Augie Garrido, five-time national championship baseball coach, put a premium on practice. According to Garrido, “Games and championships are won in practice first.” Many coaches may agree with this statement, but not all teams and athletes approach practice the same way. Let’s look at how to help your athletes train like the pros.

Don’t Settle for One-and-Done

My daughter loves to practice. While only a year and half old, she shows promising signs of mental toughness, grit, and a desire for mastery. Just in the last few weeks she has learned to put on her socks, climb into a chair, and play hide and seek. Girl has skills!

What I find most fascinating is what happens after she does something for the first time. Immediately, she has this compulsion to do it again…and again, and again. She gets reps.

She isn’t satisfied in knowing she can climb up on a chair (once). She wants to cement the process in her mind. She wants to ensure that she doesn’t forget. She has a drive to master the new skill.

Do Your Athletes Practice Like Amateurs or Professionals?

You can tell a lot about an athlete by how he or she approaches practice. You may have heard the adage, “Amateurs train until they get it right. Professionals train until they can’t get it wrong.”

I first encountered this working with the military. Since then, I have found it to be true across a variety of performance domains. While the origins of this adage dates back to 1902, it remains relevant today.

• Is it deliberate?
• Do they have a purpose for each drill?
• How much effort do they put into it?
• Do they seek feedback or ignore it?
• Do they merely want to look good or actually master their technique?

Essentially, do they have a fixed or a growth mindset?

This can tell you a lot about the player’s mindset, mental toughness, and potential.

Why Professionals Practice Better

At a neurological level, there is a lot going on when athletes practice. One component is the neurotransmitters that reinforce our habits.

Dopamine is a brain chemical that makes us feel good. It is, in part, responsible for motivating and energizing us. To an extent, it rewards our actions. When we do something that makes us feel good (releases dopamine) we want more of it. No surprise there. The issue is what triggers dopamine for different athletes.

Some athletes get a jolt of dopamine from practicing, regardless of quality. High performers, however, only get a jolt of dopamine after they see improvement.

When an athlete exerts a degree of discipline to repeat a skill over and over (i.e., not giving up when it gets hard) he or she taps into the staying power of serotonin. Serotonin increases self-esteem and confidence, and reinforces the progress an athlete made in practice.

Amateurs get their dopamine jolt and move on. Professionals crave more dopamine, and are persistent in their practice. Then, as those athletes see their hard work paying off – progress, serotonin feeds the habit.

Over time, athletes want more and more of these brain chemicals. This craving drives them to put in the work in the gym and on the practice court. They get better.

Help Your Athletes Practice Like Professionals

Now that you understand the chemical aspects of getting better, let’s get practical. Here are six strategies to help your athletes practice like professionals:

1. Develop Practice Goals:

What are your athletes working on today? In this drill? Everything needs a purpose (which also stimulates dopamine to motivate and energize them).

2. Immediate Feedback:

Praise the process to reinforce proper technique, effort, and strategy. Coach, don’t criticize.

3. Monitor Progress:

Athletes (like all of us) work harder when they believe their efforts have a return on investment. Track stats – even in practice – to show athletes how much they are improving.

4. Compete:

If you’re monitoring progress anyway, encourage athletes to beat their best stats (i.e., time, percentage, streak).

5. Multiply the Reps:

Integrate imagery into your practices to increase the number of quality reps your athletes are getting on every drill. This is a great way to minimize standing around.

6. Strive for Streaks:

Challenge players to make the same play multiple times in a row. This is great for closed loop skills like making a free throw, field goal, free kick, or throw.

Again: Train Like Professionals

During my time as a coach, one of my favorite phrases was, “Again.” Sometimes it followed praise, other times it followed coaching. Educate your players about how to approach practice. Never allow a one-and-done approach to practice. Use the six strategies above as you hone your practice plan to ensure your athletes stay motivated, challenged, and engaged in their own development for the betterment of the team.

Question: What tells you that your athletes have the right mentality in practice?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.