Why You Practice Even When There’s No Game

There’s no game this weekend. No one is keeping score. No parents are watching from the sideline. Nobody is going to put a box score in the newspaper about what you did today.

So why are you here? Why bother practicing when there’s nothing officially at stake?

I’ll tell you why. Because this — right here — is where the real work happens.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

The hand of the diligent — the person who works hard even when they don’t have to — ends up leading. The one who only works when they’re forced to doesn’t get there.

Here’s a secret about the best players: almost all of them have a story about the work they did when no one was watching. The hours in the gym, the shots in the driveway, the runs early in the morning before anyone else was up. That work is invisible in the game. But it’s what made the game possible.

When you practice in the off-season, you are doing something no opponent can take from you. You’re building a skill that belongs to you, that shows up automatically in a game when you need it, that nobody can unsee once you have it.

The work nobody sees is often the most important work there is.

The point is that skill always has an origin story of invisible work. Help kids see the connection between their current abilities and the practice that produced them.