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How to become a top floorball player – 7 must read tips for the preseason

In the past couple of weeks, we conducted interviews with SSL stars and asked them questions about their preseason schedule. What does Mattias Samuelsson’s week look like and what is Mattias Wallgren‘s favorite exercise? The short answer: they work hard and they use the preseason to stay in shape.

We all want to get better at floorball (or at least not getting worse!) but chances are your preseason looks more like this:

Fat kid

And that’s where we come in! After done extensive research on motivation, goal tracking and the forming of new habits we present to you seven tips for getting you in the best form when your first match starts somewhere in September.

1. Dream big but stay real

Successful people know this is the key to excellence. It will give you something to long for in the distance. In times of hardship and decreased motivation having a long term goal will hopefully give you the energy to push further! There are moments where we would advise against a measurable goal, for example when you tell yourself before a match to score at least 3 goals as most of the time luck plays a considerable factor in the short turn. However, in the preseason it makes complete sense to get yourself a goal of doing an X number of pushups as long as it’s a realistic goal.

Coffee

2. Break it down

Now we have drawn the big picture and you can picture yourself running that marathon at the start of the season. The next step is to set smaller goals leading up to that big ultimate goal. You can write down for yourself what you want to be able to accomplish on every week or month! Chunking down the big goal into smaller steps is a crucial step and will make sure you stay motivated as the summer progresses.

3. Schedule it

Professional athletes all have one thing in common. At the start of the week, they know exactly what their week will look like and they know when they have to dig deep or when it’s time to recover. You don’t need to have a personal coach to do this! Pick a day of the week, for me a Sunday works best, and plan the upcoming week and note down the exact time and location when you want to do your workouts or your runs. Think about the steps you need to take this week and plan them! A couple of tips:

4. It’s all about habits

This is a life hack that you also can use for things other than floorball. You want to change something in your life or add something to your day? Make it a habit! How to do this? It’s easier than you think: place the new activity next to an existing activity. This way you will make it part of your routine in no time. Want to do daily pushups? Make a habit of doing them after brushing your teeth! It may take some time to get used to but in the end, you will add it to your daily routine much faster!

5. Teamwork

You will tremendously increase the chance of reaching your goal if you work in a couple (or in a team). It’s simple, if there is someone waiting or relying on you for an activity you will think twice before bailing out. Having a buddy (or a team) that pushes you when you feel low – and vice versa – may just give you that slight push to get you over the next hurdle!

6. Raise the stakes

Forget all the theory about extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation. Yes, in theory being intrinsically motivated (getting the reward from the goal itself) may be much better than getting your motivation extrinsically (getting the reward from something else) but unfortunately, there is no gold medal for the theoretical best team. If that means you have to find motivation from something else then so be it. So, find a couple of friends and bet with them you will run that marathon, you will do these 100 push ups in 2 minutes or you will do these killer suicides. Don’t be shabby and choose an amount that will hurt you if you lose. If you have a realistic goal it will give you motivation. The downside is not that bad either – you will have a couple of very happy friends.

7. Be firm but forgiving

A famous saying goes along the following lines: “True winners are not made when things are going well but when things are going badly.” It’s how you deal with failure that decides whether you can reach your goal or not. Are you behind on schedule and just missed your Week 3 target? There are two options: work harder for Week 4 or give up. On the other hand, be forgiving. You cannot perform all the time and even the best athletes have an off day. Don’t bother too much and start fresh the next day!

Now get to work! Find a goal, break it down and find some buddies to keep you motivated! 

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