Resting starters.

[DJrmb]

I think I'll go with the players and coaches that actually played the game and disagree with you...

Even if it doesn't have any real effect if the players them self believe it does then it will effect their mindset which will ultimately effect their game.

This point would be a fair one if players were thinking it during their downtime, but I would suggest that it's far more likely that "loss of momentum" is something decided on after the fact as an explanation rather than something they think during the approach to the game.

Which do you think is more likely: players are waiting on a game before playing it and think "man, it feels like we lost our momentum by resting part of the last game," or players are examining what happened after a loss and turning to lost momentum as an explanation of a result they know after the fact?

Well, isn't the saying, "Hindsight is 20/20"?

That is the saying, yes. Not sure how it applies to this debate.

The point is that if they're going by hindsight, then the point you mentioned (that belief in it will affect their performance) is negated because the belief in it likely didn't exist until after the performance took place, and thus couldn't have affected it.

It's relevant here because a former player (actually many have said the same) said that after the fact, looking back with hindsight, resting the starters and stalling their momentum hurt the team.

I don't know if he believed that before the coach made the decision or not. He may have and hindsight simply reinforced his belief. Or maybe he didn't and hindsight changed his opinion.

However either way if that is the talk of former players and coaches don't you think the current players listen to those guys at least a little bit? If former players and coaches were telling me that momentum from game to game was a real thing I know I would believe it (although I'm not a good barometer as I already believe it...). I'm sure their are players that don't think momentum means anything just as you and I disagree, but for those that do believe it to be true aren't you hurting them by not giving them what believe will keep them sharp for the next game? The mind is very very powerful and what you believe in your mind will manifest itself in reality. So if someone believes they will lose momentum by sitting out then they probably will.

I guess it's more about knowing each individual player more than anything else..?

 

[Donn2390]

The time to rest your starters is in the 3rd quarter of a blow out in the Superb Owl, not before....

 

[MidwestHawker]

It's relevant here because a former player (actually many have said the same) said that after the fact, looking back with hindsight, resting the starters and stalling their momentum hurt the team.

I don't know if he believed that before the coach made the decision or not. He may have and hindsight simply reinforced his belief. Or maybe he didn't and hindsight changed his opinion.

However either way if that is the talk of former players and coaches don't you think the current players listen to those guys at least a little bit? If former players and coaches were telling me that momentum from game to game was a real thing I know I would believe it (although I'm not a good barometer as I already believe it...). I'm sure their are players that don't think momentum means anything just as you and I disagree, but for those that do believe it to be true aren't you hurting them by not giving them what believe will keep them sharp for the next game? The mind is very very powerful and what you believe in your mind will manifest itself in reality. So if someone believes they will lose momentum by sitting out then they probably will.

I guess it's more about knowing each individual player more than anything else..?

Again, even though it's a somewhat abstract concept, with four teams getting byes per year in a system that has been in place for multiple decades, we would have decent information and numbers to plug in to quantify it if there were a real effect. Post hoc anecdotes by players can't possibly be seen as more convincing evidence than the absence of statistical evidence is, in a place where it should exist.

In terms of belief leading to a psychological effect that makes it a reality, I see what you're saying, but if a person is thinking it in advance then that could be motivating as much as anything else. Again, what it comes back to is that we're not talking about something purely theoretical; coaches have rested players time and again, and no study has come forth to prove out some sort of negative result. One thing that doesn't require a study: resting those players has a 100% success rate in not allowing them to get injured before the playoffs ever start.

 

[MidwestHawker]

Anyway, thanks for an interesting debate, I have to head out to the sports bar now since the Seahawks aren't on locally here. I'm not saying I have absolute certainty that I'm right about this issue, but that's my explanation for why I believe as I do.

 

[Rex]

Time to rest your starters is when the Rams are up by 21 in the 4th quarter. :mrgreen:

 

[Rat]

I don't see any momentum getting killed if some of our starters don't play the entire fourth quarter. If this team is up by at least three scores in the fourth, I want TJack in there.

The best this team has looked all year was week 1 anyway.

 

[Rat]

Starting this thread was probably bad karma. Awful first half.