Grow the Game®

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Offseason Tips for Improvement

Since we are making the transition from summer to the school year, we feel it is necessary to lend some tips on how to keep growing as a lacrosse player, even when lax isn’t the main focus of very many at this time in the year.

Your coaches have reminded you for years about the importance of hitting the wall between practices, working on one on ones, and doing the little things outside of practice. These little things not only make you a better player, but when your skills increase, so does the level of play your teammates are able to compete at.

But what happens when you don’t have the luxury of a nice brick wall to bang the ball off of, or maybe you’re a shooter but you aren’t fortunate enough to be able to bring a goal with you wherever you go? We’ll tell you what happens; you find ingenious ways to stay involved in lax, all while keeping your hands and feet moving.

We know that it is unrealistic for a lot of players to be able to get a hold of all of the great resources out there, so we created a list of things to keep improving your skills when you don’t have the time, equipment, or space for your normal mid-season workouts.

Build a Better Relationship with Your Stick

We just kicked off our new series, Stick Trick Saturday. Tricks aren’t just for show, they develop a better relationship between you and your crosse as well as helping with soft hands and coordination. Keep your stick with you everywhere you go; church, doctor’s office, the pool – it doesn’t matter, you may take a few funny looks in public, but that’s what it’s all about, keeping your stick in your hands and showing off the game that we all love.

String Your Own!

Who cares if your first attempts look sketchy? The only way you are going to get better at stringing is through repetition. Connor has plenty of traditional tutorials if you think you are ready.

If you aren’t prepared for that kind of challenge, Colton is one of the best mesh guys I have seen in a long while.

Stringing your own stick develops a relationship with lacrosse and the game’s heritage that is invaluable. I promise you will be even more in tune with yourself, your stick, and the sport once you spend time to stringing up your own head and then getting it to pass and hold the way you want it to.

Backyard Ball

When you have limited time and room, but you are lucky enough to have a goal (or trashcan) in your backyard, you can work on drills such as inside shooting, repetitious shooting, and picking up ground balls off the crease. Stay tuned for the series “Backyard Ball with Ryan Powell” to make its way to our site very soon. We believe that you don’t need more than a sliver of real estate to work on your shooting.

Conditioning

Don’t let the off-season make you lazy. I’m almost positive that every one of you has somewhere that you can get out and run, no matter if it’s on pavement, grass, or a treadmill.

Keep moving to improve your cardio, if you increase your run time by a little bit everyday, this will directly translate to the game. It may mean longer, but less tiring shifts, or you will be able to give more than you ever have before on the shifts that you run.

If you can’t afford to get sweaty at that particular moment, little things like wall sits can go a long way. Put your back against the wall and mimic sitting in a chair. If you can keep your butt parallel to the ground and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle, you will start building up more core strength and leg endurance. This will be crucial to keeping your defense up all the way through the end of the game and will help with your lateral quickness.

Also, don’t forget the importance of jumping rope, it not only helps with your cardio, but jumping rope is one of the best ways to improve your foot speed. Hit the rope starting at 50 consecutive jumps, and increase the number everyday. When you are feeling confident, work on getting the rope around twice for every jump, increase the rotation speed, or work on running while using the rope.

Stay tuned for more tips from me as the Summer transitions to Fall, as well as the premier of the Backyard Ball with Ryan Powell series that will shed more light on the topic of improving your game when you don’t have a lot of space to work with. If you have any questions or helpful suggestions for your fellow laxers, make sure to hit up the comment section and let your voice be heard.

I dropped about 60 pounds going in to my junior year of high school and along with that came quicker feet, better stick skills, and a starting role on the varsity roster. Trust me, the little things add up.