June 10, 2004
Lightning Strikes
Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup earlier this week with a stirring, emotional Game 7 win over Calgary, in which an embattled, injured Russian (Ruslan Fedetenko) scored the winning goal. Even more interesting is how the Lightning's cool coach, John Tortorella, motivated his troops to play in the biggest game of their careers.
Game 7 should be played like a lot of these guys in uniform were playing on ponds -- thinking about when they were playing on ponds. I think the most important thing is to allow yourself to play, not be in a tentative attitude.
So the answer to the most intense pressure an adult athlete can ever face is to play like a kid. "Cocoon" in real life. A neat, and obviously effective, idea.
Posted by glenn
Comments