Lesson 4 - "Coms"

As a college athlete I have spent countless hours in team and position meetings. Spent countless hours watching film and studying defenses and offensive schemes. All so that I was prepared for two hours of game time every Saturday. The time spent practicing and preparing for show time was often 31 time grater that the time is spent playing.

Yet come Saturday I was able to tell you what defense my opponent was likely to line up in when we lined up for a specific play, what blitz they were likely to run and what coverage they were likely to use to stop us. I was able to tell you what player was most likely to stop the play.

All of this was extremely helpful, but even with all of this information the speed of the game was often so fast that you didn't realize you were processing all this information. In stead you relied on the other members of your team to provide data to help you process this information.

Knowing where someone is supported to be at the start of a play is great, until that's not where they actuality are. This does not mean that the whole play is ruined either, it simply means that slight adaptations need to be made to execute the play to its intent.

Relying on the communication of ones team mates helps one prepare for the oncoming situation. It allows for adaptations to be made on the fly as well as for them to be made in the response to other adaptations already made. Good communication allows for these adaptations to happen while not affecting the outcome of that was intend.  In most cases it improves ones ability to actually reach that outcome.