Self Scouting
Self-scouting – do you do it?
As a college football player, and later a coach, I routinely self-scouted. Easy to focus on stuff we do well and hone existing skills. The need to scout the opponent is obvious too.
But what about our weaknesses? Do we view weaknesses like our opponent would? Can we find holes in our game? Tendencies? Tells? Do we run the tape back and forth over and over again? Find flaws in our technique? When we see them, do we cringe and fast forward the tape? Justify the flaws? Just focus on success and results? NO! Process is paramount!
As a prosecutor, I self-scout my case while working w/the agents. Where is it weak? What are its vulnerabilities? If I were a defense lawyer, how would I attack it? What did we miss in the investigation? What elements of proof are the weakest? I also try to review transcripts of my trials and hearings to find out if I said what I thought I said. Are there lots of “ums and ers” in there? Was my argument cogent? Did I ask appropriate questions of witnesses?
I dreaded Sundays in college. We watched film from Saturday’s game, and coaches were constantly clicking rewind. I would see a flaw in my technique on a play and cringe - praying the coach would breeze by it w/o embarrassing me in front of the whole team. “Run that back” were the 3 most dreaded words in the English language. 🤣 They never missed it, so I decided to use it constructively. I had footwork flaws. Technique glitches. Cleaning them up made me a very good college football player. And that’s what I’ve tried to apply to my professional life.
1987: Davidson College vs. Lafayette University. I’ve discussed this game several times and posted the TV version of this play, but let’s look at the game film version of my 1st interception that day. All I can see was that I was too high in my backpedal, which slowed my transition when I flipped my hips to run with the wide receiver. Fortunately, I had enough speed to make up the ground. A strength covered for a weakness …that time. Not a good long-term plan for success though. Self scout.
2002: United States v. Douglas. I was prosecuting a crew of armed bank robbers who had done violent takeover robberies with guns. I carefully crafted my case and the evidence, and then used the “coaches’ clicker” in the argument. I told them the story of my film watching days in college and about how that exposed me, and I used that metaphor to expose the defendants’ guilt. After reviewing every piece of evidence and tying it to an element of the offense, I said, “let’s run that back” and moved on to the next piece of evidence. The jury loved it. Head nods from everyone. Brief deliberation and conviction.
Run that back.
