The Critical Difference Between Tactics and Strategy in Sports
The obvious difference between strategy and tactics in sports is that tactics amount to the rote execution of skills while strategy amounts to the situational execution of a plan. What’s not so obvious is how this difference separates average coaches, teams, and athletes from good coaches, teams, and athletes from great coaches, teams, and athletes.
Average coaches, teams, and athletes struggle because they only focus on tactics. This group focuses on the repetitive drilling of a limited set of tactics. As the saying goes, they have a hammer, so everything is a nail. On the other hand, good coaches, teams, and athletes do better because they adjust their tactics as they recognize what’s not working. They recognize when the hammer stops working and learn to use a screwdriver. When the screwdriver stops working, they go back and figure out how to use a drill.
Going From Average to Good to Great Requires Moving from Tactics to Strategy
Finally, there are the great coaches, teams, and athletes. This group is great because they anticipate when and why things will and won’t work, and then plan out a strategy to be more accurate, faster, and more efficient with the use of their tactics in each situation. To continue with the hardware metaphor, this group knows when it’s best to use a hammer and when it’s not before the hammer stops working. Moreover, even if a hammer would work, they would never use it if a drill would work better.
In summary, it’s one level to have the ability to execute a tactical skill. It’s a much higher level to have the ability to strategically plan out when a tactical skill is best put to use as well as when executing a tactic makes you vulnerable. Unquestionably, it’s this critical difference that is one of the defining traits that separates the average, good, and great in sports.