The Science of The Pregame

In my opinion, here is what counts... taking a page from all the best stuff I've seen over the years...

- Rest or suffer a thousand little injuries.

Rest started out non-existent and I just showed up to the game. College saw me taking an afternoon 2-3 hour nap before the game. In pro I realized that a) I'm wasting way too much of my time on these naps and b) the players that don't sleep in the afternoons perform just as good, sometimes better for it. I've gotten no sleep the night before and played great, or 12 hours the night before and played terrible. Doesn't matter - so now I try to average out good rest over the week and get a 10-15 minute power nap before the game and a cup of coffee at the rink.

- Eat food or lose 20 lbs in the season.

Pro has seen a lot of changes because this is one thing you simply cannot neglect if you want to play day in day out. I go pasta and chicken or fish the night before, snack all the next day (cereal, omelet, fruit) with a smaller pasta and chicken meal 4-5 hours before the game and a multi-vitamin because somehow it seems to work best then. 2 hours before is a protein bar, and after the game is usually a protein shake to replenish whatever I lost. And the next morning is also alot of fruit and water to get rid of all the bad acids stored up from the game. Throw in a couple of Mcdonald's cheeseburgers and fries in there every once in a while to make up for the salt and fat you burned off in the games and you're all set.

- Exercise or lose every battle in the corner.

It only really began in college and began with us working out like football players. Bad back and a bad shoulder later and my thoughts changed. Intensity is the new black for me in workouts. Treat every workout or practice like you're going into a game and it's no longer hard to get up to play games. It's just habit. So workouts are short, intense, very hard and try to mimic as much as possible the actual things I do in my sport. And it's the same warmup for both practices and game... 30 minutes before either a practice or a game I'll do a 15 minute warmup and then get dressed.

- Stretch every day. Flexibility is the difference between being in the right spot for a goal or falling over because your body can't move the way you want it to.

- Nothing, nothing, nothing makes up for actually playing your sport.

So keep that in mind before you turn all Reggie Bush on everyone and do crazy stuff that you'll never actually see in a game ever. And coaches take this to heart and actually make drills to mimic things the players will actually do in a game... no more full-ice horseshoes already.

- The only real difference between guys that make it and guys that don't is their mental game.

Think "Hockey Tought" by Saul Miller. How you keep confidence through hardship, injury, or scoring drought; how you react to situations in the game; how prepared and focused you can be every second your feet touch the ice; and most importantly how badly you want to win (or hate to lose). I won't even try to explain the whole thing, you'll just have to read the book. But I will say that you should go over situations that you'll face in a game until you almost unconsciously know how to react to them. And yes, one of the most important is training yourself to react well in a scoring chance so you don't panic or get too excited and screw it up. And lastly, involve some sort of physical action in your visualization to make a strong connection between thought and aggressive action.

- And you have to, have to, have to get out and do things a couple times a week just to let off steam and to be in the world. To realize that sports isn't all there is in life, and to forget, for a second, the rink and everything that goes along with it.