Who was the most reliable player on third downs for the New Orleans Saints in 2020?
Establishing a routine is very important in any occupation, and working as a professional athlete is no exception. It could be getting into a workout routine. It could be specific pregame rituals. It could be what you do before you get into the batter's box, or how you line up before attempting a field goal, or the way you put down the ball and set yourself up for a penalty kick. How many breaths you take, how long you hold the bat up, how many times you blink. It certainly matters for free throws in basketball. My brother is an aspiring sports psychologist who is almost done with the grueling post-graduate schooling (grueling schooling... that has a nice ring to it) required for his degree, and he wrote a 97-page thesis titled "'Money' Free Throws: Understanding Clutch Performance Under Pressure from the Free Throw Line." In it, he concluded that "having a specific, consistent, practiced routine that a player is comfortable with is an important predictor of free throw success."