The Best Offense is a Bad Defense

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

The Art of War, Sun Tzu (from Strategy Six Pack*)

I’m a big St. Louis Cardinals fan. I’ve been paying attention to the team my entire life. I follow the games as they unfold, and even listen to or watch them when I can. It’s been a few years since I’ve actually gone to a game, but, hopefully, that will happen soon as well.

Through the years, of course, some of the games I give the most attention are the games against their historical rival, the Chicago Cubs. I remember a few years back the Cubs had a great starting rotation, but the bullpen… well… it was bad. The plan for the offense was to be selective with the starters so they got their pitch count up early, and get into the soft underbelly that was the bullpen. It worked more often than not. It’s a decent strategy against any team with a bad bullpen. Sometimes, the best offense is a bad defense.

In sports, and in life, one of the ways that we defeat ourselves is with a bad defense. A bad defense can make even the weakest offenses look like juggernauts. I’ve always said that a good slow-pitch softball team only really needs about four or five solid defenders to be really good (SS, 1B and 2-3 in the outfield). Even just a bad inning on defense can sink a team for the game.

But, what about in life? What are the things we need to defend against in order to really succeed? I think this could be a fairly long list, but it could quickly turn into some sort of self-serving moralization.

The bottom line is that we need to be on the defense against things that can potentially bring us down. Things that can hurt us physically. Things that can hurt our reputation. Things that can bring serious harm to our character. That’s probably broad enough that you can find a few things to connect with in your own life that will resonate. What’s bad for one person may not be all that bad for another.

Put up a good defense in life. Whatever it is that may bring you down, or try to harm you, don’t let it. Stand strong, and don’t let the offense run all over you.

*Amazon affiliate link. There are now several collections that focus on historically relevant writings on strategy (more specifically the strategy of war). This first collection includes The Art of War, the Gallic Wars, Life of Charlemange, the Prince, on War and Battle Studies