This blog will probably give an excellent routine idea for the day before competition or tryouts.

After a long week of goalkeeper training, team practices, strategy preparation and hard work, now here comes competition/game day. Physically you and your team are ready, all your technical work is finished and all the possible scenarios you may encounter in the game has been covered & rehearsed. You may think you are ready to go. However, the biggest component for a dominant performance is your MENTAL PREPARATION.

 

Your mental attitude will determine how well you’ll perform on game day.

In order for you to have a powerful performance on game day, you should have a Pre- Competition Routine or (PCR) the night prior to your game.  I will give few examples but you have to find what works for YOU best!!.

 However, here are few elements REQUIRED  for your PCR that you can do the day before competition to gain massive results on game day.

 Nutrition:

Eating well balanced meals is crucial.  Fruits, vegetables, protein, carbohydrates etc.  Although nutrition is something that you need to be doing the ENTIRE WEEK, it is essentially important the night before.

Hydration:

hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, this is non-negotiable!!!. The rule of thumb regarding hydration is that if you are not urinating clear, you are NOT hydrating enough.  Think about this, if you hydrate you will be more energized on game day.  More details on this later but for now, you must ensure you are hydrating every day.

Sleep:

How long to sleep?  depends on who you are. Some people are fine sleeping 4- 6 hours. However, for athletes a good sleep cycle should be around 8-10 hours daily. Specially if you are in constant high pace training. Your body HEALS when you sleep but you will so energized and alert the after a good night sleep.  Find your own pattern!!!

Brain Rehearsal:

This is where the goalkeeper mental preparation puts it all together. Play the game in you mind. Some people would call this imagery. But I would like to go a step further by saying go as far as seeing the field, feel the temperature, the smell of the clean cut grass, or even the smell of the rubbery TURF fields, put on your gloves, see yourself going through warm ups & then play the game in your head.  Also go over your game plan and have a back up game plan if UNEXPECTED THINGS were to happen in the game. During you MENTAL PREPARATION, BREAK THE GAME INTO DETAILS. Rehearse the ENTIRE DAY up to game time. Last, rehearse getting shots on goal, deflections, dives etc (goalkeepers).

You can make you PCR= Pre-Competition Routine, whatever you want. However, these 4 steps are the main ingredients that you can use as you prepare the day before your game.  These are not steps you should use ONLY the day before a BIG game but you should create a PCR before ANY game.

Last, our blogs are generally geared towards our goalkeepers and their mental training. But these blogs are helping many other athletes not only during their events but also in their normal every day living.  We want to provide tools that will impact goalkeepers and athletes for the rest of their lives.