Run through the tape, not to it
After writing the previous post and preparing to edit my saved post on the final round of the Corus tournament, I noticed this old unfinished post on a very similar topic. Given the thematic unity, this looks like a good time to finish it (with some modifications).
*****
Last summer I watched the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, and saw for the umpteenth time one of the most common and foolish errors an athlete can make. Even when I was a teenager, I was taught to run through the finish line, not just to it. (A helpful trick, for those of you who run, is to imagine the finish line is 5-10 meters further away than it really is.) Yet time after time, even world-class athletes slow down before the finish line, throwing away medals, qualifying spots and records in the process. Carl Lewis threw away an easy world record in the 200 meters years ago when he ran the last two meters with his hands up, Tyson Gay probably threw away a 100m world record in the Trials (after nearly blowing qualification in a previous heat for the same reason) when he put on the brakes about 7 meters before the tape, and further examples can be multiplied indefinitely.
The most poignant case came in the final event of the women's heptathlon, the 800 meters. While neither Lewis nor Gay lost first place in the aforementioned races, the heptathlon case was a big deal. This is not a glamour event - heptathletes are not receiving million dollar appearance fees nor much recognition. The Olympics is their big show, both competitively and as a chance to earn a good payday for their athletic prowess. Before winning in the Olympics, one must first qualify for the Olympics, and to qualify for the U.S. team, one must finish in the top three.
After six of seven events, the first two places were out of reach, but the race for third was very close - only 20 points separated Virginia Johnson from the third-placed Diana Pickler. Johnson would have to defeat Pickler in the 800 meters by about 1.5-2 seconds to surpass her, and she had her chance. Pickler stayed on her shoulder through about 600 meters, but then Johnson kicked it into gear. Pickler didn't fold, but coming down the homestretch Johnson's lead was at or close to what she'd need.
One is sure that Johnson has been told - many times - to run through the tape, and after years of training and with her dream in sight one would think she would be motivated to push out every last bit of energy to get that coveted third spot. One would think that, but one would be wrong. She started easing up at the very end, while Pickler ran with desperation. Johnson won the race by .71 seconds, but only gained ten points on her rival, finishing ten little points behind. Not much, but it's the difference between gaining the Olympics and waiting four more years.
Why did she slow up? At least five possible answers come to mind: outright stupidity, poor training, a lack of motivation, fatigue and overconfidence. Let's consider each.
1. Outright stupidity. Those of us used to yelling at our TV screens might offer this "explanation", but it's not really likely. One need not be a rocket scientist to learn to run hard to the end of a race, and it's highly unlikely in any case that the huge percentage of athletes guilty of this fundamental error are mentally challenged.
2. Poor training. This can be subdivided in at least two sub-answers: poor coaching and poor practice. The poor coaching explanation posits that her coaches never told her to finish strong, or at least failed to emphasize it on a regular basis. The poor practice explanation suggests that when she ran practice 800 meters (or other races), she'd often pull up prematurely, thus developing a bad habit. The former seems very unlikely - even I as a very amateur participant in track in my younger years knew how to finish; it's almost inconceivable that the coaches and trainers of a world-class athlete could fail to make such a point. It does seem possible to me that she developed bad habits in training, though, for which her coaches and trainers might deserve some blame.
3. A lack of motivation. If qualifying for the Olympics, when the goal was so close she could almost taste it, failed to motivate her, then she might be a zombie.
4. Fatigue. As the saying goes, fatigue makes cowards of us all. It might be that this, together with another explanation (like #5), could be a contributor to Johnson's finish.
5. Overconfidence. I'm not sure if there was a Jumbotron or other overhead monitor she might have been able to look at, but maybe she felt she had done enough to win and eased up, thinking the job was done. This could be part of the story, though if it is her allowing herself to ease up was unwise. If she had been right, she'd have gained very little - maybe her heart would reach its resting pulse rate a second earlier? If, on the other hand, she was wrong - or even in danger of being wrong - she was risking many years of hard work for practically nothing.
The moral here isn't limited to track and field. Look at Turkey's great last-minute comebacks in the 2008 European soccer (or as some confused souls call it, "football") championships - was it just magic that their opponents could shut them down for 85 minutes or more, only to be defenseless in the last 1-5 minutes of a game? Or take (American) football: fans have all seen some joker showboating as he neared the end zone, only to be tackled before the goal line or to have the ball stripped away.
And finally, this happens in chess, too, and for the same reasons that applied in the track and field case. When we train, solving tactics problems, for example, do we feel we've done a "good enough" job when we find the key move and the basic idea, even if we've missed some crucial tactical point? If so, we should strive for more self-discipline. As Alexander Suvorov (may have) said, "Hard training - easy combat; easy training - hard combat."
Likewise, fatigue can be a factor. The moral there is to acquire healthy habits, obviously - exercise, eat intelligently (at least/especially during a tournament) and try to get enough sleep. Our opponents want to win; that's fine, but let's not help them!
