What makes “luck”?
I was pondering over this question last night after my club team’s tournament in Turlock. All told, I coached (head or assistant) 6 games in the last 4 days. I figure that between club, high school, and futsal, I coach about 80-90 games a year. Add that up over a period of time and it’s a lot of games. There are a lot of coaches who are at more games or who have been doing it longer. But, I’ve seen my share.
Soccer is a game that can break your heart. You can do everything right, your team makes one mistake, lets up for a moment, and you walk off the field with your head down. As a coach, it will drive you crazy — what if I’d done this or said that, maybe I should have made a substitution or not. Sometimes, referees factor in — the “unlucky” call or the “bad call” or worse.
So, what makes a team “lucky” or “unlucky”?
By “luck”, I mean the sort of event that happens on the field that transcends the relative skills of the teams — the bad bounce, the favorable (or unfavorable) call, the own goal, the slip by the goalie or attacking player, that goal (or save) in the waning minutes of the game, the deflection off the post/crossbar.
I’ve had the opportunity to coach both kinds of teams. It’s a lot more fun coaching the “lucky” teams.
My general speech to the players is that “you make your own luck”. The variation is “the harder you work, the luckier we are”. In fact, I think “luck” breeds more “luck”. Likewise, “unluckiness” has a way of following teams around.
I’ve come to the conclusion that luck is coachable. Not in the same way that you would work on (say) dribbling or shooting. But, in a different kind of way.
In August, my club team worked with Sara Robinson, the club’s Sports Psychology consultant. As part of the agreement, Sara and I discussed some general objectives and the team then met with her privately. What they worked on has been between her and the girls — but there have been some tangible results on the field this year.
As a coach, I have tried to be the “even keel” with my teams — through good days and bad. And, over the course of a 80-90 game year, there are some of both. My take is — the more confidence you show as a coach in your players and the outcome, the more balance that you have during adversity, the more likely that the players will set aside misfortune and rise to achieve their best (whatever that might be).
Here’s an example. Our high school team played a game which was kind of back and forth — both teams had opportunities. In the second half, the other team scored a goal which was (rightfully) disallowed for offside. Instead of getting his kids’ heads back into the game (something like “Hey, let’s go — shake it off, let’s keep the pressure on!”), the coach blew a gasket, yelled long enough for the ref to give him a yellow card, delaying the game for a couple of minutes. Our team scored on the opposite end about 2 minutes later (off a penalty kick), then followed with 3 more quick goals. Was the offside call correct? Does it matter?
I’ve seen this happen so many times, I can pretty much predict it. A very similar scenario played out in one of my club games over the weekend — penalty kick called against the other team in the second half, their coach got all angry about the call and how he felt the ref wasn’t making calls for him, we made the kick, and while the other team had their share of possession, we weren’t really threatened the rest of the game. Did their team get caught up in the “bad luck” of the calls?
I put this together partly to get my own thoughts together on the topic and to share with others. My club team has had a special year — winning 3 tournaments and 2nd place in another — which involved some “luck” along the way.
My take is that the girls deserve a lot of credit in “making their own luck”.