Application

Part of the enjoyment of sports comes from looking at the relationships among sports and other endeavors. For example, I am reading a book currently called "The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks.  Marks writes about investing.

His first three chapters deal with "second order thinking" (chess versus checkers), efficient and inefficient markets, and concepts of value.

These concepts translate well to athletics because more sophisticated approaches (most often) create relative advantages to 'conventional thinking'.  For example, in basketball, Red Auerbach was one of the early proponents of putting the five players who played best on the court together, not the five best player. This is neither subtle and totally rational. Under these circumstances, as a player, you might feel slighted if you were one of the five BEST players, but not part of the best UNIT.

Similarly, if you play a weaker schedule, you might overestimate how good you are.  The corollary is that "good times produce bad habits."  By playing tougher competition, you maintain higher states of preparation and readiness.

Concerning value, players or parents sometimes ask how can I get more playing time?  The reality for most is that offseason activities, not only playing but strength and conditioning play mightily into the 'finished product'. Fans or a community see game action or video, but they do not see the running, 'stadiums', weight and power training that enables players to play 'bigger, faster, and stronger' that may separate players.

Legendary basketball coach John Wooden defined success not via outcome but through process. A great team might have a great outcome, but a lesser team with a great process that did everything in its ability to be as good as they could become was equally successful in his view.