Preparing Mentally for Game Day

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches, For Players | 0 comments

Game day preparation isn’t all stretches and drills. While a lot of people tend to focus on the physical aspects of the game, it is definitely worth your while as a player to focus on the mental aspects in your preparation routines. If you neglect it you can end up being distracted, and even if it doesn’t happen to affect you personally, it can affect your team, and when you affect your team in a negative fashion, it will end up affecting you individually and can lead to things like being benched, or even sent home for a game.

If you are going into a week pregame and you have some major events in your life, good or bad, get them off your chest. If you have it swirling in your head it will distract you in one way or another, or at the very least cause a delay in your reaction time. When you go into a game you need to clear your head and keep your mind on game related things only. This isn’t to say that you have to forget about things that are important to you, or that you are to forget about personal matters, it’s just best to temporarily put them on the back burner so that you can concentrate.

If you need some time to just clear your head, without any fancy breathing techniques or work out methods, just sit in a room, dark or light, and relax. This allows you to get these thoughts worked out, it allows you to clear your head, and allows you to just take a moment and be alone with your thoughts. Too often these days we don’t take enough “me” time because we are too busy and put it to the back burner for far too long.

If you find yourself tense, and have things bottled up inside, you could do one of a few things to release some of that pent up tension. You can drink some water and just sit and relax, this will allow you to gear down a bit and release some of the tension.

If you find that isn’t working, a quick work-out may assist you in burning off some of your bottled up feelings. If you just ignore your emotions and let them bottle up inside, you will reach a critical point in which you will just become mentally exhausted. Much like physical exhaustion you will just be worn right out, and will be playing at a fraction of your normal play. You will now be focused and you will not be in your grade A playing shape.

If you find yourself in a situation in your day to day life that just has you up in arms mentally to the point that you are losing sleep, or just need to take care of things before you get back to playing, make sure to let your coach know. Some people will try to just ignore it and play through thinking that it will go away or they can just forget about it. Bottling up problems and emotions is just like hiding injuries, it just gets worse.

Photo credit: Zach Klein

Organizing an Away Game Day

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches | 0 comments

Away days are a unique experience for players. There is a certain amount of travel involved so when you are planning the trip, you want to be able to allot extra time in case of traffic or other stops that may happen. Players will need to ensure they have all the necessary supplies needed for the day out. Without being at home you don’t have the luxury of having everything you need within a short distance.

One thing that people like to do when travelling to away games is car pool if there are no team buses. Coaches will need to set arrival time to ensure the team is either at the team bus or at the destination no later than that time so that you can keep all of your game day preparations in order.

Being the away team means that you will need to prepare in unfamiliar ground, and will need to bring additional supplies like extra clothes, and your away uniforms. You will need to bring any necessary equipment with you like extra pads, and anything that you may require throughout the game.

Most of your game preparation will be done before you even get to your destination. Pre game studying, game strategies and even equipment preparation are usually done in advance, and are just reviewed when you arrive at the game site. Recreational teams sometimes do not go over detailed strategies but competitive leagues have new strategies in place for each and every team that they face in an attempt to exploit their weaknesses.

While it may seem like common sense, you may prefer taking full advantage of available warm up time on the home team court just to get a feel for the venue and get used to it. Each and every court is different. Things like lighting and even the court can just react differently to what you are used to and you will need to familiarize yourself as much as possible.

Team Spirit is even more important while you are on the road because you don’t have the home team crowd pumping you up. Coaches need to ensure that the team spirit remains positive and that they don’t get overwhelmed by the opposing team’s home crowd.

Away teams need to ensure that they feed off of their coach when they can’t feed off of the crowd. A coach is everything to a team when they are on the road. He is their coach, and their cheering section. Coaches are one of the most essential tools on the road and at home and are sometimes underestimated. Teams need to listen to what their coach has to say and follow his instructions.

While you will be caught up in getting prepared for a game, you need to still have some fun and enjoy the surroundings. Whether you are an hour away from your home town, or 12 hours away, enjoy the trip! Being in unfamiliar territory during game day doesn’t mean you can’t take a few team mates and go have a bite to eat or try something new. Coaches will occasionally organize team outings during away game days just to keep the tension low, and to ensure that the team has fun. After all, some play to win, some play for a love of the game, but no matter what you play for, everyone needs to have fun.

Photo credit: kevindooley

Organizing a Home Game Day

Posted by Eitel in For Coaches | 0 comments

Home Games are the most important games to any team no matter what style of league you are in. You have the support of the home town crowd and your team just has an energy about it that cannot be explained. You are playing in front of your friends and family and will usually play that little extra mile to try for that win.

The home game day doesn’t just include the game. There are many pre and post game activities that can be done. Starting with pregame, you will need to get your team fired up and ensure that they are ready to go. While warm up’s are essential you will need to lay out a game plan and be as mentally ready for the game as possible.

Warm ups are an essential next step, it will ensure that you are ready to go and that the crowd gets a look at your team. It starts to fire up the crowd and gets your team feeling the energy and gets them hyped up and warmed up for the game. Then before the game starts you need to have one final “pep talk” of sorts to ensure that the coach fires up the team and has them all on the same page.

Equipment is less of a worry for home games as your equipment is usually already at the venue, and already in the locker room. One thing you do at home games that you don’t do at away games is have a pre game rally of sorts. In high school they were called pep rallies, but a lot of teams have small rallies or outings just to get the players in game mode and get the butterflies out before game day. Team outings happen after the game, with wins or loses to keep team morale high and to just relax after some good hard play.

While a home coach needs to ensure that his team is taken care of, he also has to ensure that the away team is taken care of and has all of the necessities. Change room(s), warm up time, and access to necessary things like washrooms and even possibly showers. Some home teams even go an extra mile and like to provide extra equipment, just in case of someone forgetting something, or in case of equipment failure.

Coaches need to capitalize on the home crowd and feed of the energy that it provides the players. Not every game is a home game, and when you are at home, you as a coach need to ensure that your team takes full advantage and gets the crowd hyped and keeps them hyped up throughout the game.

No Home Game Day ever goes perfect, and no team wins every single home game. The best home games are the ones where both teams, home and visiting, can walk away proud of the way that the game was played, whether they won, or whether they lost.

Photo credit: johntrainor