season. I really thought about it as the team played so much better in their last two games.

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general in the period of the Warring States around 400 BC. At that time across China, local warlords constantly waged war against one another to fight for their shares of the remnants of the collapsed Chou Empire. I remember the story about Sun Tzu being challenged by a warlord to apply his famous war doctrine to train 180 women from the warlord’s palace into an orderly company. Among the women, two were the warlord’s favourite concubines. Sun Tzu divided the women into two groups and put a concubine in command of each.

Sun Tzu then set the women a simple drill and made sure they understood what to do. However, when he started ordering them to perform the drill, the women burst out in laughter. He tried again with the same result. Sun Tzu claimed that this failure of the troops to obey was the fault of the commanders. So, despite the warlord’s pleas, he ordered the two concubines beheaded as an example for the rest of the company. Thereafter, the women did not utter a single sound and performed the drill exactly as commanded.