Game Preparation: 3 Tips To Help Your Team Get Off To A Fast Start

In sports, it’s how you finish a game that matters most — particularly when you’re on the winning side.

And it’s much easier to finish strong, when your team gets off to a fast start.

Starting hot and jumping out to a quick lead gives your team a huge advantage over your opponents, as it puts their back’s against the wall. While some teams may play better coming from behind, it is much easier to grow and hold a lead than it is to play catch up.

Your players should be preparing for the upcoming opponent all week and know exactly what they need to do on the field, pitch, court or ice. But in order to get off to a quick start, there is some additional game preparation you should think about:

1. The Night Before

While your players likely have their game day routine and pregame rituals, it’s actually what they do the night before the game that is more important.

Proper sleep and meals are extremely important for your players to have enough fuel to perform in the game. Your players’ meals should focus on higher carbohydrates and moderate protein, while low in fat. But they should stay away from carbo-loading — unless they’re training for a marathon.

Mental game prep should also start the night before. You don’t want your team to over think or be nervous, but they should be reviewing scouting reports, matchups and going over their role.

2. Pre-Pre Warm Up

At all levels of all sports, teams get to warm up before the game. But your athletes shouldn’t be waiting until just before the game begins to get warm.

Whether on their own, as a team or both, your athletes should be getting loose even before pregame warm ups. This could be at home, in the parking lot, the facilities around the arena or elsewhere; but wherever it’s done, pre-pregame warm ups are vital to early game success.

3. Follow The Leader

Who do your players respond to? Is it the coaching staff, the team’s leaders or both? What motivates your squad? Some players respond to the quiet, lead-by-example types; others want a leader that comes equipped with big pregame speeches ready to pump up the team; while some other players need a chair-throwing-expletive-screaming-maniac to rally behind.

No matter what style or who does the talking, the locker room is the last opportunity you have to fire up your team before the game begins and make sure they are focused on the right goals. Make the most of it.

This is where leadership is integral. When you have the right leaders in place, your team is able to be properly motivated. Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s you, the team’s best player or a benchwarmer. If this is the leader that gets the troops motivated, that’s the note you should end the pregame speech on.

There’s no better way to have your team come flying out of the gate!

From pre-pregame warm ups and pregame speeches to dinner and sleep the night before, there is specific game preparation to help get your players ready for a fast start.

Start Fast

Author Bio

Bobbie Quinn, co-founder of Gladiator Custom Mouthguards, played both lacrosse and field hockey as a youth and went on to play Division 1 women’s lacrosse in college. Bobbie continues to play women’s league field hockey and enjoys watching her son play various sports.