{"id":10115,"date":"2016-04-20T04:30:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=10115"},"modified":"2016-04-18T22:26:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T03:26:31","slug":"6-tips-to-get-the-most-out-of-every-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/6-tips-to-get-the-most-out-of-every-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"6 tips to get the most out of every practice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Knowing<\/a>
Knowing how to approach practice is a large part\u00a0of a young athlete’s improvement plan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What do the best of the best — Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Breanna Stewart,\u00a0 Mike Trout et al — have in common?<\/p>\n

All of them love to practice.<\/p>\n

These athletes learned early on that the only way they could become the best in their sport was to put in the time, day after day, honing their skills. None was born exceptional. But each had a fire inside them which pushed them to and beyond their potential to a level few other athletes have been able to reach. They did not just love their sport, they had a deep passion for it which was manifested in their extraordinary work ethic and will to excel.<\/p>\n

Go back and trace the progress of all the great ones. At some point in their development, they all decided to do more to prepare than their coaches asked.<\/p>\n

Certainly, not everyone has the talent to play pro sports. But that’s not to say that every\u00a0high school athlete wanting to extend their career to the college ranks should put forth any less effort than those who reach the pinnacle of their sport. \u00a0At National Scouting Report, our on-the-ground scouts observe\u00a0it every day.<\/p>\n

Practice for a high school, club or travel team is where all progress happens. Here are some tips for\u00a0 high school athletes to get the most out of every practice:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Get your head on straight:<\/strong> \u00a0At least 10 minutes prior to the start of \u00a0practice, begin clearing your head of anything bothering you. Some athletes do this by sitting silently in their car, stretching out on the floor, chilling in front of their locker or taking a short walk alone. Think about how you will focus and work hard. Tell yourself that you will get better at this or that skill. Envision listening intently to your coaches and executing their instructions in detail. \u00a0Silently say, “This is the day I get better because I will practice harder than ever.”<\/li>\n
  2. Develop a pre-practice routine:<\/strong> \u00a0Put together a short, simple pre-practice routine. This automatically puts you in the right groove heading into practice. Focus on activities which put you closer to being in the right mindset for what lies ahead.<\/li>\n
  3. Understand your purpose:<\/strong> \u00a0Know that you are homing in on taking another step forward in achieving your overall improvement plan. Realize that your prime directive is to learn and work hard. Don’t permit anything to stand in your way.<\/li>\n
  4. Details, details:<\/strong> \u00a0Practice is all about fine tuning fundamentals. \u00a0There is always room to move forward. \u00a0Focus on the little things — from footwork to performing well when physically and mentally drained. Fighting through fatigue is huge. Overcoming that drag on your body and mind is a key to your success.<\/li>\n
  5. Re-group midway through:<\/strong> \u00a0Putting your best effort on the line is indeed exhausting. Get in the habit of assessing where you are mentally and physically halfway into practice. That should takes only a few seconds. Doing that gives you a push off the starting blocks again and serves to re-energize you.<\/li>\n
  6. Never give up on yourself:<\/strong> \u00a0With this plan, you will have more good days than bad. But be realistic. You will have bad ones. The best of the best have bad days, too. \u00a0But they never give up on themselves. Their self-determination is so strong that they can see a bad day as an anomaly, not a pattern.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Practice is yours to control.\u00a0 Some coaches will make it seem unbearable, but in the long run, that is a good thing. Other coaches will be too soft. Take charge of your own destiny.<\/p>\n

    Make practice the place where you put everything together — mentally, physically and emotionally. When you do that consistently, at game time you will find yourself on autopilot while others struggle to keep pace with your brand of excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What do the best of the best — Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Breanna Stewart,\u00a0 Mike Trout et al — have in common? All of them love to practice. These athletes learned early on that the only way they could become the best in their sport was to put in the time, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[31,57,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10115"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10255,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions\/10255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}