# Beyond the Playbook: The Role of Anti-Strategy in Competition **Published on [BallerzBantz](https://www.ballerzbantz.com/anti-strategy/), April 7, 2024.** **[Read the full piece →](https://www.ballerzbantz.com/anti-strategy/)** What makes a recruitment strategy effective? What makes a playing style sustainable? This essay argues that a consistent, underexamined feature across competitive domains is anti-strategy — things done not to directly score or win, but to ruffle opponents, increase margins for error, and buy time and space to execute. The piece considers four manifestations of anti-strategy in football, using Arjen Robben's deceiving neutral posture as a case study for how predictability can itself be a weapon when paired with the right anti-strategic elements. --- See also: [[reverse-engineering]], [[outlets]], [[head-coach-expectations]]