"How David Defeats Goliath" Gladwell

In the article by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell talks about numerous different stories about underdogs that don’t always have the disadvantage. The story that sparked my interest was the story about a deficient girls basketball team. Gladwell talks about a girls basketball team coached by Vivek Ranadive. The girls basketball team was very small in size and inexperienced in playing the game of basketball which made them very weak opponents and competitors. Gladwell states that only two girls were experienced basketball players, while the others were short, and lacked basic skills such as being able to shoot and dribble.

Vivek Ranadive needed to develop the best way to make this team achieve great success. He soon discovered a well known defensive technique called a full court press. A full court press stresses the idea of putting full defensive pressure on your opponent.

This defensive tactic helped lead Ranadive’s team to the national championship. Vivek Ranadive proved that you don’t have to be big or strong to achieve success.

This story has a lot in common with the story of David and Goliath. In David and Goliath, David appears to be far more inferior than Goliath as Goliath is a 6 foot 9 inch giant. Like Coach Ranadive, David knew he would have trouble achieving success. He used his brain and knew that he would have to use long range combat because he is too small to go in hand in hand combat with Goliath. This is similar to Ranadive’s doubts about his team.

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Ranadive knew his team wouldn’t be able to play like the other teams that were much bigger, taller, and more experienced. He had the girls play intense full court press defense at all times to make it difficult for opponents to gain good court position. This was a strategic move and it made the girls rely more on their knowledge and skill level, rather than their strength or height.

As an underdog, one must have a good strategy and know their opponents weaknesses. David knew going into the fight that Goliath’s greatest weakness was being struck in the head, specifically in between his eyes. Coach Vivek Ranadive knew that his opponents weakness would always be putting pressure on the offense. His knowledge of that led him to install a full court press to be played in the defense at all times, which allowed his team to dominate any offense, no matter the size, speed, or strength of the opponent. David’s intelligence is what led him to come up with strategy of using the sling with rock inside. Ranadive’s intelligence is what led him to think of the defensive tactic of full court press. These two stories show that underdogs can sometimes come out on top by using methods that exercise their stronger traits such as being strategic or intelligent rather than simply trying to improve their weaker traits.