Everyone knows a good strategy can win a sporting contest but if you're a coach looking for the optimum game plan, maybe the person you should be talking to is the maths teacher.
It may be hard to see the connection between the abstract science of numbers and the very real world of sweat and physical effort, but an ancient Chinese story might make the link clearer.
Once upon a time, during the Warring States Period, there was a famous tactician called Sun Bin. Sun escaped from Wei to Qi where he was taken in by a knight, Tian Ji. Tian was very kind to Sun, and Sun wanted to repay him.
At that time horse racing was very popular, and Tian and Qi Wang often competed in this sport. However, Tian always lost as Qi Wang had better horses.
Another contest was to be held the following day with each man entering a horse in each of the three races, with the winner decided by the overall results. All of Qi Wang's horses were faster than Tian's, so Tian believed he would lose again. But Sun thought he could help.
Qi Wang always boasted about his horses and would tell Tian in advance which were entered in which races. Sun told Tian to send his weakest horse to compete against Qi Wang's best animal. As expected Tian's horse lost. But in the next leg, Tian sent his best steed to compete against Qi Wang's second strongest horse. Tian's horse won.
Tian then sent his second class horse to compete against Qi Wang's weakest animal. Of course, Tian's horse won again and so he won the day. Sun explained the tactics to the stunned Qi Wang who was very impressed and invited Sun to be his military adviser.