People don't want to spend hours at the driving range so they go to the pro shop.
February is right around the corner. This is the time of year where players all of a sudden, click into the midset that it is time to get ready for the season....
Too Late
There is not much that you can accomplish in a month that is going to make a major difference in your output during the season. Improvement takes hours of deliberate practice and hard work. To really improve, players need to seek out great information, learn about their craft, and PUT IN THE WORK to improve. If becoming good or becoming great was easy, everyone would do it!
You will not make significant improvement physically by working out really hard for a month before rolling into your season unless you have created a solid foundation of fitness already. Athletes train; it is not a program or something you do, it is a way of life for the athlete. Writers - write, Musicians - practice/play, Athletes train and compete.
It sounds simple and common sense but to be a great lacrosse player, to work towards your aspirations of becoming a college lacrosse player, you need to be an athlete and a skilled player. I can't tell you how many players I have seen over the years that are one and not the other.
We don't rise to the level of our hopes, we fall to the level of our training.
What Can You Do This Month?
What can you do in the month of February that will make a significant difference towards your season? The answer becomes a little more complex than starting to workout hard and get the stick out of the closet.
Obviously, you want to make sure that your conditioning is on point and you are going to be ready for the rigors of the early season. Coaches (including myself) love to go hard early to in the year to set a ton of toughness and create a standard for the team. This is usually done through conditioning. Be as ready as you can. On top of your standard workouts, do the conditioning drills that you will do with the team once practice starts. This will allow you to physically prepare for what is coming and become the standard for others. The been-there-done-that mentality will help you go harder in March because you know you can accomplish the task.
Play, shoot, wall ball -
- Play as much as you can to get ready. This will help you get in shape and be ready for the pace of the game.
- Shooting - If you play offense, you need to put the ball in the hoop
- Wall Ball - Every player should have their sticks on point and ready to go. Wall Ball is something that players should do just about every day year round.
Train The Mind
Training the mind will allow you to do the little things, that when done on a consistent basis, make all the difference. You will create mental toughness and you will create an inner discipline. This new found inner discipline will allow you to do the right thing when others are not and it will allow you to continue to improve when others are not. Discipline is also contagious.
One of the quotes that I constantly fall back on is: "do it right the first time, every time." This is key to developing the inner discipline. When we do not do something the right way the first time, often we have to do it again or live with the sub par results. This is all fine and good when things are easy. When it is easy, we will just do it. When things are hard, when they are challenging, when we don't know where to start, we are tired, or there are temptations; that is when we skimp, and that is when we cut corners and get lazy.
That's all that it is, laziness.
Make the decision to: "do it right the first time, every time." You cannot make something that is hard easy, but you can make it less painful. We choose to make things psychologically painful when we allow negative thoughts to prevail. "This sucks, I don't want to do it." "I'm so tired, I can't do this right now." "My legs are killing me, I can't breathe, I'm not going to make it." If you think like that, you won't make it. You won't do it. You will hate doing it even if you force yourself to.
Erase Negative Thoughts From Your Mind! Do not let the weakness creep in. Every time a negative thought enters, clear your mind.
This works much better when you know your purpose and you know the end game. What are you working towards? Why are you working towards it? How will what you are currently doing get you there? By answering these questions, you begin to develop your sense of purpose. This clarity of purpose will help you drive through the hard times and clear the negative thoughts.
Simple example:
Negative thought: "here comes the conditioning drill, why the heck do we do this? This sucks, my legs are dead..."
Erase that and overpower it with the answer: "time to get better! This sucks but it will make me faster and tougher when it matters. If can do this, I will crush it in the fourth quarter. I can take longer shifts. I can get up and down the field faster, ride harder..." "Let's do this!"
If you begin to embrace this mindset and create a level of discipline that will prevail in your life. By making difficult things bearable and getting through them, you realize that they were not all that bad. You also gain a new self-confidence that only comes from putting in the work.
The best way to get out of your mind is to get into your body.
Leadership
Creating a personal standard for discipline will being to make you a leader. When you consistently do what is right and not what is easy, people will take notice. You will begin to find, that others respect the work, they respect the dedication. You will earn their respect by putting in the work and showing your integrity. The great part about being personally disciplined is that you won't need others to follow, but you will find that they do.
Nothing creates a bond among people than working very hard together towards a common goal. Sharing the same adversities and continuing to move forward. Your discipline, when spread, can create the new standard for the team. When you go hard in every conditioning drill, and you go hard every day in practice, in every drill and that becomes the standard, you will have an amazing season and create a culture of excellence.
I have seen players like this and I remember ALL OF THEM. They leave a lasting impression on you. They earn your respect and sometimes your admiration.
The best and sometimes the only way to train the mind is to put it through trails. You must do difficult things to show yourself that they can be done. You must PUT IN THE WORK to create the discipline and you need discipline to make yourself go hard when you do not want to. The mind trains the body and the body will train the mind.
Go out there and get after it! Surround yourself with people who are better than you at whatever it is that you want to improve in. They will push you, they will also help you. They will show you how it is done.
It is close to the beginning of the season so don't wait. Start putting in the work now. Build a personal culture of discipline and effort. Train your mind to embrace challenges and plow through difficult tasks. Let this become a part of who you are. When it does, this is when everything changes. Those who put in the work will see the results. They will also develop an inner confidence created by the effort and discipline.
Blue Star Lacrosse Camps!
Have A Blast!
Blue Star Lacrosse Camps are designed to be fun for everyone involved (that includes counselors too!) There are a lot of reasons to go to camp but at the end of the day we want campers to leave feeling exhausted and excited for the next day. We strive to create an environment that cultivates a player's passion for the game - we have found over 25+ years of camps that passion and attitude are the biggest future drivers of success!
