Show T THERE HERE are three major factors in competitive sport apart from such superior physical assets as speed and power As some sporting philosopher once rema remarked aked the race may not be to the swift nor the battle to the strong but that is where to look PV usually but not pt always for the i throe three major factors referred to play a big part in naming the winner no matter i what the sport these three leading elements are form technique Grantlan dRice and tactics they are the big winners where so many are so well matched on the physical side they write most of the headlines and they are the least understood by the vast majority of those who play various games what they are just what is form what is technique and what are tactics I 1 put the matter up to P hal sims bridge player and golfer who has put in in much careful thought along these lines through 40 years of competitive effort form says sir mr sims is really style the correct physical way of doing things it is the popular current style which often changes as new champions come along with different ways of playing games technique is the best mathematical execution of form I 1 should say that technique is eliminating as much as you can the margin of error it demands that you give more consideration to the percentage side tactics is the handling or direction of form and technique together many any times the failure to observe technique puts on added pressure s all the mistakes you make increase pressure in bridge for example the first mistake you make in bidding or playing the hand will increase the pressure enormously the same is true rue in golf which opens with the tee shot it if you miss this stroke you wade right out in the middle of increasing pressure 0 0 0 tie the many hany angles I 1 have always thought g P hal con continued linued that walter hagen was always a master of t technique ech and tactics hagens angle is this a golfer plants his tee shot into the rough partially stymied by a tree in place of accepting the penalty he has incurred by a bad shot he tries to save himself by some miracle attempt the odds against this attempt may be 10 or 15 to 1 if li he would play out safely and then gamble on one pitch and one putt the odds would be much less and the penalty much lighter how many average golfers will you see trying to play a wooden club from the rough see it often they merely move from one trouble to deeper trouble as a rule by using the right technique they might still get a 4 on the hole or almost surely a 5 but overlooking the percentage matter completely they hey wind up with a 6 or a 7 most golfers could take away 8 or 10 strokes from their average rounds by using better technique the case of conn when billy conn met joe louis conns boxing form was brilliant his foot action and his hand action was all that any one could ask he made you think of style just as jim corbett once did but conns technique in the thirteenth round suddenly blew up he had taken the lead because he kept moving around giving louis a shifting target but in the thirteenth round he suddenly turned flat footed and began exchanging punches with a much better puncher many will tell you conn became flat tooted footed through the body punishment he be had taken in earlier rounds I 1 dont agree with this tor for the simple reason in the twelfth round conn was at his best swarming au all over louis it was this round that made him so badly dent that he forgot all about technique and tactics ile he overlooked old man alan mathematics or old man percentage completely you blame him too much for this it was the first time he had ever bien been within two or three rounds of a heavyweight championship he fie lacked at thi this s point the coolness and the experience needed to carry along a winning plan which he actually had he had the odds there are those who say that louis would have caught conn anyway perhaps but against much greater odds louis was almost sure to beat conn in a toe to toe slugging match the odds at slugging were 4 to 1 on louis the odds at longer range boxing were 3 to I 1 on conn see what difference this makes things like this happen in sport every day in every game better form cant win alone I 1 it t must have help from technique and tactics |