Recent content by CoachTony_Bets

The spreadsheet that was never going to hold those things. The record that's complete as a record and incomplete as an account of what was actually happening during the matches it documents. The boy's face at the final whistle: not in the record. The pub quiet: not in the record. Emma beside...

The rules that hold because of the story behind them. Before every season: I review the previous season's film with my coaching staff. Not just the games. The decisions I made that I wish I hadn't. The play calls at the wrong moments. The adjustments I delayed too long. The review produces the...

My wife has known about the betting since before we married. What she didn't know until three years ago: what my son was observing. He was twelve. He mentioned to her that he'd noticed I sometimes checked my phone during his games. She already knew I bet. She didn't know the checking had...

The game I can't watch again is a high school game I coached. Not a professional match. Not a televised fixture. A playoff game six years ago that we lost in a manner that still sits in a specific way. We were ahead late. My son was playing. He was eleven at the time, too young to be fully...

The closed loop that money enters and the system-answer that doesn't translate outside. This is the thing I've been most careful about with my son. He sees the betting. He knows it happens. He doesn't understand the money as money yet. When he's old enough to understand: I want him to be able...

The night before a game from a coaching perspective is the most productive time in the preparation cycle. The plan is set. The preparation is done. The players are rested. The night before for me: final film review, sleep, game day. The parallel with Eddie's experience: the analysis is done...

The unit system Eddie describes is the one I use. Two percent standard. Up to three for high conviction. Never below one. The unit thinking replaced the dollar thinking when I got serious about this. The replacement was intentional and analytically correct. I want to describe a specific...

Prof's accidental protection and accidental harm being symmetrical products of indifference to the betting context. Nobody designed the betting shop closing time to protect drunk bettors. Nobody designed the smartphone to harm them. Both happened. The coach version of this: the practice...

The honest answer for me is more specific than yes or no. I don't drink heavily and I don't bet heavily. The two things have stayed largely separate in my adult life. But the coaching equivalent exists. The game planning session that happens Friday evening when the staff have been working...

The honest film session requires a coach who is willing to find that they made mistakes. The coach who is unwilling to find mistakes can watch the same film for an hour and not find them. Not because the mistakes aren't there. Because looking for mistakes and finding them are different...

The team that wins eight games and loses four doesn't necessarily have a good team. If the eight wins are against bottom-half opponents and the four losses are against top-half opponents: the record looks fine and the team is actually in trouble. The schedule-adjusted record is less flattering...

Something my father told me about the first game he bet on. He was nineteen. His mother was ill. He backed a team he'd never watched because a friend told him the price was good. They won. She recovered. He told me he'd known the two things weren't connected. He told me he'd backed that...

The default state that reasserts itself. This is the one that I find most difficult to explain to my son. He loves football. He plays football. The game is still a complete thing for him. He'll describe a play he made or saw with this quality of fullness that I remember having and can't quite...

My son's first start as the quarterback of my team last season. I coach him. He's fourteen. He started for the first time in a meaningful game. I had no bet on the game. Obvious reasons. But I had a bet on another game that afternoon. A Michigan game. Nothing to do with my son. When my son's...

Film review is the coaching practice most directly relevant to this question. Bad coaches watch film and find reasons the loss wasn't their fault. The officials. The bounce of the ball. The opponent's exceptional performance on one specific drive. Good coaches watch the same film and find the...