5 Mindful Practices to Instantly Up Your Game

By Elizabeth Hyland

Every athlete wishes there is some secret ingredient you could mix into your protein shake to instantly up your level of play. Unfortunately, there isn’t. Gritting and grinding through practice day in and day out is exhausting. It becomes even more tiresome when you add balancing academics and a social life into the mix. As athletes, we can become so jaded by the routine of the grind that we miss a shorter path to success. What if instead of working harder, you work smarter? Taking your game to the next level may be just 5 mindful practices away.

Create a personal mantra

A mantra is a word or phrase that helps concentration during meditation. Your personal mantra should put you in the headspace for peak performance. You want something that embodies you as a player, while also providing motivation. “Win your warmup” may give you the confidence you need to perform fearlessly once it’s game time. If you can’t think of your own you can always use the words of others. For example, if you are filling a spot of a former impact player you may be compared to that person often. Simone Biles uses, “I’m the first Simone Biles”. In response to the media comparing her to previous gymnastic Olympians she states, “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles”. You may be one mantra away from turning a strikeout into an RBI that sends a runner home or from turning a missed free throw into a game winning shot. 

Write standards for yourself

Imagine a business, company, school or even your team without standards. There would be no consistency, accountability or success. If you find your play inconsistent or lacking where you want it to be, why not write standards for yourself? Take time to think about a players that are already at where you want to be. What do they do before and after practice? What do they do the night before a game? What do they do in the weight room? How do they treat their teammates? Make a list of what you come up with and adopt the ones that suit you. The best athletes aren’t the most talented, but the most consistent. Following personal standards will hold you accountable long enough to start seeing the results you want.  

Think through the drill

Drills are usually created for a reason. How often have you actually taken time to think about the purpose of the drills you do? Training your brain to think about the purpose of a drill before you actually do it will help you strategize how to get the most out of it. Not only will thinking through drills help you get the most out of practice, but you will find yourself thinking more during gameplay as well. In addition, learning how to cater every drill for you to get better will drastically increase your overall performance. 

Compile a list of skills to work on

To-do lists keep you organized and focused. Why not create a similar list for skills you want to master? Often, athletes go through their career working on whatever the coach tells them to work on. Typically we all know what we should be capable of and what we still need to work on, but when is the last time we actually thought about it outside of practice? Similar to the process of writing standards for yourself, think about players that are already at where you want to be. Now think about the skills they have. Create a list from what you come up with. Read the list before every practice and pick one or two items to focus on. Cross off anything you believe that you have mastered. The list may seem long at first, but you’ll soon be surprised at how quickly you are able to check items off.  

Focus on the process, not the outcome

Homeruns, goals, three-pointers and kills are all fun, but what do you have to do to obtain that particular outcome? As athletes, it’s easy to get caught up in a result that we often forget about the cause. For example, a kill in volleyball comes from knowing the size of your block, what defense your opponents are in and what sets they are poor at defending. Even more specific, if you want to hit a certain spot on the court you have to finish your arm swing a particular way and contact the ball at an exact point. There is so much that goes into the outcome that you are trying to achieve! Start thinking about the process and mechanics of how to achieve it rather than focusing the achievement itself.  

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. If you are stuck in a rut or just looking to take your level of play to the next level, I encourage you to try these 5 practices.