Essential Elements To A Great Practice

Last night we skated with the Pistols and the Harem for team practice and I had a great night.  I know we all love that feeling when you're just ON.  I'd like to have it more often so here are three easy things I try to do to ensure I'm at my best.
1.)  Remember my crap.  I hate forgetting things because not only does it mean I can't participate it also means I feel really stupid about it the whole night - even if I manage to borrow some version of whatever it was I forgot.  To avoid this I've sing a profoundly embarassing little song quietly under my breath every time I pack my bag:
Elbow, Elbow
Wrist, Wrist
Knee, Knee
Skate, Skate
Shin, Shin
Helmet
Black, White
Mouth
Keys, Phone, Wallet
The zipper does not shut until I have touched each of those items.  I touch the keys twice.  Malcom's Law says that if you do forget something that thing will be with your keys and you will remember it about 2.3 seconds after shutting your front door.
2.)  I cannot succeed if I don't know what's going on.  Our practices are late at night and I'm such a morning person.  It also seems like my IQ drops 50 points every time I lace up my skates.  As a result, very small things can completely distract me from explanations of drills and it's not long before people are skating around and I'm not sure why.  My solution is to stare intently at the face of whoever happens to be talking at the moment and remind myself to listen as if it's the first time I've ever heard anyone explain a drill.  It's possible that doing so totally weirds out the person who's talking, but it's a simple thing to do and while it doesn't always mean that I catch their drift it does significantly increase the odds that I'm paying attention.
3.)  Think forward.  Maybe I tripped on my own feet while running during the off skates warm up.  No big deal.  Maybe I just rocked out 25 laps in 5 minutes on the outside of the derby ring.  Who cares?  The drive home is a really good time to digest what did or did not go well during practice but when I'm there I really have to be in the moment.  I try and think about what's about to come at me and how I can try harder in the next drill, not about what happened five mintues ago.  That also really helps you forget how tired you might be.
<posted on 3.21.12>