Introduction
The sport psychologist Bill Beswick once quoted; ‘if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’
In professional sport preparation is one of the biggest predictors of success.
As an athlete one the most effective ways to optimise your time during the build up to a competitive performance is to devise a pre-match routine.
In this document I have outlined some of the benefits of integrating a pre-match routine in your sporting regime.
It organises you
The best thing about using a pre-match routine is that it helps to organise and structure your pre-match activities.
Having explicit pre-match instructions also allows you to keep tabs on how well you are preparing for matches. It enables you to measure and record your pre-match activities and highlight whether or not you managed to adhere to your preparation plan.
Furthermore if you perform badly, you can correlate this to how well you executed your pre-match routine. Most of the time poor performances follow poorly executed pre-match routines.
Before competing if you know that you have carried out your pre-match routine to the best of your ability, you will be filled with confidence knowing that you have done everything in your power to optimise your performance.
Builds a feeling of control
The beauty of pre match routines is that most of the time you are in complete control of them. Prior to performing you can control of what food you eat, the fluids you drink, who you talk to, what you think about, what you pack into your kit bag, whether or not you listen to music, what you read, and so on.
There are often very few things that you have control over in competitive sport, but the things you can control you must take advantage of.
By considering all of the actions and behaviours that may impact positively prior to competitive performances you empower yourself to build an effective and thorough pre-match routine.