So, we all know the stereotype that surrounds players of games with large esports followings, that we are lazy, unhealthy, non-contributing members of society, and this simply isn’t true. Many members of our community are exactly the opposite and this ranges from the professional players to even the everyday players who are on the ranked grind.

This even applies to yours truly as in my progression in life I have been an active field hockey player since the age of 5 and have even gone to become a qualified youth coach in this field too. As part of this I have taken on many a lesson, lessons which have parallels in League of Legends, and so, in this piece I will document some of these lessons I have taken from sport and used to elevate my LoL game so you can do the same.

The first point is one that may seem like common sense but unfortunately the term doesn’t live up to its namesake. In sport we all have our own personal protective equipment but what’s more important is that you bring the right protection, and this lesson applies in your itemization in League of Legends too.

Take a skater for example, they are going to want elbow/kneepads not my shin guards as the point is to protect wherever the risk is greatest, and this translates in game as well. For example, let us say you’re a Twisted Fate in a Zed matchup, you’re going to want armour in the form of a Seeker’s Armguard, not a magic resist granting Verdant Barrier.

Now, as much as this seems obvious it is worth translating the thought of correct sports protection to good itemization in your head as keeping good itemization in mind is one way to improve your gaming mind in that pursuit of more victories.

Now, just as in LoL many sports have designated roles/positions, this ranges from the wing forwards of field hockey to the sweepers in curling, each is unique and plays in a unique way and needs to play to complete their individual objectives. For example a sweeper in curling has the individual job on controlling the pace of the stone as it slides down the ice or a striker in football/soccer who has the job of being a goal scorer.

This concept applies to LoL as well. Identifying your own personal win condition and playing to it is an excellent way to climb the ranked ladder. Examples vary in every role and even vary by class of champion. For example, a hypercarry ADC such as Jinx wants to be positioning herself on the edge of her range so that she can maximize her DPS output for as long as possible by avoiding threats to her while allowing her to kill off opponents alongside her team before then taking objectives and eventually the game.

Playing to your personal win conditions is a simple thought with its origins in sport that can help you win more games, and a practice that is worth picking up if winning more LoL games is your desire.

For those of you who are participants of sport, or even regular exercise in general, you all know the importance of a good warm up, and believe it or not, the principle applies to League of Legends as well. Now, in real life scenarios, a warm up is done to prevent injury as it stretches muscles and prepares mental state for the upcoming activity so that the following time results in a positive enjoyment mentally whilst minimizing mistakes and injury.

This effect also applies to LoL as by warming up in a fun game you put your mind in a ranked-game ready mind state whilst warming up your hands and reaction time which are all beneficial and may help improve your chances of getting more wins when it matters. That is reason enough to take that time to warm up before you enter ranked just as you would warm up before a session of traditional sport/exercise.

For a final point, I am going to go into the depths of my own personal sport of field hockey to offer some advice for those of you in the jungle preferring crowd. The area of which I speak is in playing to your strong side. For those of you unfamiliar to field hockey, unlike in its sibling sport of ice-hockey, you can only use one side of the stick and so typically the stick helps one side more than the other to open the flat side up more.

This creates what is known in the field hockey as the strong-side/weak-side disparity where a player is in a stronger position when they have their stick control on their right-hand side and while they can bring it out to their left (called the weak or reverse side), it should only be done in a necessity as it is a compromising position to put yourself in.

So how does this apply to Jungling in ranked? Well typically thanks to ranked draft you will tend to have one side stronger than the other, and so playing to that side (your strong side, you can see where this is going) puts you in a better position without compromising yourself as you attempt to get a lead as you push to win more of your jungle games.

The lesson we take from this is that, just as a good field hockey player plays to their strong side to keep control and a lead over the ball, a good jungler plays to their strong side as they pursue a lead and the win.

There we have it, four lessons we can take from traditional sport habits that can be applied to our lives in LoL to improve our chances of winning more games. Now, whether it be bringing the right equipment/items, playing to a personal win condition, warming up before competition, or even playing to our strong side it is important that we always remember to enjoy our games and exercise too so always keep that in our minds as well, as if it isn’t fun, all of this is for naught. With the thoughts mentioned prior I once again leave you with the thoughts of GL, HF, and GG.