10 Habits to Pick up in Your Pre-Practice Routine

“We talkin’ about practice. Not just practice, we talkin’ about pre-practice.”

The champions’ approach to practice involves MORE focus, preparation and love than their approach to games. Champions become masters of what others consider boring or mundane—all the little things—and they love practice as much as games.

If you want to perform at a championship level, commit this formula to memory: CP = AP + A. It means:

Championship Performance = Advanced Preparation + Anticipation

That’s the easy part. Simply knowing CP = AP + A doesn’t improve your game, but it does begin to shift your mindset. Acting on this newfound knowledge is the key. Here are 10 things you can start doing now that will set you on a path to Championship Performance:

1. Arrive Early

You won’t be able to practice like a championship athlete if you don’t arrive early. All great players are the first to arrive. You also won’t have time to complete the other nine steps if you show up right before practice.

2. Hydrate

Most players are dehydrated when practice begins. Dehydration can lower athlete performance by up to 27 percent. Improve your performance by hydrating before practice.

3. Visualization

Prime your body to respond properly to the things you care most about. Spend 3-5 minutes visualizing how you feel when you catch the ball in your spot. How you feel when your shot is “on”. And how you feel as you release it and you know it’s going in.

4. Mistake Response

Choose how you will respond to mistakes in practice. Welcome mistakes as an opportunity to learn instead of beating yourself up for each mistake. And, practice increasing your effort and energy following each mistake. We call this your ‘mistake-response’ and it’s often more important than the mistake itself.

5. Appreciation

Consider what you are grateful for prior to practice. Gratitude kills fear and entitlement.

6. Praise

Identify the teammates who need to be praised or encouraged each day.

• Who is in a slump?
• Who is the coach always harping on?
• Who gets down on themselves?

Everyone loves praise—even lazy, selfish bad attitude players will respond positively.

7. Trust

Consider what your coach cares most about right now. Focus on showing off your ability to perform what he or she is asking for. Is it rebounding, defense, communication? Trust is earned by getting good at what your coach cares about.

8. Roll-Out

Injuries can be prevented by doing 5-10 minutes of roll outs using a foam roller or basketball. There are plenty of videos on this. If you are not rolling out before practice you greatly increase your chance of injury.

9. Sweat

Great players have already broken a sweat before practice begins. Whether you shoot, ball handle, or do a dynamic warm up, your body should be prepared and your core temperature up before your practice.

10. Choose Your Attitude

Don’t leave this up to chance. Success has more to do with having the right set of attitudes than the right set of circumstances. Choose the attitude you will have during your practice. Success will follow.

Few people are successful doing things they haven’t prepared for. Few people excel when caught by surprise. Confidence comes from preparation and preparation comes from anticipating the moments you want to excel in.

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