The Loser's Game
The most skilled and experienced player will always win… or do they?
The most skilled and experienced player will always win… or do they?
In this letter, I am going to explore Charles Ellis’ concept of the Loser’s Game and how adopting it helped me succeed and make breakthroughs in my health.
So, who is Charle’s Ellis and what is a Loser’s Game?
In 1975, investment consultant Charles Ellis published an essay in the The Financial Analysts Journal entitled the Loser’s Game. Drawing inspiration from sports analyst Dr. Simon Ramo, naval historian Admiral Samuel Elliot Morrison, and professional golf instructor Tommy Armour, Ellis highlighted that in certain circumstances, a player could win not by exceptional feats of skill but by avoiding mistakes. Ellis described two types of games — Winner’s Games and Loser’s Games— emphasising the importance of understanding the game you’re playing to achieve success.
Growing Up
For those who have been following my journey, you may be aware that returning to play my childhood sport of ice hockey was a huge milestone for me a few years ago. In Ellis’ essay, success in a Winner’s Games is achieved through superior skill, strategy, and execution. I would argue that ice hockey is typically a Winner’s Game.
Firstly, ice hockey has a high barrier of skill-entry. You need to be able to skate, stick-handle, pass, shoot, read the plays, handle body contact and understand the myriad rules that govern the game (both written and unwritten). Furthermore, you have to be conditioned for high intensity sprints that last 60 seconds before recovering and doing it all again in one to two minutes—maintaining this rhythm for over an hour. There is no shot clock like in basketball or turn-taking like in chess. Additionally, mistakes or infringements made against the rules of the game do not result in an automatic point to your opponent. Your opponent must have the skill to outplay you and score for themselves.
Contrast this to tennis, a sport I played for a few years in high school. I played tennis like I played ice hockey. High intensity with the mentality of hitting a winner off every shot. And you know what, this approach was terrible! I gave points up left, right and centre. Less skilled players were beating me easily, because I was beating myself by making unforced errors. All my opponents needed to do was return the ball and the probability of me making a mistake by trying to hit a winner was pretty high. In other words, the rules of the game were beating me before I had a chance to beat my opponent. My opponent was rewarded for my mistakes, regardless of their skill.
One day, my coach pulled me aside and explained what he was seeing. Having played Winner’s Games my whole life I was floored that you didn’t need to play aggressively, trying to win the point by your own skill. You could play an entirely different game, the Loser’s Game. The Loser’s Game was focused on minimising your own mistakes, rather than trying to influence your opponent. I applied this approach in a club tournament shortly afterwards, and to my disbelief I won! At this tournament, all of the players were similarly skilled, and the Loser’s Game was exactly the right approach. I didn’t need to hit winners, I just needed to keep the ball alive to increase the probability of my opponent making a mistake and losing the point.
However, after winning the tournament I was promoted to the state level tournament. I had only been playing tennis for a short time and I was coming up against players who had been playing since their childhood. I was completely out-matched and the Loser’s Game well… just resulted in me losing. I couldn’t keep up with these players and they ran me around the court. It wasn’t enough to avoid losing the point at this tournament, I would have to win the point to succeed.
As I experienced firsthand, and Ellis’ explains in his article, the game of tennis is in fact two games. The first is between you and the rules of the game, and the second between you and your competitor. A Loser’s Game is effective between amateurs because your opponent is more likely to lose the point by being beaten by the game. Contrastingly, between professionals, the probability of being beaten by the rules of the game are much lower and the game will be decided by minute differences in ability. To highlight this point, let’s consider Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He won approximately 80% of his matches… but only 54% of his individual points.
A Shift in Perspective
Looking back over the last five years since my Still’s relapse, I can see how my approach to recovery was hindered by my Winner’s mentality. I was doing everything with intensity. I was trying to jumpstart my health with massive shocks to the system and inflexible goals. I was an amateur trying to play a professional’s game. As a result, I was making costly mistakes by exerting myself too much and neglecting important pillars of health such as stress management, sleep and nutrition. After Chapter 1, and my endeavour to run 100km in 200 days, I completed the challenge and stopped exercising immediately. I was exhausted. The same thing happened with Chapter 2 and returning to ice hockey. I pushed myself through the season, but I had no foundation to return to. I was trying to beat my opponent, Still’s, without first learning the rules of the game (what my body needed).
For the last nine months or so, I have been playing the Loser’s Game. My framework has been built on establishing sustainable habits I intend on never giving up. I have been prioritising consistency over intensity. Reducing costly mistakes. Taking ownership of the variables in my control and learning to accept those I cannot influence. This has required making some hard decisions, like not playing ice hockey this year. However, the results have exceeded all of my expectations.
Last Saturday, I ran 14km at the Bravehearts 777 Marathon. This was a preparation run for my goal of running the City2Surf with the
crew next month. However, it was more than a preparation run. This was the furthest I have run since my last remission in 2018. But rather than burning out afterwards, I was back into active recovery the next day and training again on Monday. And as one of my close friends, , keeps reminding me. We’re Just. Getting. Started.The lesson I’ve learnt over the past 9 months is that improvement hasn’t come from trying to hit glamorous winning shots, but by doing a collection of small, sometimes mundane, things consistently well and minimising my mistakes. The result has been an impressive 3,100% improvement in my fitness.
The Loser’s Game is working for me. I think I’m onto a winner.
100%. That’s why only the elite of the elite can get there. It’s not just god-given talent. It’s the willingness to more than anyone else. Sacrificing time and so much more to dedicate to your craft. It’s too boring for most of us.
We live in a highlight-reel age where all we ever see is the flat-hitter forehand down the line, or the double-hander cross-court back hand that puts the opponent in skates. But we never see 25 shot rally that leads up to it. We never see the way a player works their opponent into a corner, shot after shot, each return landing deeper and deeper in the opponents court, sending them further and further back.
The point is, you don’t get the chance to hit the winner without relentlessly chipping away at the opposition. You’ve gotta be willing to get in the fight and earn the right to hit the winner.