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Speed-Freak Football

nytimes.com

92 pointsmhb28 comments

Check out the speed at which the NYTimes Magazine - even the online edition - gets to press:

With victories in its final two games of the season (Arizona and Oregon State), it would likely earn a berth in the national championship game in January, either against a traditional power like Auburn or Louisiana State, or perhaps an upstart like Boise State or Texas Christian University.

The URL says this is a December 5th article and yet LSU and Boise were both knocked out of contention last weekend. Auburn and TCU are still in the hunt.

If this becomes a common trend in American Football it could cause the game to evolve back towards Rugby Football. A good example of how fast rugby is played is this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ZU4GKmOoQ

Particularly at 3:15 where the ref gives a player a yellow card for slowing down the game. (Note that this isn't just a minor game, its an International Test between the worlds two top ranked teams).

As an Aussie brought up on Rugby, this is the thing which most gets in the way of me enjoying US football - its so stop/go! They seem to only play for about half a second, then they stop - there doesn't seem to be any flow. I keep on wanting to yell 'Get on with it!'

The best description I've ever ever seen of American football (can't remember where I read it) was 'random violence interspersed with committee meetings.'

Single page:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/magazine/05Football-t.html...

Slightly off-topic, but if you want to see a true "hacker" operating in a different field, check out Gus Malzahn. He's the offensive coordinator for Auburn, and no one has found a way to stop his offense.

We'll likely be able to see this showdown in a few more weeks (Oregon vs. Auburn).

I want to see TCU crash the party, but I really wanted to see TCU vs. Boise crash the party. But Kelly's pass fast offense versus Malzahn's run fast offense would be amazing.

I'm surprised that Malzahn's only now coming into the spotlight nationally. He did great work at Arkansas ans Tulsa as well, not to mention his high school work.

And here's a good place to do that: http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/06/gus-malzahnauburn-...

John Boyd would be proud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

    Kelly’s overarching philosophy owes to business texts, most directly, 
    the writings of Jim Collins (“Good to Great” and “Built to Last,” among others), 
    who argues that successful organizations coalesce around a concise, easily 
    communicated core mission. Kelly said: “If someone says to me, 
    ‘What do you stand for?’ I should be able to invite them to practice and in 
    five minutes, they’d say: ‘I see it. I get it.’ 
    They stand for playing hard and playing fast.”

This could be applied to your product's home page. The difference is that you'll be lucky to get 60 seconds.

A different NYT writer wrote about Oregon and their speed offense 2 months ago as well: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/sports/ncaafootball/02oreg...

Another NYT article about an innovative coach, Mike Leach, who is mentioned in the above:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html?page...

Here is a link that you might be able to use to avoid the user-login wall.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&v...

i18n: Title should read 'Speed-Freak American Football'

Considering that it says "(nytimes.com)" right next to the article title, football = American football should probably be assumed.

This is really good. I wonder if you could apply the same philosophy to business or start-ups: Focus on doing what you're doing again and again, really fast, with no breathing room for your opponents, and they will wear down.

It's vaguely related to the concept of being able get inside your opponent's OODA loop, with the added bonus of physical fatigue in addition to creating situations where the opponent cannot adjust.

I can't say for sure (never played football, but I do play fairly high level ultimate frisbee), but when a team starts upping its tempo, it pushes both your mind and body's ability to adapt. Usually the first thing to go is your mind. You start losing your ability to predict and anticipate as well, and as a result you have to work your body even harder to compensate, which gets you tired even faster etc etc.

I guess there's a business analogy where, where the mental aspect becomes business planning, and the physical, is the actual creation of the product/service. In fact, I'm fairly sure that OODA loops and all that jazz are (were?) fairly popular in all those business books and mags. The question is how many people can actually successfully implement it.

For context, OODA loops (uh, observe orient decide act) were originally created by John Boyd in the context of war fighting, drawing inspiration from Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz. The idea's been sitting around for decades, and 'officially' part of how the US Military is 'suppose' to fight. But even though everyone 'knows' about OODA and maneuver warfare, it's still not always pulled off.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop]

Really glad to see this here on HN. I read Boyd by Robert Coram a month ago and I still can't stop seeing the parallels in any competitive endevavor. Definitely a great book for hackers.

The book covers the history behind Boyd's OODA loop and a lot of Pentagon bureaucratic infighting as well. Corporate politics at its finest.

http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316... (I got my copy at the library though)

I prefer this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-War-John-American-Security/dp/158...

Less hagiography (still more than I would care for, but not as much as the other book) and is focused more on explaining Boyd's ideas, less on telling his story (still a biography, but the difference in emphasis is notable).

If you're interested in reading the original briefings by Boyd, you can find them at the links below. Of course, reading his slides isn't the same as actually sitting through his briefing, but the latter option is unfortunately no longer available:

http://dnipogo.org/strategy-and-force-employment/boyd-and-mi...

http://www.danford.net/boyd/

I agree that Coram's book had a taste of hagiography to it. I still found that the underling military theories made a lot more sense to me when revealed in the context of Boyd's upbringing and his own gradual development of the theories. I should definitely read Hammond next, thanks.

I've made it about 2/3 of the way through Boyd's slides and they're very distractingly dense. I'm sure they worked better with a live session.

And speaking of tempo, Venkatesh Rao of Gervais Theory fame is releasing a book on that very subject in the next quarter. http://www.ribbonfarm.com/tempo/

That's certainly the main idea of Mike Cassidy:

http://venturehacks.com/articles/speed

I remember hearing from a coach (albeit soccer) constantly: "Size hurts, speed kills." It can definitely be applied to the business/start-up arena. Agility and speed of innovation are often crippled as a company grows, leaving others to out-innovate, respond more quickly to market demands and capitalize on new opportunities.

Yes, see the comment referring to John Boyd.

I like these two passages:

"The team’s graduation rate for football players, as measured by the N.C.A.A., is below average."

"James did have one complaint, having to do with the music: “The other day he had like ‘Hakuna Matata’ or some [expletive] from ‘The Lion King’ playing, which I don’t think nobody wants to hear. He needs to bump some Lil Wayne on there.”

Only nine of the top twenty-five football programs matched or beat NCAA's average graduation rate. Commitment to championship football doesn't necessarily imply commitment to graduating football players.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-10-27-ncaa-gradu...

I don't get it.

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