James Metzger - Everything I ever needed to know about business I learned on the sports field

Dealing with Bad Calls
Jun 20, 2009Posted by james

One of the things that I love about sports is the rules. Clearly defined rules that make sure every aspect of the game - the playing field, the number of players, the boundaries of what you can and cannot do – is consistent and fair. Everything defined so that the best effort from the best athletes almost always wins.

But every once in a while something goes wrong. A referee misses a call or blows a call. Suddenly the fair fight we were in seems not so fair. And note here that bad calls are not the same thing as bad bounces. Bad bounces might also change the outcome of a game, but it is easier to see that bad bounces will eventually balance out. With bad calls, we start to wonder whether the call was just a stupid, human error, whether the rules aren’t being applied consistently, or worse, whether it was an intentional attempt to change the outcome (or speed up the game).

Bad calls can get into your head and affect your performance if you are not careful. Losing your focus and battling the referees instead of your opponent is almost always a recipe for disaster. Over adjusting and playing differently because of the call weakens your game.

So the number one thing I have learned from this is patience. Don’t change your game plan. Stay the course, use the outrage of the unfairness to pump yourself up, but don’t get out of your game because of the unfairness of the call. Just relax, have patience, and usually over the course of the game – and definitely over the course of a season - the bad calls on both sides of the field will balance out.