What You Can Learn From Colin Kaepernick’s Super Bowl Performance

In the first half of this recent Super Bowl, San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick was shut down by the Baltimore defense. His "play action" fake handoffs to his running backs were just awful and fooled absolutely no one. As an analogy to tennis, disguise in shot-making can be an effective method to take away time from your opponent’s ability to defend if you execute well. If not, it is an exercise in futility.

Kaepernick seemed to change his plan after the lights came back on. He used his speed and mobility to run for a few strong gains. This drew the linebackers in and opened the field for successful moderate range passes. In tennis, you can set up a combination within a point, such as a drop shot, followed by a lob. You can also create combinations that can be developed over a series of points, like serving down the middle to set up the opportunity for a wide serve on a big point.

Kaepernick fell short of course, but you have to admire the perseverance of him and his coaches in attempting to solve problems.

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January/February 2024 Digital Edition