How David Beats Goliath Analysis

There are winners and there are losers, there are those projected to win and those expected to lose. Malcolm Gladwell writer of, “How David Beats Goliath,” describes how the underdogs do the unexpected and go the extra mile to overcome their opponent. Gladwell refers back to the bible story of David beating Goliath when he was expected to lose. David did what he knew and overcame Goliath, winning the battle. Doing the unexpected is how Vivek Ranadive’s twelve year old girls basketball team made it to the nationals because he decided early on that his team would go a different path; a full court press, every game, all the time. I agree with Ranadive and doing something different to succeed. Last year’s varsity basketball team focused on defense

and full-court press. Our outcome was not the same, but the feedback we got on our press and defense was positive and we hung with teams that should have blown us out in the beginning. David and Ranadive’s basketball team may have won, but maybe it is not about the win itself, but how you were able to get that far when you were projected to lose early on.
Ranadive had a group of girls who have never touched a basketball and were about to go against girls whose passion was basketball.

Ranadive decided then that he would focus on full-court press. He would take the other team by surprise and start off strong from the beginning. Ranadive focused on defense and believed that was how he would become successful. I agree that defense is key to winning, but doing that does not always mean you will win. Mr. Callow, coach of the girls varsity basketball team, focused on defense. He had a famous line, “Defense wins games.” All we did in practice was run our man to man drills and quicken our feet. Everyday we practiced our press and man to man plays until it was engraved into our brains. Come game time we would shut down the other team's offense, we had a solid defense that was hard to penetrate. I remember playing Fruitport and they had an offense where a girl ran across through our defense and would try to get the ball and go in for a layup, but it never worked because the way our defense was set up every time a girl came through the center we would all crash on her. She would be trapped and their offense would fail. Defense made up for our lack of ability on offense. We were not the best shot so we tried making up for it on defense. Ranadive’s team did the same, putting all of their effort into defense. According to Rometra Craig, an assistant coach of the Redwood City team, “ What the defense did for us is that we could hide our

weaknesses.” They did not have a strong offense and neither did we. Our faith was in the defense, that is where our success lyed.
We did what Ranadive did, put all of our effort into the defense, but our outcome was different. We ran, we practiced, and we played, but that did not mean we won. We did something different with our full court press just as Ranadive did. Callow had us run it every game and sometimes it was more successful than others. Gladwell stated, “ Basketball sages point out that the press can be beaten by a well-coached team with adept ball handlers and astute passers-and that is true.” We were going against teams that had girls who could dribble around us and pass between us with ease. Spring Lake had a point guard who was their whole team and could easily dribble around us. There was nothing we could do, but try to double team her. I did the best I could with our press and defense and so did my teammates, but we did not win games as Ranadive did. It was difficult, but we stuck with our defense and did not stop using it in games. Our press won us games and lost us games, but we could not give up we had to push on and try harder next game.
Gladwell says that underdogs have come out on top numerous times, but what about the ones that do not make it to the top.

I agree that underdogs can surprise people just as Ranadive did with his twelve year old basketball team, but then there are teams such as mine last year that did well, but did not win games like Ranadive’s team. Varsity basketball last year did not make it as far as Ranadive’s team and we stuck to our press and defense every game, but that did not mean we won. In districts last year we played against Calvary Christian, a long time rival. We were neck and neck throughout the whole game. Our press was working, we were making points, but they caught on and began to break the press. Without our press, which is an easy way to get points, scoring was getting difficult for us. Doing the unexpected can make you a winner, but not for everyone. I worked hard in the press break, I kept my hands up on defense and boxed people out, but that does not mean we won. Defense wins games, but without points on the scoreboard what do you have to show for? We tried so hard on defense that we forgot how to act on offense. Without shooting the ball and working on our offense we did not have enough points on the board to win. Even though we may not have won every game we still received complements on how hard we worked. We gave our all, but sometimes it comes down to who has more experience with handling the ball. We tried something different and did not succeed as Ranadive did,

but certainly did not fail. Every game was a learning experience, we did something new and put it in play as best we could. Not every underdog team will win, but not every team will lose.
Ranadive lost the nationals, but it did not upset him. He was proud of the team and how far they came. Ranadive said, “ They played basketball they way basketball is supposed to be played, and they lost- but not before making Goliath wonder whether he was a giant after all.” You can do the unexpected and surprise everyone and you may not win, but you can learn. I may not have won every game all the time, but I learned from the ones I lost. I am glad we were underdogs, no one knew exactly what we were capable of and did not know what to expect. We gave our all and although we did not win every game, we won the experience.