We hear it all year long. It’s “playoff time.” Football, basketball, baseball, etc. My question is “what were we doing during the season?”

I am no mathematician, but I thought 100% was 100%. Shouldn’t we be practicing at 100%, performing at 100%, playing as a team at 100%? It seems to me that if we were doing that, we would be prepared to play any hand we were dealt.

Coaches talk all the time about consistency. Practicing what we need to practice at 100% provides that. I do not mean that our performance is a steady flat line. In medical circles you are dead if that was the case. Some practices are going to be great, some good and others in-between.

I am not discounting the fact that as human beings we are prone to be excited about reaching our goals. I also know from my own experience that the closer we get, the more “relaxed” my team and I need too be.

What I am saying about relaxed is we are grounded, centered and prepared. We are getting our rest. We are keeping things simple. No big changes. Doing what got us there and using our personnel from trust. If I trust them they will trust themselves.

The first year I was the Head Basketball Coach at Santa Ana College my team went to the State Tournament. After winning the first round game we faced Compton College, the No. 1 ranked team going into the tournament. We were playing really well in our man-to-man defense when my center, Jim Cunningham, got a “ticky-tac” third foul. Instead of trusting my backup guy we changed defenses and went to a zone to protect Jim from getting a fourth foul.

The whole momentum for the game changed and our 10-point lead dwindled down to nothing by the end of the game. We lost in overtime although we had a nice 17 footer to win in regulation. Had I trusted Kevin, my backup center, he would have done a great job against their star center for a totally different outcome.

Watch the playoffs and see that the further they go the more conservative the coach gets. In basketball the conventional wisdom is that a running team can’t win it all. They don’t win it all because they stop running.

They got there by doing what they do best. They say defense wins championships. The team played both to get there. They tensed a little. They lost their edge. Of course there are other factors and we’ll look at them another time.

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