A routine is the professional athlete's tool for making sure that he (or she) is in the right place at the right time. Based on his experience and knowledge, he has decided that certain check points, decisions, stretches, rehearsed movements, images, self-talk and other strategies help him be in a position to give his best effort. That is, they help him to (1) create his ideal state for performance (preparing his body and his attitude/mindset), (2) make sure that he is committed to a plan-of-attack, and then (3) ensure that he clears his mind and enters that trusting mode where he can focus on the task-at-hand and let the game come to him.

With experience, athletes learn the most common mistakes they make. Then the dedicated ones go to work at correcting each mistake as best they can. Often this includes adding a step in their routine specifically designed to counteract that natural bad habit. Rushing is a common flaw, so to aid timing many performers prepare themselves with a deep breath and a thought such as, "I'm ready. Now let it come to me." Over-aggressiveness is also common, so athletes use a thought like "Nice and easy" or an image of a past peak performance when they were nice and easy... AND successful.

Conclusion: if you don't have a pre-performance routine that you use every time, you are missing out on the opportunity to guarantee the best effort that you are capable of giving on that particular day. Also, make adjustments to your routine afterwards based on reason, not emotion, repeating what works and changing what doesn't.

Remember, awareness allows effective adjustments to be made. Challenge your athletes to pay attention to what's working and what's not. Make them talk about it or even write it down. The great ones do this, but the majority think that working hard physically is sufficient. They don't want to work on their weaknesses because it's uncomfortable and they don't want to concentrate all the time because it's tiring. They don't want to develop and commit to a pre-performance routine because they never really had a specific routine before. If they don't know why they keep underperforming in a particular situation, they're sure to repeat the mistake(s). Once they have awareness about how to coach themselves into a postion to have success, get them to commit to it. Then watch or ask them, particularly after something bad happens, if they are following through on all the steps of their routine that they had planned to use. If you catch them skipping a step, simply remind them of things they said or thought before which almost always includes: "I think doing this before my performance will help me." And: "My job is to give me best effort for the good of the team."