Practice and Pressure

"Make practice hard so that games are easier."

Continually raise your standards. Coach Nick Saban emphasized practice with immediacy (now), intensity, and intelligence.

Nobody and no team raises its performance under pressure. What happens is that excellent players and teams have less dropoff, less degradation under pressure.

Coach Auriemma elaborates.  

Pressure doesn’t create mistakes.
It reveals what you practiced.
Your talent doesn’t take over.
Your standard does.
And if your standard is “sometimes,” that’s what you’ll be when it matters.
We do what we trained. pic.twitter.com/B6MEWiFE2G

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) December 12, 2025

What are some ways that Auriemma makes practice hard? Years ago, Coach Ralph Labella and I attended a special invitation UCONN practice. 

• Winners are trackers. They compete within drills. During "team" free throw competition, the managers track results.
• During shooting practice - two teams compete to see who can make the most shots in a given time.
• During drills, the team continues until they have executed the drill properly with consecutive makes. 
• During both scrimmage and some 'breakdown' activities, the women compete against a team of select men...men that could potentially beat the women. 

There's no comfort zone...only adjusting to being uncomfortable.