I played College football a very long time ago, well perhaps not that long ago. And during football season we spent a ton of time strategizing and preparing relative to how long we actually played the game. In business we are constantly in the game but how much effort (not necessarily time) do we put into preparing and strategizing to face our competitors
The first three days of the week would look like this (and this is just the first three days):
DAY 1: SUNDAY AFTER A SATURDAY GAME
The Sunday after our previous game, from 9am to 1pm, we would do some strength training and then have a pool workout and get “treatment” for any injuries, we would also go over some tape of our next opponents, starting to look at the last game they played, reviewing their plays and identifying their key players.
DAY 2: MONDAY, ISN’T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A REST DAY?
Monday was “rest” day, for the players, I put it in quotes because some of us rested while most people went into the office to watch game tape of our next opponent. This is the day that the coaches usually used to put the game plan together for the upcoming game, they would “break-down” film – for the wide receivers’ coach:
- looking at the defense,
- the tendencies of the backers when they were in a certain defense,
- how fast the defensive backs were able to turn their hips and react to certain routes,
- what passing schemes they did not defend well,
- and a million other details.
DAY 3: TUESDAY, REALLY SUPPOSED TO BE DAY 1 BUT YOU NEED EVERY SECOND YOU CAN TO PREPARE
Tuesday was day three of preparation and we would lift again somewhere around 6am then have positional meetings – wide recievers, quarterbacks, etc – around 8am before class til 9:30am . The positional coach would go over the offensive or defensive strategy for the game and walk us through all his notes from our opponent’s last game. He would go over the passing scheme we would be using, the rationale behind the strategy and make sure to point out where our opponents were weak and where they were strong, etc. After a full day of class we would practice from 4pm-8pm.
Are you tired yet? Well this was every week for ten weeks and this was only the first three days, we had not even stepped onto the football field yet to practice. I will save you the schedule for the rest of the week but it pretty much looked like Day 3.
This is how football players and coaches prepare and strategize for each football game.
How do you prepare to face your competitors? How do you prepare for those big meetings? Do you put in that much work in the first three days leading up to that big pitch? Can business owners learn anything from how football players and coaches prepare for football games?
{ 0 comments }