Dive Mode

Before we discuss Jay Cutler, the Super Bowl match up, why I'm so bad at picking games or any other sport, I'd like to discuss a mental state that I have dubbed "Dive Mode."

Dive Mode is not the name of a new workout routine or anything that really comes from preparation at all. It's rare and mostly unnecessary (for pros especially). It's so rare, in fact, that I can only remember one time in my entire sporting career when I have executed it successfully, and it lasted for about a day and a half.

Last year I attended an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with my sister's team. Going into this tournament I knew a few things:

Dive List

1. I was severely outmatched by most attendees in experience.

2. Not much was specifically expected of me, and I didn't have any explicit responsibilities that would require me to play "under control" or worry about what others were doing.

3. I was in pretty decent shape, being 22 years old and playing pick-up basketball several times a week at the time.

4. I DID know how to play the game and had my own theories about how to translate skills from other sports I play to this one and was confident enough in my abilities to complete most simple plays in this game.

Given those things, I decided I was going to do my best to forget about what everyone else was doing, make every routine play in the game and, perhaps most importantly, dive at every opportunity if I thought I had any chance at affecting the play positively. This might not sound so rare at first but there are a few concepts that inescapably go along with this mentality.

To get this out of the way first, I'm not talking about the "fall over on your face gently" dive. I'm talking about the "I look like I'm trying to knock the wind out of myself/if it's raining I'm going to slide a minimum 10 feet" dive.

So let's ask ourselves: Why don't we normally dive?

1. It's unpleasant, especially if you're not on grass.

2. I'm probably not going to get whatever I'm diving for anyway.

3. If I don't get it, I just wasted a lot of effort to dive, get back up, recover and continue to play, so I might as well save my energy.*

I put a star next to #3 for a reason.



If you enter dive mode, you have to be prepared to dive, fail, get back up and go cover your guy again at maximum effort or you're not in dive mode. If I was too tired or too sore to do this, I subbed out. Let's review the Dive List:

1. If I weren't outmatched in experience (and usually skill), why would I need to do this? And how about this question . . . if I didn't NEED to do this, why WOULD I? I wouldn't.

2. If I had to play under control, if it were a big deal if I had to sub out or if I were injured, it would be pretty irresponsible to play this way. Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts plays this way all the time in the regular season and, as a result, is hurt more often than not. He is so important to the Colts' defense that when he does this and injures himself, it actually hurts the team.

3. Obviously, if I physically couldn't execute these actions, they wouldn't have happened. More on this later.

4. Ditto.

The tournament lasted 3 days . . . so why did MY Dive Mode only last a day and a half? I couldn't keep it up. Pick-up basketball shape is not the same as Dive Mode Frisbee shape, evidently. And so, the results of the weekend were that everyone thought I was better than I was and I couldn't walk correctly for about three weeks.

Most of you are probably wondering, "Can't you think of a pro sports example? Why are you talking about yourself so much? Why do I care about you? I really REALLY don't care about you."

Well, the best example I can think of is that play in last year's Eastern Conference Finals where Rajon Rondo dove for that ball, got up illegally and scored. The Celtics had already won the first two games ON THE ROAD as the underdog in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were at home and winning at the time. You could tell it was unusual because of how confused Jason Williams looked. He could have gotten to the ball. He just had no idea Rondo was going to dive for a play he didn't need. It even confused the refs, because getting up with that ball is a blatant travel (I think), but nobody blew the whistle. That play, along with being totally crazy and awesome, was such a huge throat stomp. That's why it was so cool and why the Celtics almost won the Title last year when everyone (including myself) thought they were too old. DIVE MODE!

Oh yeah, the other question. Why do you care? Well, go back and watch the Pittsburgh Steelers' last two first downs in the AFC title game against the Jets and try to tell me a WELL PLACED dive wouldn't have stopped those. (I emphasize "well placed." I know a guy dove on one of them, but it was piss poor as far as I'm concerned.) I know it's a lot to ask of an entire defense to enter an otherworldly mental state in the middle of a game, and I'm not even really asking them to. I'm just here to tell you that if the Jets wanted to go to the Super Bowl, that is what they had to do. You saw Rex Ryan throw his headset on the sidelines after those plays. That's not the reaction of a guy who called the wrong play or was caught off guard. That's a guy who called the right play, had a chance to get the ball back and win, and whose players didn't technically let him down but, at the same time, kind of did.

I'm asking everyone to be ready to break ribs to make every play in every useless game, but there is a lesson to be learned from the Steelers going to the Super Bowl again.

That lesson: In a game you really care about, you never want to look back and wonder, "Should I have dove?"