As it turns out, I should have written this one a couple weeks back when Kansas State’s football team was still unbeaten and eyeing a spot in the national title game.  I didn’t see that beatdown at Baylor coming…that’s for sure.  Fortunately the point I was planning to make still works; perhaps even better than it did before the Wildcats lost on the 17th.

Some guys on a sports radio station were talking about a recent press conference where Coach Bill Snyder was asked about his outlook going into the last few games of the year.  Specifically, the question was about the need to impress voters in the polls, winning margin and “style points”.  Coach Snyder gave a predictable response about how he and his team couldn’t concern themselves with winning by a certain number or impressing voters.  He basically said that it kills your focus when you get caught up in that stuff.

The radio hosts were having a hard time with that.  The feeling was that maybe he doesn’t care for the system, but the reality of Kansas State’s situation was that they did need to impress voters and win convincingly in order to stay at the top of the polls.  They felt Coach Snyder owed it to the players and fans to scrap his “take things one possession at a time” mentality in order to provide his team with its best chance to win a championship.

Finally sanity was restored when the light bulb went on for one of the radio hosts.  He said something like, “Hang on a minute.  Maybe there’s something to this.  Maybe the best way to win by a big margin is to focus on individual plays or possessions rather than to just shoot for a big number.  Maybe that type of approach is what’s enabled Kansas State to win all these games, many of them by 30 or more.”  You could almost feel everybody on the air getting smarter.  It was pretty funny.  They immediately stopped popping off about the disservice Coach Snyder was doing his team, and transitioned to popping off about something else.

The point is that pursuing winning a game or championship as a primary goal will never provide the greatest opportunity for our team to win.  The best way to win is to break the game down and focus on the individual plays, possessions, or pitches that make up the game.  Focusing on the big picture and results in the midst of preparation or competition will almost always detract from performance and make us more likely to play poorly, which makes us more likely to lose.  Winners and champions are made by eliminating the noise and focusing on steps in the process of winning.  If you don’t believe me ask Bill Snyder.