So the big game is approaching...fast. Fast, like it’s two or three hours away. Two or three hours, and you’ll be out there with your muscles flying and heart pumping and you’ll be winning, challenging, defeating, dominating your opponent. Or...not?
To me, it’s what you do before that big game that separates you from winning and dominating or losing because you’re off-focus. A lot of players have a routine of things they do before a game, called a “pre-game ritual”. They do the same thing, the same way before every single game. Usually, it’s the same things they did before the last time they had a great game, because they believe the same good luck will come back to them.
I ran cross country for my school’s team in high school. Before my first race, I warmed up with stretching, a couple sprints and then two final stretches. Then tied my shoes twice and clicked through all the buttons on my watch. Then I took the starting line, and I finished with the best time on the entire team for that day.
From that day on, I’ve always done the same start-up routine before every race, from the stretches to the shoes to the buttons on the watch, and it’s worked pretty well. I had a great career running and even finished with a 3-mile time of 17 minutes, 30 seconds. I now say that I believe in the luck of the pre-game ritual. It’s something I’ll always do.
Do you buy the luck of a pre-game routine? Do you have one? Tell us about what you do and how you can to that same routine; maybe we can try your rituals and see if it works for us, too!
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