people in the front office. Having better players on the field is
the obvious way to increase your victory total. The more good/
great players you have, the more likely you will win. However,
everyone knows that, and if everyone is looking for the best
players, you need to do more.
What about more coaching? Teams have looked for wins
by adding more coaches. In 2014, the Seattle Seahawks had 23
assistant coaches. It was not long ago that most teams did not
have more than a dozen. Today, most NFL teams have about 20
assistant coaches.
If everyone has great players, and the teams have the coaches
to help develop them, where else can they look for an edge? The
place to improve has become the front office. In the last 10 to 15
years, many teams have begun to uncover information that may
not be obvious to the other teams in their league.
In basketball, is there a difference when a teamhas a certain
five-man lineup on the court compared to other combinations?
In baseball, shifting defenses has become commonplace as teams
force the opposing hitters to power the ball into the heart of the
shift or have them adjust and alter their swing. In soccer, new
information about how much players run and move on the field
during a game has altered training techniques.
17
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etting
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tarted