*****
Last summer I watched the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, and saw for the umpteenth time one of the most common and foolish errors an athlete can make. Even when I was a teenager, I was taught to run through the finish line, not just to it. (A helpful trick, for those of you who run, is to imagine the finish line is 5-10 meters further away than it really is.) Yet time after time, even world-class athletes slow down before the finish line, throwing away medals, qualifying spots and records in the process. Carl Lewis threw away an easy world record in the 200 meters years ago when he ran the last two meters with his hands up, Tyson Gay probably threw away a 100m world record in the Trials (after nearly blowing qualification in a previous heat for the same reason) when he put on the brakes about 7 meters before the tape, and further examples can be multiplied indefinitely.
The most poignant case came in the final event of the women's heptathlon, the 800 meters. While neither Lewis nor Gay lost first place in the aforementioned races, the heptathlon case was a big deal. This is not a glamour event - heptathletes are not receiving million dollar appearance fees nor much recognition. The Olympics is their big show, both competitively and as a chance to earn a good payday for their athletic prowess. Before winning in the Olympics, one must first qualify for the Olympics, and to qualify for the U.S. team, one must finish in the top three.
After six of seven events, the first two places were out of reach, but the race for third was very close - only 20 points separated Virginia Johnson from the third-placed Diana Pickler. Johnson would have to defeat Pickler in the 800 meters by about 1.5-2 seconds to surpass her, and she had her chance. Pickler stayed on her shoulder through about 600 meters, but then Johnson kicked it into gear. Pickler didn't fold, but coming down the homestretch Johnson's lead was at or close to what she'd need.
One is sure that Johnson has been told - many times - to run through the tape, and after years of training and with her dream in sight one would think she would be motivated to push out every last bit of energy to get that coveted third spot. One would think that, but one would be wrong. She started easing up at the very end, while Pickler ran with desperation. Johnson won the race by .71 seconds, but only gained ten points on her rival, finishing ten little points behind. Not much, but it's the difference between gaining the Olympics and waiting four more years.
Why did she slow up? At least five possible answers come to mind: outright stupidity, poor training, a lack of motivation, fatigue and overconfidence. Let's consider each.
1. Outright stupidity. Those of us used to yelling at our TV screens might offer this "explanation", but it's not really likely. One need not be a rocket scientist to learn to run hard to the end of a race, and it's highly unlikely in any case that the huge percentage of athletes guilty of this fundamental error are mentally challenged.
2. Poor training. This can be subdivided in at least two sub-answers: poor coaching and poor practice. The poor coaching explanation posits that her coaches never told her to finish strong, or at least failed to emphasize it on a regular basis. The poor practice explanation suggests that when she ran practice 800 meters (or other races), she'd often pull up prematurely, thus developing a bad habit. The former seems very unlikely - even I as a very amateur participant in track in my younger years knew how to finish; it's almost inconceivable that the coaches and trainers of a world-class athlete could fail to make such a point. It does seem possible to me that she developed bad habits in training, though, for which her coaches and trainers might deserve some blame.
3. A lack of motivation. If qualifying for the Olympics, when the goal was so close she could almost taste it, failed to motivate her, then she might be a zombie.
4. Fatigue. As the saying goes, fatigue makes cowards of us all. It might be that this, together with another explanation (like #5), could be a contributor to Johnson's finish.
5. Overconfidence. I'm not sure if there was a Jumbotron or other overhead monitor she might have been able to look at, but maybe she felt she had done enough to win and eased up, thinking the job was done. This could be part of the story, though if it is her allowing herself to ease up was unwise. If she had been right, she'd have gained very little - maybe her heart would reach its resting pulse rate a second earlier? If, on the other hand, she was wrong - or even in danger of being wrong - she was risking many years of hard work for practically nothing.
The moral here isn't limited to track and field. Look at Turkey's great last-minute comebacks in the 2008 European soccer (or as some confused souls call it, "football") championships - was it just magic that their opponents could shut them down for 85 minutes or more, only to be defenseless in the last 1-5 minutes of a game? Or take (American) football: fans have all seen some joker showboating as he neared the end zone, only to be tackled before the goal line or to have the ball stripped away.
And finally, this happens in chess, too, and for the same reasons that applied in the track and field case. When we train, solving tactics problems, for example, do we feel we've done a "good enough" job when we find the key move and the basic idea, even if we've missed some crucial tactical point? If so, we should strive for more self-discipline. As Alexander Suvorov (may have) said, "Hard training - easy combat; easy training - hard combat."
Likewise, fatigue can be a factor. The moral there is to acquire healthy habits, obviously - exercise, eat intelligently (at least/especially during a tournament) and try to get enough sleep. Our opponents want to win; that's fine, but let's not help them!
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Sunday February 1, 2009 at 11:33pm