Tryouts can be extremely nerve-wracking times for hockey players, so you must be well-prepared.
To make sure that you have the best chance of succeeding in your hockey tryouts, making sure that you are prepared is vital to help your body and your mind through the process, but what is the best way to make sure that you are ready?
There are several different things that hockey players can do before an important tryout to help them perform to the best of their abilities.
Nerves can affect your performance on the day, so you want to make sure that your body is in good physical condition to impress at the tryout.
This article will explain how to prepare for important hockey tryouts to help you succeed.
You can find out tips to help you do well in your tryout and to give you the best chance of being successful on the day.
How To Prepare For Hockey Tryouts
To make sure that you give yourself the best chance to succeed at your tryout, being prepared will help you to cope with the outcome.
How can you make sure that you are in the best position for your tryout?
Cardiovascular Exercise
To prepare for your hockey tryout, doing some more cardiovascular exercises will help you to stand out in your tryout and impress the coaches.
There will be a lot of skating involved in your tryout, so you want to show the coaches that you are in shape and that you will be a great asset to their team.
The fitter you are, the more energy you will be able to channel more energy into your hockey playing.
It will be clear that you are putting a lot of effort into your performance, which will show that you are willing to work hard.
You can do more cardio by doing skating drills, but you can also exercise off the ice by running, skipping, and attending circuit classes.
Build Muscle
Hockey players find it very difficult to build muscle during the season as there is so much cardio involved when you are playing hockey that you often lose weight instead.
Being a strong player is important, and the coaches at a tryout will be looking to see who has been working on building muscle, which will help your performance on the ice.
To build muscle, bodyweight exercises like squat jumps and box jumps will strengthen your legs to develop your muscles.
Weighted exercises like deadlifts, clean and presses, front raises, and bicep curls will build your muscles so that they can be physically seen, and core exercises will help to build up your abdominal muscles.
Focus On Your Hockey Skills
The best way to prepare for your hockey tryout is to make sure that your hockey skills are perfected. By making sure that your skills are improved, you will feel more confident going into the tryout.
Most of the coaches at tryouts will have watched you throughout the season, so when they see that you have improved, they will know that you are a hard worker (Find out the Pros And Cons Of Spring Hockey here).
Showing a new skill will help you to stand out from the other players at the tryout and show the coaches that you are a dedicated player.
Identifying what aspects of your hockey skills need improving is important for developing your techniques, and learning new skills will show that you are constantly evolving as a player.
Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself
You cannot control everything, so you mustn’t be too hard on yourself during or after your tryout.
Not all tryouts are successful, so you should not beat yourself up about it and think that your skills are not good enough.
You cannot control the outcome, but you can control how you use the feedback that you receive from the coaches.
Focus your energy on improving your game to make sure that you do not make the same mistakes twice.
This will help you to prepare for your next tryout as you will feel more confident going into it knowing that you have improved your game.
The mistakes that you make do not determine how well you do, how you deal with them does.
Remember Who You Are
When players do not succeed in a tryout, they call it ‘failure’.
Referring to yourself as a ‘failure’ shifts your identity from who you thought you were to someone who is not good enough, which is not a good mindset to be in for other important tryouts.
Not being successful in one tryout does not mean that you should think negatively about yourself.
The person you are is more than who you are when you play hockey, which is extremely important to remember before a tryout.
You should not let being a hockey player take over your identity, as this can affect your self-esteem and confidence.
It is important to remember that you are not just a hockey player, you are human.
Why Is It Important To Prepare Both Physically And Mentally?
Although your body needs to be in good physical condition for a tryout, you must also be mentally prepared to face the challenge.
Lots of players feel anxious or pressurized at a tryout, so making sure that your mind is prepared will help you with the outcome of a tryout.
If players are not successful, they can feel like they are not good enough.
It is important to remember that players can work on their skills and learn from their mistakes, and that who they are is more than just being a hockey player.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, there are several things that you can do to prepare for an important tryout.
Preparing physically will help coaches to see that you are a hard-working player who is constantly improving, and preparing mentally will help you to deal with the outcome of the tryout.
The most important thing is to make sure that you are prepared to try your best at your tryout and that you are not hard on yourself.