Late Offseason Lax Training to Dominate this Spring

Lacrosse is a sport that requires a lot from the body. It demands speed, agility, power, endurance, hand-eye coordination, and IQ, among many other qualities. Due to this wide variety of requirements, we often unintentionally overlook what is truly important for us as individuals. This is not to say that one quality is more important than another, as they are all vital; however, we must ensure our priorities align with what we need most.

Depending on age, experience level, body type, and injury history, priorities will look different for everyone. It is up to the athlete, coach, trainer and sometimes parents to honestly determine what is needed most. For some, it may be getting more reps with their off hand so that they can give their team more versatility on offense; for others, it may be developing adequate strength in their ankles to accelerate effectively.

While there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, we must consider whether our bodies are in the right place before we enter the season. Let's dive into some critical components of late off-season preparedness.

Core Preparation

Rotational athletes need significant core training. This is especially true for those who are still growing into their bodies and learning how to use them efficiently, as many lack awareness of how they are moving their spines. Without core stability, athletes are more susceptible to injury and lower back pain caused by excessive rotation and extension while shooting and passing. Even with high-level collegiate and professional athletes, too much volume without preparation or too high of a ramp rate, can lead to injury, missed games, and long recoveries.

Application

Even though some of these exercises aren't the most fun or flashy, they must be part of your routine to ensure you aren’t sitting on the sidelines watching your teammates play because of a back injury.

Our bodies have a way of compensating for weaknesses. If we try to put excessive power into our shots on the run, our bodies will often default to overextending the lumbar spine (lower back) to find that extra force. Overextension, paired with violent rotation, is a recipe for injury. We need to mitigate this risk by reworking our shot technique and performing these exercises regularly.

Exercise Examples:

Ex 1. 2 x 30 Second Bent-Knee Leg Lower

Ex 2. 2 x 30 Second Side Plank

Ex 3. 2 x 15 Pallof Press

Power Progressions:

Ex 1. 3 x 4 Med Ball Rotational Throw

Ex 2. 3 x 5 Med Ball Slam

Conditioning Needs and Progressions

Conditioning should be high on the priority list. Whether you are a "FOGO" (face off - get off) specialist or a two-way midfielder, you need a “battery” that can handle repeated, high-intensity sprinting. If you think otherwise, consider what happens in a championship game: if you are an attacker who has to cross the midfield line to stop a transition opportunity after having just played 60 seconds of offense, are you going to stand in the crease and hope the defense makes a stop because you are tired, or are you going to be able to lock off your opponent and sprint at their side as they exit the field? The team that can play fast for all four quarters is often the one that wins the most games.

Come the first practice of the season, you do not want to be the teammate who is gasping for air and dropping every pass that comes your way because you're too tired. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, you need to make sure you are gradually preparing your body for what it will see in that first practice. To put it simply, you can think of your body as having two different batteries.

Anaerobic Battery - supplies energy for high intensity efforts that will last no more than 90 seconds. This battery size or capacity can be trained to tolerate high work rates or to tolerate slightly longer, high intensity efforts. Think 300yd shuttles, sprint repeats, or other short shuttles. This battery only needs about 6 - 8 weeks to adapt to training. Late offseason to preseason is the time to ramp up anaerobic capacity training.

Aerobic Battery - supplies energy at a slower rate for longer duration exercise. This "Aerobic Battery" is critical even though lacrosse is played at a high intensity. Improving aerobic function and efficiency provide improved recovery BETWEEN high bouts of effort. Aerobic endurance improves fatigue resistance, lowers HR during short recovery times, and buffers acid buildup (a byproduct of high intensity exercise). This type of training requires a blend of easy, longer duration efforts and interval training (lactate threshold intervals, tempo runs, etc.). Aerobic training takes much longer to build so implementation should have begun in early offseason.

Because lacrosse demands both, we need to train both. We do this by gradually increasing the intensity and duration of our conditioning sessions as the season approaches. 

Anaerobic Exercise Examples:

Ex 1. 8 x 10 Second Hill Sprint with 20 seconds of rest

Ex 2. 6 x 40 Yd Sprint with 15 seconds of rest

Aerobic Exercise Examples:

Ex 1. 30 Minute run at a low intensity with stick in hands

Ex 2. 1 Hour Bike ride at a conversation pace

Tissue Preparation

Resistance Training, Plyos, Agility

Proper muscle, tendon, and joint preparation will significantly reduce the risk of injury and allow your body to handle what you ask of it. Think of lacrosse as a demolition derby and your body as the car. You certainly wouldn’t want your car to be made of cheap plastic parts; you would want something that can withstand repetitive abuse and keep going. Treat your body accordingly so it can handle everything that the game throws at it. Benefits - Why do we NEED to do this?

As mentioned earlier, you must ensure that you are acclimated to the sport-specific movements that lacrosse demands, such as shooting, passing, sprinting, decelerating, accelerating, and moving laterally. If you haven’t performed these movements at full speed in months, you are at a significantly higher risk for injury.

Think of your body as a car: if you take a rusty old vehicle that has been sitting in a barn for 20 years and enter it into an F1 race, it will either completely break down or, at the very least, significantly underperform. Treat your body like a high-end sports car and ensure it is fine-tuned for the race you are about to run. Gradual exposure to sport specific movements in the off-season is one of the keys to maintaining health in-season. 

Making sure we are ready to enter the season with a body that is acclimated to the demands that the sport brings is crucial to having a successful and productive season. To ensure we are ready from a physical standpoint (excluding sport specific skill and technique work) we need to make sure that our core is stable, our conditioning is where it should be, and our body has gradually been exposed to sport specific movements.

As we begin to enter into the spring season, our weight room taining needs to shift from a hypertrophy / muscle building focus to a strength and power fucused program. If we were to continue training with high volume sets and reps in-season, our bodies would not have have sufficient time to recover from the increase in field repetitions. For more insight on what your training should look like as you enter into the season, check out the examples and video below.

Resistance Training Examples:

Ex 1. 4 x 5 Trap-Bar Deadlift

Ex 2. 3 x 6 Dumbbell Bench Press

Ex 3. 4 x 4 Back Squat

Plyometric Examples:

Ex 1. 2 x 25 Double Leg Pogos

Ex 2. 2 x 15 yd Power Skip

Ex 3. 3 x 8 Skater Hop