Performance
I was not a football coach – and I’m sure that my football coach friends will say that I don’t know what I’m talking about. But, after forty years of coaching, from cross country to track to wrestling; I do know performance. And I have a thought about the Ohio State versus Michigan football game that concluded in another Michigan win yesterday.
I know both teams “wanted” it. No one quit; every player, on both sides, tried to play to their maximum level. So there’s something to consider: is it possible to play beyond your maximum, beyond yourself? What happens when each player all of a sudden feels the need to be a “super-hero”? I can’t tell you what the pressure is like at the Division I collegiate level, particularly now that millions of dollars ride on each player. I’ve never had to coach on that level.
Try Harder
But I can tell you this: players have to be able to respond automatically to what’s going on in front of them. Anything that makes them think, or “try” too hard, is going to disrupt the flow of their game. It’s so easy to tell an athlete to “try harder”, when it is that act of trying that often disrupts their performance. And clearly, that was happening on the Ohio State offense. (Give the Defense kudos, they held Michigan to only 13. No one expected the Buckeyes to just score 10).
Michigan’s coaches have found the secret. They can be primed, ready, pumped, without losing their “autonomic responses” that make football players great. The Wolverines weren’t screaming mad, fighting a “war” (as Ryan Day was quoted saying). They were playing their “championship game”. It’s their biggest game this season, a decent team that’s had a bad year. They had nothing to lose, and everything to gain. And they were playing to win.
And sometimes if you try to be Superman, you end up much less.
Hyped
Football is a game of muscle, of enforcing your will on someone else. But it’s also a game of mental “flow”. We saw a flash of that at the end of the second quarter, when the Ohio State offense just played. But the rest of the game, from the coaches to the players, Ohio State’s offense was playing hard not to lose. My coaching analogy is that they were trying to hold “Jell-O”. The harder you hold it, the more leaks out of your hand, until, ultimately it’s all gone. So you have to hold it gently; with control of emotion, strength, and focus.
Maybe screaming and yelling, maybe coaches breaking chairs in locker rooms work for some athletes (I’ve tried that). But what I really think is that there’s too much hype, too much craziness, too much of, “we can’t lose”. Maybe we should walk it back a step, and make it another game; not Woody’s Ten Year War, not Urban’s magic, not Ryan Day’s curse. At least, maybe that what Coach Day (if he’s still the coach come next Thanksgiving – the game is that important to Buckeye fans) needs to do.
House Divided
My best pre-game talk was simple: “Do what you do. Don’t be superman. You got us here, you’ve won before. I don’t need ‘Super You’ – I just need you”.
Ohio State’s offense tried to be Super-Bucks. They only needed to be the team that won ten games before. Michigan had nothing to lose, nothing on the line but pride. It will be interested to see what lessons are learned – as Ohio State plays through the playoffs, and as both teams take the field in “The Big House” next year.
I live in a “House Divided”. My family are Michigan fans, I am a moderate Buckeye fan. I truly hope that Coach Day figures this out, that Ohio State plays through the playoffs, and gets to a National Championship Game. He’s proven he can win almost everything – that is – except this one game.
As far as the fight after the game – I blame both coaches. Coach Moore of Michigan was so exultant, he didn’t focus on his own kids. Coach Day was clearly in shock, already replaying in slow motion a game that went by way too fast for him. Neither looked to their primary duty, a job that doesn’t end when time runs out. That duty is the behavior of their team, and the very foreseeable actions of both squads at the end of the game. You can’t say it’s a war, and then pretend it’s not when time runs out.
There’s a movie called “Any Given Sunday”, about how every team has a chance at every game. Michigan gets it, Ohio State doesn’t. But there’s always more football – and I hope my Bengals, having a “Michigan like” season, find their “given Sunday” this afternoon against Pittsburgh.
