Are you in the process of making 2 consecutive mistakes?

What are the chances that you make the same exact mistake two consecutive times simply by chance? When I was 14 years old, I was hit by a car at the same intersection, on the same corner within the span of one month. Saturday, I watched the University of Southern California lose a football game by a field goal the same way they did the week prior. On that same Saturday two days ago, I coached a high school basketball team, specifically Western Christian’s boys Varsity and we squandered a 14-point lead to lose by less than five points the same way we did one week earlier.

Making the same mistake two consecutive times can’t be coincidence. There’s simply too many other errors that can afflict in the course of any activity. Suppose I suggest that two consecutive mistakes, the kind that cost you a win or a limb, are due to gross flaws in how you do whatever it is you do. I could postulate no other way after reflecting. I remember having two bikes ruined because of my carelessness at an intersection in West Covina, California circa 1990. I see the car ahead preparing to make a right turn on a red light. Driver looks to his right, then his left and finally turns right. That’s a pattern I had observed countless times but I assumed I could inch out into the cross-walk and slip by unscathed. I was wrong both of the times I thought that. I was in a hurry to get to a game at the high school and nearly jettisoned from Earth because of it. That was the mistake I repeated – impatience? What is USC’s flaw? What does Western Christian High School Boys Basketball need to work on this week to avoid a third incidence of the same error?

Mistake patterns reveal systematic problems. Repetitive outcomes indicate the habits which precede them and without an intentional strategy of preparation, I submit that there will be little deviation from the “coincidences” we experience more than we care to. So for me to get to my 15th birthday, I had to assume that cars leaning right would turn that direction without one more look. I chose to stop riding bikes altogether. The Trojans need to spend time this week on open-field tackling and taking away the short pass on 3rd and Long. As a coach, I’ll be doing a series of passing drills with left and right hands, emphasizing free throw technique, conditioning and on-ball defense. I’m convinced we can attain those breakthrough competencies, those life-changing epiphanies when we stop pretending that we somehow keep having the same accident.