Practice Gave Us More Than We Realized

Practice gave us more than just drills.

Practice shaped our success in ways we didn’t even notice back then.

As athletes, when we walked into the gym, onto the field, or into the pool, we always knew there was a plan waiting for us. Usually on a dry erase board.

Side note: As a coach, writing out the practice plan was one of my favorite parts of the day. If you know, you know. The different colored markers, the diagrams, the little arrows… pure joy. But I digress.

Okay, back to the point: that board did more than tell us what we’d be doing. It gave us structure, clarity, and a rhythm to our day. Things many former athletes spend years trying to recreate without even realizing it.

Let’s break down a few things practice gave us. Things we didn’t notice then, but miss now.

1. Built‑in screen-free time

Practice gave us 2–3 hours of automatic, guaranteed, non-negotiable screen-free time every single day.

No pings.

No alerts.

No red bubbles begging for attention.

Today, screens drain us but they’re so woven into our lives that we barely notice the impact anymore. Screens drain not just our eyes, but our focus and emotional bandwidth. Yet as athletes? We regularly went hours without looking at a single one.

Ask yourself:

When was the last time you went three hours without checking a screen on purpose?

Exactly.

2. Movement: real, varied, constant

You weren’t sitting during practice. Sure, we sat in class, but practice? No chance.

You were standing, jogging, sprinting, walking, squatting, bending down to shag balls, resetting, moving.

You weren’t “trying to get your steps in.”You were just… doing.

Now we spend 6–8 hours a day sitting (or even longer) and wonder why our energy tanks. Practice kept your body awake. You didn’t notice it then. You feel it now.

3. Focus and boundaries built into the environment

Did you ever check your phone at practice?

Nope. Because:

• Your coach would’ve lost their mind.

• You couldn’t physically get to it.

• You were busy doing one thing.

It was the ultimate deep-focus environment.

No multitasking.

No context switching.

No “just one quick text.”

As athletes, we like to do hard things. We like to feel busy. We believe we can juggle a lot and honestly, we can. But even high performers need the right environment to support deep work.

In real life, we bounce between tasks and call it productivity. Science disagrees.

So if you’ve felt mentally scattered since your playing days, this could be one reason why.

4. Structure your body recognized

Practice didn’t just happen; it happened at the same time, in the same way, with the same pre‑routine:

• Tape

• Stretch

• Warm‑up

• Mental prep

• Show up

Your body knew when it was time to lock in.

Now? Most former athletes have no consistent pre‑workout or pre‑focus routine. We’re just trying to squeeze it in when we can, and often feel guilty for even being there because we “should be doing something else.”

And then we wonder why it feels harder than it should.

5. The plan was done for us

One of the most underrated parts of being an athlete:

We didn’t have to make a million decisions before doing the thing.

We walked in → saw the board → executed.

No deciding:

• What should I work on today?

• How long should I train?

• What do I wear?

• Where do I start?

  
  

Decision fatigue is real.

Back then, we had far fewer decisions to make and as a result, we had much more energy to give.

Look at that list again. Anything sound familiar?

It’s everything the self-help world now calls “life hacks”:

• Move more.

• Sit less.

• Set phone boundaries.

• Reduce task switching.

• Create a routine.

• Have a plan.

• Build structure into your day.

But athletes?We lived those “hacks” every day without thinking about them.

Now you’re trying to rebuild all of that, alone, in a world that works nothing like sport.

So if life feels heavier now… you’re not imagining it.

If your days feel scattered… there’s a reason.

If you feel like you’re working twice as hard for half the results… there’s a reason.

And understanding that is the first step in figuring out what you need now.

Maybe practice is still teaching us things and giving us tools to succeed. Not just as athletes, but also as people.

And if that’s the case… I’d better go find a dry erase board. A big one.

See you next week. - Jill