The Winning Edge is Razor Thin

The fine line

Why do the people fighting for championships work so hard? Because they know they know how hard it is to reach the top. At the top everyone is talented, everyone is driven and everyone works hard. So what separates those at the top? It’s the winning edge.

The winning edge is elusive
People work all their lives to develop it. Teams work like crazy to develop it. It’s scary because you don’t know when you have it and you don’t know when you lose it. You only find out only when you compete. But when you have it you work around the clock to keep it.

Ever notice a team come out flat when they have everything on the line?
It’s perplexing, infuriating and exasperating! It’s what gives coaches heart attacks. Just this year the World Champion Green Bay Packers had an unbeaten season going. They were beating everyone! They were barely even challenged. They won easily. Everyone was impressed because most Super Bowl champions have disappointing follow-up years. The Packers looked like a juggernaut. They were on a mission. They were on their way to win their second Super Bowl!

So what happened?
They lose to the sad Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs! The same Chiefs who had been playing so bad their coach had just been suddenly fired. The same team playing with an interim coach. How did this happen. Green Bay had all the momentum. They came out flat. The Chiefs season was over. They had no reason to make an extra special effort. Yet, that day they amazingly had the winning edge! The Green Bay players and coaches were shocked - they had no idea how they got off track. The Packers lost their confidence and mystique that day and were washed out in the playoffs, long before they got to the Super Bowl. 

This explains a coach’s maniacal attention to detail
They know every detail is important, everything matters. They know in the heat of battle every player will be tested. They know any weakness will be exposed. They can’t assume anything will be O.K. They have to check, re-check and check again to make sure their team is absolutely as ready as they can be to play their best. They know that their players’ skills have to be razor sharp. But equally as important, their attitude has to be at a peak. The frustrating thing is that there’s no way to tell you exactly how to get it. There is no manual on building the winning edge.

The winning edge is elusive but incredibly powerful. 
It gives you the  determination and confidence to perform at your absolute best at the most important times. When you have it you play instinctively, you see things in slow motion, you see the game unfolding in advance. You are in a zone and your competition can tell.

It’s worth the price to get it because when you have it you have an unshakeable belief that you will someway find a way to win no matter what happens during the game.

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week: Geno

WINNERS CREDENTIALS

Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection is the memoir of Geno Auriemma, the most accomplished male coach in women's basketball today. In his relentless quest for excellence at the University of Connecticut, he has led the Huskies to five national championships.

From the Book Jacket

Controversial, confrontational, and driven, Coach Geno Auriemma is a force to be reckoned with. For Auriemma, life affords only the briefest moments of happiness - a good round of golf, forty minutes of great basketball, a day at the beach with his family, a nice glass of wine - while disaster is seemingly always waiting to strike. It's a fatalistic philosophy, a remnant of his hardscrabble early years, but it's an outlook that has driven him to unparalleled success.

In this deeply personal memoir, Geno Auriemma reveals for the first time the man behind the legend. He talks candidly about his coaching style - famed for being one of the most demanding in all the sports world. He spills the beans about his stormy dealings with other coaches such as his archrival, Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee. And with warmth and a genuine love for his champions, he writes openly about Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Nykesha Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Swin Cash, and all of his other UConn stars who have gone on to stellar WNBA careers. You get a courtside seat to all of the action - including an epilogue on the 2004-05 season, as well as interviews with the team's most celebrated players.

Amazon Editorial Review

If nothing else, Auriemma, coach of the UConn women's basketball team since 1985, explains how little girls in Connecticut inherited the dreams of little boys in Indiana. The rise of a program with a leaky gym and roll-away bleachers to become a powerhouse with five national championships is a Hoosier-like tale. Read more>>

From Booklist

Auriemma is one of the most successful college basketball coaches in the history of the sport, yet he is never mentioned in the same sentence as Dean Smith or Mike Krzyzewski. The reason? Auriemma coaches women's basketball at the University of Connecticut. In this revealing autobiography, written with the help of Boston Globe reporter MacMullan, Auriemma tells a version of the classic immigrant's journey. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Italy when he was seven. He was the new kid, the kid who talked funny, and the poor kid. Read more>>