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Mark Millon on High Standards, the Industry and Preparing to Succeed

Editor’s Note: Let’s welcome Cory Ames from One Stop Lacrosse to the site! Cory has been collecting some pretty in-depth interviews with the game’s biggest names and now we’re sharing them with you! Let it rip, Cory!

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How’s it going guys? I’m extremely excited to bring you another installment of my Picking the Brains of the Pros series where I do my best to break down what success looks like in the sport of lacrosse.

The first interview with Denver Outlaws pro, Chris Bocklet, was phenomenal, his insight proved impactful and I think the takeaways from my interview with him were gems.

This time around we’re hosting the legendary Mark Millon, of Millon Lacrosse Camps, a man with a tremendously prolific lacrosse career and a whole mess of accomplishments in the sport.

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Mark Millon

Mark Million MLL

Where to start with Mark…well, Mark is a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the University of Massachusetts Hall of Fame and the Long Island Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Should I tell you anything else? Maybe I should.

Mark grew up in Huntington, New York, on the north shore of Long Island. As a kid he played each lacrosse, baseball and soccer but became more and more interested in lacrosse from watching lots of games and attending some skills camps. Mark attended Harborfields High School, a school with a great lacrosse program.

As a “B” level school, Mark’s team contended for the “A” level championship, although they came up short. After a standout high school career, Mark decided to take his game to UMass although he had offers from powerhouses like Maryland, North Carolina and Syracuse. Mark had an incredible four years, being named to the NCAA Division I First-Team All-American squad twice.

Millon soon carried on his career to higher levels, as he was drafted in the 1st round of the 1994 NLL draft for the New York Saints where he continued a career of 9 years in the NLL. As well, Mark spent some time wearing red, white and blue, playing for Team USA and while on the team, the US won both the 1994 and 1998 World Games Championships where Millon earned Best Attackman in the 1998 games.

Another part of Mark’s professional career was spent in the USCLA and what is now the MLL. Mark has been a member of a MLL Championship team, he was the 2002 Championship Game MVP and in 2002 and 2003 he was the MLL Offensive Player of the Year. Mark has always been around the sport, making a short stint with the Rochester Rattlers in recent years.

Perhaps Mark’s largest focus as of now, are the camps he founded, Millon Lacrosse Camps, where he hosts 7 sessions around the US and brings together elite level players to provide the best possible coaching staff for these developing players.

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Q&A with Mark Millon

Ames: Mark, what you have done with Millon Lacrosse Camps is truly fantastic for the sport. You are offering 7 sessions of camp around the U.S. at the moment.

How do you see Millon Lacrosse Camps growing/developing in the next 5 years? 10 years? Are your camps where you feel you will leave your “legacy” on this sport you love?

Millon: I ran my first camp in the summer of 1994 and from the first one until now my goal has been to give every young man that attends a few things:

  1. Best in class instruction. Everyone says they do that but I do it, and its believe me, it is hard.
  2. A wonderful and fun experience with a mix of games, camp barbecue, lacrosse celebrity staff, camp store, etc. I do that to foster the campers’ love of the game which in turn, encourages practice.
  3. An idea what to do after camp to continue the growth curve.

I am not entirely sure where I see my camps in 5 and 10 years because young athletes and parents are so caught up playing on club teams they just don’t seem to feel camp is as important as it was 10 years ago.

Mark Million MLL

Its’ sad because going away to camp is such a great life experience outside of lacrosse. Just being away from mom, learning responsibility, social skills are just so important to the development of a young man. Lacrosse wise, it’s too hard to teach and get reps in all the individual skills like dodging, shooting on the run, etc. when playing on a club team, and kids are missing out on that as well.

Again, not sure where we we will be as a business, but I know I will be out there working with whoever wants to be out there. As for “legacy”, I don’t know, I really don’t worry about that stuff. All I know is I have given every ounce of myself to this game.

From a teaching standpoint I have created several DVDs, I have done clinics all over the world, I have had 25,000 boys come through my camps. I was also the MVP of the MLL, 2-Time MLL offensive POTY, 2-Time NLL First-Team All-Pro, 2-Time NCAA 1st Team All-American, MVP of the World Games and so on… I am just so fortunate to be involved in this great sport. Someone else can sort out what my legacy is.

In your bio on your site for Millon Lacrosse Camps, you mentioned you proudly attend each session of camp you provide throughout the U.S.

