What I have learned through watching, learning, judging, and listening, is the clutch player may not be the person on the team that you would "expect" to be the clutch. There are good reasons why, we just aren't privy to those reasons.
What are the characteristics of a clutch player? Who do you want it to be? Do you have a person on the team who can be all you envision for that important role?
What if you don't have a well-rounded player on your team? What do you do then? Let's examine some examples I have witnessed in my 20+ years of playing in leagues.
I will put them in separate blog entries so you wont be reading one long blog post for hours on end, lol.
== Part 4 Below ==
On another team, I joined late in the season and I noticed right away that the best player was not in the clutch position every week at league. The better player had recently had a fantastic previous 18 months winning state league events and big tournaments, yet he wasn't the clutch player for the team.
I asked him why and he said he didn't know and he was curious himself.
Turns out the "original" clutch player had been in that position on the team for years (this other player had joined for the first time that season).
I was actually hurt FOR my friend. And I could tell it stung a little for him, as well.
But, what we didn't know was the clutch teammate was a great pressure player, and could handle mentally any losses for the team (if that happened).
I think the Captain felt if he was removed from the clutch position, it would affect his game. Because leaving him in the position actually gave him a lot of confidence.
And with the already-strong team, honestly either player could have been put in that position.
Ironically, the better player would win a lot more matches before we ever even found ourselves hill-hill that often.
Oh, and we won the playoffs with this team :)
==
(You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.)
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