In athletics, you often hear a team’s performance as “they’re playing not to lose.” That attitude carries over to Academic Games competitions.
Playing to win requires playing aggressively. Ultimately, the confidence to compete without fear comes with experience, but coaches can teach new players to strive to play confidently from Day One.
- Propaganda: Veteran players answer Bold for every question. Newcomers can be instructed to choose Cautious for examples for which they have no idea and are merely guessing.
- Presidents: It is a rare player who answers on the 6-point clue for every question. You can get the Propaganda techniques down cold, but Presidents questions are too wide-ranging for anyone to know the answer on the 6-pointer every time. There’s a difference between playing aggressively to win and playing recklessly.