Playing to win vs. playing for meaningful victories

John Laumakis has offered a thought-provoking, but ultimately unpersuasive argument in favor of playing to your opponent’s strength(s) (PTS) instead of playing to their weakness(es) (PTW). In the course of this reply, we hope to show (1) that the idea of PTS not only undermines the real goal of athletic competition, but it also (2) rests upon a confusion between matters of morality and the aims of sports, as well as (3) equivocations on the kind of ‘excellence’ one pursues, and the nature of the ‘challenge’ involved in sport. We also (4) plan to raise a serious objection against the logical consistency of PTS and (5) note its incompatibility with real-world game smarts and tactics. Finally, we (6) offer our own explanation for why ‘it is improbable that many coaches and athletes will shift their strategy from PTW to PTS’.