My Personal Pregame Routine...and why I really dislike rituals/superstitions

Since I started playing sports, I was always taught to have a routine. Not a “ritual”. Rituals like superstitions, could only harm performance. If I wasn’t wearing my favorite socks, it didn’t matter. If I didn’t get ready exactly as I had during my last good performance, it didn’t matter! What did matter was creating a personal routine that fit what I needed and was not the only thing riding on if I was going to have a good performance or not. As a shooting guard, a lot of my pre-game routine revolved around a shooting warm-up series, some visualization, and saying a prayer during the national anthem. Those were the three main components of my pre-game routine and they served me well throughout my career. What was great about my pre-game routine, was that it was adaptable to what I needed and how much time I had before a game.

            If I was at an AAU game and we had very little time to warm-up or shoot around, my pre-game shooting warm-up series became a form shooting series on a floor somewhere quiet. If it was loud at a high school game, head phones went in to listen and watch my visualization video. If there was no national anthem played (talking about you England Basketball...), I said my prayer just before the game started on the bench. If I missed an opportunity to do any of those routines, it wasn’t the end of the world. I didn’t think my game would suffer, and I certainly didn’t think my team would lose due to my lack of routine. If I thought those things, it would be a superstition, a ritual, and that would be massively detrimental to my performance and everything I had worked for leading up to a game day.

            Now, some athletes have superstitions and rituals and swear by them for good performance. Putting socks on a certain way, or wearing specific accessories, putting on a uniform a certain way, or doing the exact same warm-up before every game…they hold tight to the belief that these things will somehow impact their performance positively. I completely understand having a good feeling going into a game and thinking that whatever you have done leading up to it will help you play well. But I absolutely don’t buy that a sock, or a certain way of putting on my uniform will have any impact at all on how well I play, shoot, or if my team wins.

            To me the negative far outweighs the positive. You forget to pack your lucky socks, or they are in the wash, or the game before yours runs over and you can’t do the warm-up you have always done and all of a sudden this creeping, sinking feeling starts to grow within you that says this game is doomed before it ever began. There are too many variables leading up to a game, to be able to do the same exact thing every single game day. Which means it is more likely that negative feeling will creep in than that positive feeling growing.

            As for my routine, it was a combination of both physical and mental preparation that allowed me to step onto the court with confidence, focus, and positivity. My shooting warm-up series included starting close with form shots and working my way back to the three-point line and the inclusion of different shots off the dribble. My visualization video was used primarily during high school, included some of my own clips and those of my favorite shooters set to some pump up music. That video slowly made way to my own mindful visualization. My prayer that was said before each and every game I ever played, thanked God for the opportunity to be playing the game I loved, asked to protect both teams from injury, and asked to help guide me to have a clear a focused mind in order to play to the best of my ability. All three things were personal to me, worked for me, and took some trial and error in the beginning to figure out.

            Making your own pre-game routine should not be something tedious, or annoying. It should be helpful to you and prepare you both mentally and physically to perform to your highest level. Good luck in creating and implementing your own routine – just remember if it gets interrupted or you miss an aspect of it, it is not the end of the world and the game is not lost before it ever began! Adjust, adapt, conquer and win.

   Do you have any pre-game routines you can share? What has worked or hasn’t worked for you?

-Cat

Routines > Rituals/Superstitions

This article will discuss the difference between routines and rituals/superstitions, why it is important to know the difference between them, and how a pregame routine can boost your performance.

First things first, what do these words mean?

Routine (n): a sequence of actions regularly followed

               (adj): performed as part of a regular procedure rather than for a special reason

Ritual (n): a ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order

Superstition (n): excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural / a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such a belief

From the definitions given above, we can start to see the emergence of the difference between a routine and a ritual/superstition, leading to my favored use of the term routine over the other two. What’s wrong with a ritual or superstition you ask? For starters, they are based around ceremony and supernatural influences. As if performing a ritual or believing in the supernatural will help you make a jump shot, sink a putt, or help your team win a championship. It can also allow athletes to attribute their successes, earned through hard work, to mystical doings instead of seeing their dedication to improving come to fruition. On the other side, it also allows athletes to attribute their mistakes or failures to anything else except for themselves. As you can guess, this can lead to a bit of an issue if that athlete shirks responsibility.