What does it mean to you to show up to each one of these sessions, and see directly these young players you are influencing? If you were to expand your camps even further, more sessions or locations, would you continue to feel it necessary to make an appearance?

Mark Million USACory, either you read my bio wrong, misinterpreted it, or I have written it wrong. What I do at my camp is not just an “appearance,” I am there with my fingerprints all over every aspect of my camps, for the entire week.

I do this simply because my standards are so high and its really hard to run something so labor intensive over the phone. It’s my name, it’s not an “All-Star” lacrosse camp… it’s Millon Lacrosse Camp. Through my marketing during the past 20 years, I tell every parent in the country that if they send their son, it will be a great experience, no question. The only way to ensure it happens is to be there. That means being on the field, at lunch, in the dorms, working with the coaches, helping problem solve and so on.

My goal right now is not to expand but to continue to be the absolute best in class at every one of my existing locations.

Again, doing a little digging into your bio Mark, you said you grew up studying the players you could watch, and spending hours emulating their skills, moves, etc. in your backyard.

What specific players did you find yourself wanting to model your game after the most? What was it about their approach to the game that drew you in?

I had a VHS tape of the 1985 or 1986 National Semi-Finals and Brian Wood and Craig Bubier from Hopkins were my favorite players. Wood was smaller and likely to match my physique more, than Bubier, so I studied his game and did all I could to look exactly like him in my backyard.

He was one exciting guy to watch play when I was 13 or so.

What are your thoughts on goal setting, Mark? When playing, do you set any lacrosse specific goals? If, so how do those usually look?

Are they formal, written out onto a page, or more so internalized, kept in your head? Do you continue your goal setting process outside of the sport (if you have one)?

I think goal setting as you are developing can be great. For instance, with a young player, he may write out:

“By this summer I want to be able to play with my off-hand, or I want to improve my split dodge, etc.”

But, you know, I think I am more of a big picture guy than an individual goal setter. I never went into a season and said I want to score 50 goals, 30 assists, be Offensive MVP, etc.

I worked extremely hard on and off the field with the mindset that I want to be the best player I can possibly be and do all I can for my team to win championships. I guess business wise I am a little more cerebral, task oriented, and I do set some goals in order to get where I want to be.

Mark, you have had a prolific career, coming from Long Island, then to UMASS with the historic Dick Garber, going international, playing in the World Games multiple times, as well as having a lengthy stint as a professional.

Of all coaches/trainers you have come across who has been the most unorthodox, while still being super effective? What makes their style of training so different?

Mark Million MLL

I have had a lot of great coaches all the way back to high school that drove me. But to be honest, I don’t think any were really unorthodox.

Although, I do remember when I was in the MLL and training with (strength and conditioning coach) Jay Dyer he had me run up a mountain that was like a 60% grade with someone chasing me. I hallucinated for about an hour after that.

Pre-game preparation is sometimes considered a science in itself. For players looking to hone in a routine that someone like you would approve of, would you mind walking us through what rituals you would take in a pre-game preparation?

Let’s say you had a game at 5 p.m., what would life until game time look like for you? Does it extend to the night before? Do you have any rituals or processes that you have to follow?

So I am not crazy superstitious, but I really did like to stick to a routine. Generally I would start the day before with getting in about 45 minutes of light shooting to dial in my stick, and build confidence.

I would always have a ton of water the day before almost forcing myself to drink more and more. That night I would try to eat chicken/steak and some pasta. Game day I would try to get up around 7:30 and get in a light run and stay pretty active most of the day. Laying around was not good for me.

At around 1 I would lay down, maybe snooze for like 10-15 minutes and get over to the arena or stadium 2 hours before the game. Once over there I would get my stuff on right away, take myself through a dynamic warmup out on the field and shoot pretty hard for 20 minutes until the team started our formal warmup. Gametime.

Mark, there is no doubting you have played on some of the largest stages in lacrosse. Let’s just take your two trips to the World Games for example, playing in that sort of tournament, sporting your country’s colors, that has to take some serious mental toughness and composure to perform well playing under such expectation.

Would you mind speaking to your mental approach to the game? How do you prep yourself for the required speed and pace to thinking during play? Do you have any specific “mental drills/practices” you have cemented into your overall training?

