Tips for starting sharp?

[Kostja]

Originally Posted by kbilla

Any tips for what you do to get a "mental warm-up", so when these relatively unusual things happen right at the start you are prepared for them?

What's your typical pre-game routine?

Here is what we do:

• 90 minutes before tip-off - meet partners, change into referee uniform, small talk
• 80 minutes before tip-off - pre-game conference, at the end each crew member mentions 3 points of emphasis to remind everybody of them, e.g. goaltending, 3 seconds, travelling ...
• 50 minutes before tip-off - physical warm-up, stretching
• 25 minutes before tip-off - meditation, mental preparation - first relax (control breath, think about something positive), then use imagery to prepare for clutch calls, e.g. block-charge, goal-tending, violations during or right after tipp-off ...
• 15 minutes before tip-off - enter gym, say hello to coaches, assistants, and everybody at the scorers table
• 12 minutes before tip-off - stand opposite table, continue mental preparation - maybe I will stretch some more; I always imagine myself standing on the spot, where I will be standing during the opening tip, and all the situations that might occur during or right after the jump (game going either way, violations during or after the tip, e.g. backcourt, tipping the ball on its way up, and so on); during players introduction I will close my eyes and soak in the atmosphere in the gym, that gets me energized and ready to go!
• 3 minutes before tip-off - activation - before taking off our jackets 1:30 before tipp-off and going to work I might run 2 or 3 sprints along the sideline or do some ankle jumps and then a short series of tuck jumps (it always looks good )
• 1:30 before tipp-off - sending teams back to their bench areas, walking over to the table, taking off our jackets
• 1 minute before tip-off - teams are in the huddle before entering the court, and so are we. crew chief (referee) sums up what we were talking about during pre-game and says something like "let's go out, be ready for everything and have fun".

And there we go ...