Turnovers

In every sport there are turnovers. A deadly, lethal, concept that leads teams straight to the loss column, or can make a team prevail and escape what could have been a close game. What is the cause to turnovers? Sometimes its pressure, other times it's because the other team just made a great play, or it was just a mistake by the offensive team. Regardless of how the turnover occurred, it happens all the time and impacts teams left and right. A general rule of thumb while watching and playing sports is that the team with the least amount of turnovers normally wins, and if they don't then the game will end up a lot closer than it should have been.

The concept of a turnover happens in every sport. In football the two main turnovers are interceptions and fumbles, in basketball it's the steal or block, in hockey it's steals. Now what do these things have in common? The three ideas listed from earlier. They all result because of pressure, great defense, or a mistake on the part of the offense. Why are they important if every team makes them? Turnovers cause wins but most importantly cause losses. If a team minimizes turnovers throughout the whole year and focuses on getting them then that team should be extremely successful.

I've lived through the heartbreak of turnovers. Last football season my team was in the championship game against West Des Moines Dowling Catholic. The entire year our turnover ratio was incredible as we committed about six and we received about fifteen. The deadly turnover took the ring right from our finger tips. It was our first drive of the game and we already trailed 7-0 and the second play from scrimmage was a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Our team was shocked as we have never trailed by so much the whole year, yet we trailed by that much within the first 3 minutes. Right before halftime it struck again. We trailed 7-21 and yet another fumble recovery for a touchdown occurred. That took the wind right out of our sails and caused a defeat the whole second half. That turnover broke the game wide open and caused our guys to semi give up at half time. Without those mistakes the championship is a totally different ball game and it would have been fun to see what would have happened.

In basketball the steals for dunks are always shown on TV. Each time one of those occurs the game takes at minimum a four point swing and could be five. Just think if the steal didn't occur and the other team scored. The scoreboard is way different plus it leads to a major momentum shift. Which is my final reason why turnovers are so costly. Momentum is everything in sports and each time a mistakes happens it leads to the opposing team and crowd to get a new source of life. I don't know how or why it works but it does. A team could dominate the whole first half of a game, commit a turnover in the opening minutes of the second half and lose the entire game because of the momentum swing.

Sports are a crazy deal. How could something so little have such an impact or change the outcome of a game? It's weird to think about but it's true. Next time you watch or play in a game focus on the turnovers. Think about which team commits more and what impact that leads in the game, and finally look at the final score. Nine times out of ten the team with the least mistakes will prevail.