Yeah, there is no doubt mental toughness is a really key element to being an elite athlete. I believe confidence has a huge part to play in mental toughness, belief in yourself, not getting scared, and not being afraid to make big plays or bad plays.

I scored some big goals in NLL Championship in 2001, a bunch in the MLL finals, but none bigger than the OT goal I scored in the 1998 World Games Final.

Mark Million USA

In case people forget we were up 11-4 and Canada came all the way back to send it to OT in front of 12,000 in Baltimore for the World Championship. I wanted the ball and I took it and scored for us in OT. I wasn’t afraid to fail and I wasn’t afraid to succeed I just had a lot of belief in myself and a psychotic competitiveness not to lose.

Did I train for that? No. I believe you can train yourself somewhat but a lot of that ability you either have or you don’t.

I’ve played with some really sick players that were enormously skilled but they just didn’t have that mental toughness to finish the job. Mental toughness is also getting yourself to the gym and working harder than everyone else when no one is watching, and again, its pretty hard to teach that. I am sure coaches can do something to make a team mentally tougher but I do feel a lot of its innate.

Do you prescribe to any sort of daily (or near daily) bodily maintenance (i.e. yoga, flexibility training, cold baths/showers)?

Yes, when I was in my prime in the MLL, I did a lot of massage therapy and I did ice baths once a week, especially towards the end of my career.

They are really tough but tremendous for your body. I wish that I did yoga, I think it would have made me even more flexible and possibly a little quicker.

I personally am a firm believer to the 80/20 rule, 80% of your results come from 20% of your work. If you had to apply the 80/20 rule to drills (specific to players on the attacking-end), which certain drill or two would give you the most rapid and noticeable improvement?

If you have a good stick, if you can dodge to the goal north/south and free your hands, and if you can shoot on the run, you will be a pretty good player.

Hey kids, work tirelessly on those 3 things and you will be the next great player at Duke, okay?

For younger/novice lacrosse players, what sort of time spent training would you consider the biggest waste of time? That is, what drills, or practices do you think give the smallest return on their work?

I generally think kids go out and shoot but they don’t do nearly enough on the run shooting.

Shooting on the run is like the golden ticket to being a great player if you as well have some other key tools like athleticism and stick skills. Young kids don’t do enough dodging either.

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Brief Recap

1. Enjoy the Sport!

This you can see from how Mark approaches his Millon Lacrosse Camps. You need to remember to enjoy your teams, enjoy the opportunity you are getting to play the game, and in turn, this will help you practice and play your hardest.

If you make note to enjoy your time playing the game, you will perform better. It’s simple positive psychology!

2. If you want to be the best, put everything into what you are doing

Mark has had an insanely prolific career. Just check out that bio…But what you can see from his responses, Mark has given everything to this sport.

That shows up in his accomplishments list playing the sport, as well as how seriously he takes the instruction and experience being provided in his camps. If you want to be the best at anything, you have to commit yourself to excellence and refuse to settle for anything less.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail (or succeed).

In addressing mental preparation, Mark made sure to note that he has not been afraid to either fail or succeed. That’s a huge takeaway for you all. You must harness this belief in yourself and the confidence to handle the consequences of betting on yourself.

If Mark was afraid to fail, or succeed, you better believe, the U.S. would not have been World Champions in 1998. You have to fail first before you can succeed. You will never reach success if you don’t first overcome the fear of early failures. That’s how you get better.

4. Stick Skills, Dodging and Shooting on the Run

Mark laid it out pretty simply for you all, if you beat on your stick skills, your dodging and your shooting on the run, you can go play at Duke.

There is your game plan, now if you want it enough, get to work!

5. Study Good Players

This was another interesting takeaway Mark has for you all. He grew up studying the good players he could watch, and did his best to model their game. This is critical to the learning process.

You learn the most from players who you would like to model your game after. Make sure you are watching high level games, and taking notes!

6. Don’t Underestimate Bodily Maintenance

From the sounds of things, Mark took care of his body when his was playing at his most competitive level in the MLL but even he wishes he could have done more!

Take note of that guys, if you are a serious player, you are serious about taking care of your body.

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Thanks again Mark, the lacrosse community and I can’t thank you enough!

I hope you gathered some serious value from this conversation I got to have with lacrosse all-star Mark Millon. It was clear he took some serious time with his answers and input.

If you have any questions you would like to have asked for the next batch of players I get the privilege of speaking with, drop them in the comments section below!