The importance of practice

Practicing is the most important thing to do when playing a sport. If you don't practice, how will you get better? "Practice makes perfect" right? Well, it's the truth. You don't necessarily have to be practicing with your team or a coach either, you can work on things on your own time. I just heard a lecture about how the best coach you have is yourself, and practicing by yourself has proven to make you better than if you practice with a team or coach. Practicing something over and over again, the right way, gives you a muscle memory and you don't have to think about what your doing, it just comes naturally. But, be careful because if you practice something the wrong way, it is very hard to fix it. It is said that fixing a bad habit takes at least 500 reps of doing it the correct way. Save yourself some time and make sure you do it the correct way!

An example I can give of practicing on your own time is simply hitting off of a tee for softball or baseball. There are so many different drills you can do, and you can simply work on pitch location like, inside tee, outside tee, and even just down the middle. For volleyball, you can pepper with your parents or a sibling, and even set to yourself off of a wall. I used to do that all the time when I was younger. Make your dad go outside with you and toss around a football. Work on your footwork in front of a mirror. There are so many things you can do on your own. There are even things you can do for your confidence. I have a hitting coach, Gayle Blevins (super awesome probably my favorite person in the universe) who had me write the word "winner" on post it notes and put them in obvious locations around my house so I could be reminded that I was a winner. You can write goals on a sheet of paper and put it somewhere that you always look, so you can be reminded of what you're striving for. You can put anything you need to learn about your sport on a piece of paper and put somewhere you always look so that you can learn it while doing everyday activities like brushing your teeth. Be creative and do something on your own.

Practicing on your own is very important, but practicing with a team and a coach is very imperative too. You need to work on your team chemistry (something that is HUGELY important, trust me), and just overall skills work. Your coaches help you with your technique and make you the best you can be. Your teammates also help you out with technique. Some sports, you can't go without a team practice. For example, if you didn't practice volleyball with your team, nothing would go right. You wouldn't know any play sets, your setter won't be used to how the hitters like their set, the passers will be uncomfortable with each other, and there is absolutely zero communication. Communication is key to almost every single team sport there is. Another benefit to practicing with your team, is you just get to know them better. It helps when a team is very tightly knit.

So, hopefully I got my point across. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! It really is the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself as an athlete.                

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