This is really the most important part for me: you need to understand your opponent well enough for you to be prepared to adapt your tactics to their tactics. In the long run, understanding their game plan and the strategy behind the game plan are very important. For example, I've had a number of very good coaches, but the only one of them that ever showed me anything at all was Phil Tucker. He never told me how to play the game, but he did spend a lot of time explaining the basic concepts of the game. You need to do the same. It's not just the theory of the game, it's the whole game. It's like, "This is your offense, this is your defense," "I have this, this and this." Once you have all of your pieces together, you can then start to take the best things from each opponent's game plan. This is really the most important part for me.

But just because you know how to play the game doesn't mean you know how to win the game. I remember in the '80s, when I was training at the pro level, the coach of the high school team was in the top 10 in the country in the state for the last three years. One of the worst things you