Everyone in the world of sports has lived out this story: A close game where you lose on the final play. Whether the ref “blew a call” or someone made a mistake, it’s not fun. It’s miserable.
But what happens next is even worse — The Last Play Bias. The tendency of fans, players, and coaches to hyperfocus on the last play.
There’s levels to this:
Level 1:
Focusing on the last play (and blaming it on someone else)
A team loses. Right after the game (and for the following days), you’ll hear comments like, “I can’t believe they didn’t call that foul with 30 seconds left.”
I can, refs make mistakes.
When you engage in this, you lose out on mountains of learning.
It’s like Mexican food: You satisfy your taste buds in the short term but terrorize your a**hole in the long term.
In this case, you exchange long term growth for short term emotional relief.
Who’s on this level? Players that say, “If only that call would’ve gone our way.”
But, their team gave up 20 offensive rebounds and 15 points off of second chance points.
More like, if only you would’ve boxed out…
Level 2:
Focusing on the last play (taking responsibility and learning)
Move from complaining to contemplating. Ask yourself, "What could I have done differently?"
This is a step up because you aren’t blaming someone else to emotionally feel good about the outcome. But, there’s more to it than that…
We say that the last play is what lost us the game. But, it’s not just that. It’s ALSO, one might even say MORE SO, the 34 mistakes your team made throughout the game.
Level 3:
Focusing on learning from every play.
Rather than thinking only about the last play, ask yourself, "What could we have done so it wasn't a close game? What are the mistakes that we made leading up to that moment?”
Rather than focusing on the last play of the game, focus on each play of the game.
You don’t grow by blaming the refs. You grow by studying yourself, the game, and your opponents.
The Bottom Line: The mistake isn’t in focusing on the last play. The mistake is focusing only on the last play.