Pragmatic Practices (7): The Dao of the Strategists

Every successful sport organization has their set of secret and non-secret strategic and tactical practices. Lets start with the near-secret stuff.

For the San Francisco Forty Niners, it is the videos of Bill Walsh teaching the fundamentals of West Coast Offense to his players.  The Bob McKittrick's videos on blocking schemes  are also quite interesting and valuable. 

Bill Walsh, the late head coach of the San Francisco Forty Niners, ran a starter list of 25 plays that served various purposes during the game time. It has been rumored that his "game changing" play was nicknamed "Play 9." With most pro football teams, their "Play 9" is to assign the flanker to run  a specific "deep go" route in an advantageous one on one situation.

New England Patriots

Bill Belichek, the current head coach of the New England Patriots manages a defensive list of 50+ different alignments. He never calls the same defensive play twice during the game. His common practice is to utilize many situational defensive formations for the purpose of confusing their opposing offensive playcallers.  In terms of command and control, Belichek leads a discipline-driven team.   We will touch more on this topic later.

Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox

It has been rumored that the Boston Celtics and the Boston Red Sox are obsessed with their "Moneyball" approach. Much of their strategic moves are influenced by the numbers that are derived from their computerized database.

Green Bay Packers

The success of the Packers can be attributed is their evaluation of talent and their own version of the West Coast Offense.

Summary
Every successful organizations and teams exploited their own well-tested and full-weathered process to the fullest.  Within each process, there is a weakness.   Do you know what is it? ...

Food for Thought

So, what are the arcane trade secrets of the Art of War (AoW) strategists? Ask the Art of War cult if they know it. ... There is more to this classic than the process of espousing a few quotes for each situation.

Through the comprehension of the strategic classics, one understands the approach of  reading one's own grand situation and while having the mastery of the required basics.  In summary of the situation, the score will take care of itself.