Tactics in Sports

In sports, a player or a team can generally win if they can force the opposition into making a mistake. In some of these sports, you can create winning opportunities by masking your strategy, or vice versa, pretending to do something you’re not. In this article, I will be looking at these aspects in three different sports.

Firstly, in basketball, there is a move called a “no look pass”. This is when the player with the ball passes to a teammate without looking at them. This is generally a good tactic as defenders usually try to predict who the pass is going to, and intercept the pass, allowing the previous defenders to become the attackers. The attackers hence have to be careful to not be obvious when they are passing. This is one of the reasons why the no-look pass was created: you are not giving away any information to the defender. Sometimes, by looking at another player, you may even create the illusion that you are passing to them instead! This pass is effective against most defenders, but a bit of skill is needed to pass accurately. Plus, the receiver needs to be ready at any time as they can’t know when the player will pass the ball, or whether they will even pass to them in the first place. In most games, therefore, such a pass only occurs when the receiver runs forward for the ball and the person with the ball knows it.

Secondly, in badminton, there are two main kinds of moves. The first one is a “clear” shot, where you hit the shuttle far away, so that it hits just before the line past which it would be out. This shot forces the opponent to move backwards. This sometimes is used for attack, to force a mistake. Sometimes, this is used for defense, so that the player can prepare themselves again and get in a good position. The second type of shot is a drop shot, where you act like you are going to do a strong clear shot, but you tap it slightly so that the shuttle drops very close to the net. The player will have to move forward and try to save the shuttle with an upward shot. Even if they save it like this, it will be a very weak shot, which will give you the opportunity to attack the opponent’s weakness when they are not ready. This shot works because in badminton, you are not allowed to touch the net. In table tennis, for example, this shot is not as hard to receive as the net is not as big and there is a table so it is not likely that you are going to collide with the net. Furthermore, in tennis and table tennis, the players are allowed one bounce before receiving, while you are not allowed to do so in badminton. Hence, for tennis and table tennis, it is harder to do the drop shot.

Finally, in volleyball, when a person smashes the ball, also known as a spike, another player next to the player may also jump up. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, if the player misses the spike, the player next to them may have a chance to get a spike and play on. Secondly, this makes the defenders unable to block the shot as they don’t know which person would hit the shot. Simply put, it makes it appear like one of the players who feinted will smash it down, causing the defender to defend against that player, while not realizing that it is actually another player that was going to hit it, causing the defending team to either lose the point or return the ball relatively weakly. 

In conclusion, in many different sports, certain amounts of illusions are created in order to win a point or to force the opponent into a bad position so that the opposition can win. In this way, these games are based on your skills in creating illusions and how well you can counter them.