation grew, the champion ended his fights early. So what would happen if somebody survived the first few rounds and tired out Tyson? So those are exactly the tactics they used, and they won.

This use of tactics to shift the balance of power in a game is what really makes sports exciting for me. What would sports be if it was all entirely predictable, if always the stronger team instead of the smarter one won. I put it to you that it would all be just too boring.

What excitement when the correct tactics gives the world a totally unknown new name winner at Wimbledon? Or causes a rare upset in the NFL?

Let us take another vivid example, this time from the world of soccer. Everybody knows Russian billionaire Roman Abromavich who bought this English soccer club called Chelsea. He used his check book to buy every world class soccer player that he could lay his hands on. But this did not give him a winning team until he got a manager who was able to come up with the right team tactics to suit the club's strengths. The manager's name is of course Jose Mourinho. Jose Mourinho has made all the difference at Chelsea.

Just like all those top team coaches in the NBA.

I really admire the careful thinking that goes behind the formulation of some devastating tactics that change the course of a game. I also greatly admire the thinkers in sports who are behind them.

How similar sports is to real life, all you need to succeed in business or at your job or in life, is to use your strengths to take advantage of the weaknesses of your opponents.