While a routine and ritual may share similarities in the words used to define them, the attitudes surrounding both areas are very different. I’m not saying that no one should have rituals, ever, but no one should be held to the thought that a “change” in a ritual (or a superstition) will lead to any other performance outcome than the one that was going to happen anyway. In a world made up of variables, it is easy to see more changes from game to game happen, rather than everything happening just as it did before. This can create a mental restriction, prompting an athlete to focus and concentrate more on managing irrelevant things before a game, instead of preparing their mind, body, and soul for peak performance.

Establishing a routine includes a few different aspects in order for successful use: positivity, relevance, personalization, persistence, adaptability and focus.

*Keep your routine positive: whether you include visualization, self-talk, or meditation within your routine – keep it positive. Do not let distracting negative thoughts hijack your routine and create a mindset that is not ideal.

*Keep your routine relevant: does your routine have to do with your mind, body and soul? Great! Keep it in those areas. Making sure you are wearing your lucky socks, or that you put on your uniform the exact same way as you did in your previous good performance are not relevant to your performance outcome.

*Personalize your routine: No size fits all! Find what works for you. Each individual will find that they have different focus needs in order to get ready for a game. What works for you is more important than what works for anyone else. Sure, take ideas from other athletes or role models, but make them your own. Do you find you need more time on mental preparation than physical preparation before a game? Than create and use a routine that concentrates on more on the mind than the body.

*Be persistent: Just creating a routine is not the final piece of the puzzle. You must be persistent in incorporating your routine before your games. Consistency is a key. Not necessarily in a way that says: I must do this at this time with this aid and in this order – if I don’t, it won’t work. That’s a ritual/superstition, remember? No, consistency in this case means that the athlete is focused on consistently utilizing their routine to become prepared in all areas they may need.

*Be adaptable: If something before a game impedes your pregame routine, it is important that you can adapt your routine to fit any restraints that may occur.

*Focus: Focus is needed in two ways. The first is that when you create your pregame routine, what areas do you need to focus on to be in the best position to achieve peak performance? Once you understand what to focus on, you are in a good position to start creating a positive and efficient pregame routine. The second way that focus is important in a pregame routine is once you have started your routine focus on completing it to a high standard. Don’t lose concentration, don’t allow negative thoughts to intrude, and don’t get distracted by irrelevant cues (looking at you lucky socks).

With these keys to a successful pregame routine being utilized, your performance could start to see a boost in a number of different areas. Higher concentration/focus levels, more positive mindset, optimum arousal levels, and physical readiness are all possible benefits of a pregame routine. All of which are important to peak performance and overall sporting success.

What’s your pregame routine and how does it help you get ready for a game? Comment below to share!

All the best, 

Cat


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My Visualization Journey

Visualization was something that I always did throughout my life, but it wasn’t until later in my sports career that I started using it correctly. Always the dreamer, I would shoot out on my driveway imagining a million different ways that my jump shot was the game winner for a big championship title. The roar of the crowd, the feeling of nervous excitement, seeing the defender who stupidly goes under on a ball screen giving me just enough room to get my shot off, watching the ball go in and complete the game winning scenario. I may not have known it then, but I was laying the foundation for the use of visualization throughout my career.

I would venture to guess that most athletes at some point in their career use imagery as they see themselves achieving the winning basket, the walk off home run, crossing the finish line first, etc. Athlete’s from every sport uses some amount of visualization within their training.

 It wasn’t until the first time that I created a vision board, that I started to incorporate visualization into my daily workout routine. It hung on my wall, next to my dresser mirror and included a number of different goals, aspirations, and things I wanted. Each morning and each night I saw this vision board, looked at each of the pictures, and saw myself achieving them. That wasn’t my only foray into using visualization. I made a highlight video, put it to some inspiring music and watched it before each game, every run I went on I saw myself improving in different areas, and I tried to make sure that any thoughts that entered my mind were positive. I wasn’t perfect at it, but with practice my thoughts and images became clearer and easier to see.

