How to Mentally Prepare Yourself for a Hockey Game

It is important to mentally prepare yourself before game day. All your practice will be for nothing if you cannot perform well on the day it matters the most. So, read on for some easy tips on how to make sure you are in top shape for your game!

How to Mentally Prepare Yourself for a Hockey Game
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Rest up

It is paramount that you get at least 8 hours of sleep the night before your hockey game. If you are not well-rested, your body will be tired and will not perform at the best of its abilities in order to conserve energy for the rest of the day.

So, you must make sure your body is at ease. Getting a good night's sleep is also very important for your brain to function at high speed. If you are sleepy or groggy, you will not be able to think as fast, and that will affect your reflexes while playing hockey.

Connect your mind and body

A technique that many athletes use is that they try to manifest their mind and body as one. You can sit in a dark corner overlooking the hockey rink and imagine the entire gameplay out in front of you.

Try closing your eyes and taking a deep breath in. You must try and focus on your breath. Keep your breath steady and fill your lungs with oxygen. It will give you a sense of calm. This may also boost your confidence, as you will feel calm and ready, instead of anxious and nervous.

Develop a mantra

Developing a mantra to repeat in your head over and over again can help boost confidence. It may help you feel more prepared and ready to take the game by storm. Examples of mantras you can use before a game are "Do or Die," "Kill or be killed," "As the game gets longer, I get stronger." You can find a mantra off of the internet and use that, or personalize it and develop your own. Do what feels right to you. If you repeat your mantra over and over again in your head, you may just be successful in convincing yourself that it is true.

Focus

Learn to get rid of unnecessary thoughts in your head. At any given moment, we humans have 10 different thoughts running through our minds. However, you must train yourself to fine-tune everything out of your brain on game day and only keep thoughts about your game and what you have to do to win in your head.

You must prioritize your game and think about how at that moment, nothing else in the world matters but your game. Keeping all your gear in order will also help, as you will feel more organized. https://www.total-hockey.com/ is one of the best platforms to purchase your hockey gear from. They even have free shipping in all of the UK, taking some of the stress off that you might feel while purchasing so much gear.

Pre winning game routine

If you believe in superstitions, develop a pre-winning game routine. This routine can be anything from waking up at a particular time, only eating a particular food on game day, or walking into the rink via a certain path. This might bring in some consistency to your life, as well as security. It may even just act as a placebo, but hey, if it works, why fix it?

If you follow these simple steps, you will be able to perform much better on game day, and all your hard work will be worth it. Train your mind to focus itself on game day, relax, and let your passion for hockey take the lead.