Andy Neary, a former pitcher at UWM, describes his hour-long pre-game ritual on the warning track: pole-to-pole runs, sprints, stretching, jump rope, warm-up throws. He used it to lock in mentally before games and now applies that same routine to winning the day.
Chapters
I look at my morning routine just like I did as a pitcher when I was getting ready to start a game at uwm. I had an entire ritual set up that started about an hour before the game. I would start on the right field line or left field line, depending where if we were the visitor or we were the home team, depending where our dugout was. And I would start out on the warning track at the foul pole and I would just run pole to pole, right field to left field, right field to left field, get my legs loose. Then I'd go to the foul line and I'd run some sprints. Then I'd do my stretching, then I'd go into the bullpen and jump rope. I don't know why I did that. That was more of superstition or some mental. I felt like if I got my calves ready, I'd be ready to pitch and then I would go into my warming up. I had this whole routine to get ready to start because I knew by the time I took the mound, if I got myself ready with my pre game routine, I was locked in mentally on the mound and I knew I had an advantage over my competition.