                        Not everything on that vision board was attained, but a lot of things were. Visualization isn’t a guarantee to get whatever you want and even when paired with hard work, you still may not get everything. But if you had the chance to accomplish 80% of the goals you set, with visualization, wouldn’t you prefer that over the 50% you would only accomplish without it? Give visualization a chance, there is nothing to lose and only positives to gain.

                        As for my visualization use now? It has turned from winning jump shots at the buzzer, to walking across a stage and being handed a PhD.

                        

Good luck with your visualization journey! It’s sure to be an exciting and fulfilling one! – Cat

What is Visualization and How Can You Use It To Benefit You?

When someone wants to learn something, a skill, task, objective, they usually physically practice it. A basketball player shoots thousands of shots a week, a soccer player works on footwork drills, a tennis player repeatedly works on their serve, a student reads notes, a business person recites a presentation...you get the idea! The practice of these skills and tasks helps us to feel more confident in our ability to complete them successfully and we start to create different forms of muscle memory that we use to recall these learned skills and tasks when they are needed. Now, this type of physical practice will undoubtedly lead to you becoming more successful, but what differentiates those who practice and complete their skill successfully when it is important and those who practice and are unable to complete their skill successfully when it is important? Often, we find that those who have utilized the skill of visualization somewhere along the line (more importantly often and correctly), tend to be more successful come crunch time. Think of some of the big time Olympians who have utilized visualization throughout their career: Andy Murray, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, and Lindsey Vonn to name a few. Their use of visualization has helped them gain those extra needed bits to complete their game.

            Visualization comes back to that old adage by Henry Ford, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right”. Those who see themselves failing, often fail. It’s no surprise then that those who see themselves succeeding, often succeed. Now, don’t mistake visualization as this magical, one time, miracle producing technique. Visualization is a complementing tool that is used in conjunction with the physical work you are putting in. It also needs to be practiced in order to be used correctly. With hard work both physically and mentally, you begin to connect the body and mind into a well-oiled machine bound for success.

            Sports psychologists utilize the tool of visualization a lot with their athletes. Why? Because it works! When done correctly.  So how do you use visualization correctly? First, you start by deciding what it is you would like to visualize. Whatever it is, whether it’s completing a skill, winning a game, getting an award, make sure that it is of you doing something successful! Remember Ford’s quote. If you see yourself failing, guess what? You are going to fail! So, always “think you can”, keep it positive, attainable**, and always successful (I snuck attainable in there because it is no good if you try to use visualization for something physically impossible. I would love to be able to do a dunk from the foul line…but that isn’t going to happen). After settling on a positive aspect of your game or life that you want to work on, they next part is to try and use all of your senses to create an in-depth and realistic visualization experience. Vision, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch are important. So is adding an emotional aspect. Did you just visualize yourself winning a championship? How does it feel emotionally? Are you excited? Is your heart fluttering? Details people!!

            Now it all comes down to practice. Can you stay positive while adding more and more detail to your visualization? Don’t become discouraged if you find yourself having a wandering mind at first. Nor should you become discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Remember, this is a tool that is the proverbial cherry on the top (your physical practice is the sundae). It will take time to see results, but when you do, it will be noticeable.

            Don’t think it’s worth your time? It’s all psychological “mumbo jumbo” you say? Ok, but what if I told you there is actual scientific support for visualization? What you imagine (visualize) starts to actually create new neuropathways in your brain! The same as when you are actually completing a skill or task. Visualization can build upon your muscle memory, because as you visualize yourself doing something, your neuropathways are firing! Not so much “mumbo jumbo” now is it? Keep in mind that it is not just for learning a skill, visualization can help calm anxiety, build confidence, and mentally focus you, just to name a few of the many more benefits.

            I know you’ve heard about visualization before. It’s nothing new. Now it is up to you to utilize it to your benefit. So, do you have what it takes to work on your personal visualization habits and make gains in whichever area of your sport or life you want to improve? 

Here is your challenge: can you take just 5 minutes of your day, for the next week, to practice visualization? Best of luck – I’m already visualizing you using visualization to get better!

I’d love to hear back from you! Let me know how it goes! 

- Cat