Tryouts

With the offseason coming to a close, tryouts and the beginning of the season are right around the corner. Your have prepared tirelessly in the offseason, so be ready to have a great tryout. Some people psych themselves out, get in their own heads and don't play to their potential. Don't let that happen to you, keep a positive attitude. Go into tryouts knowing you have the right skills and are in the best shape possible. 


Returner or first year player no one is ever guaranteed a spot, try your hardest and earn the respect you deserve. Coaches understand that you might be nervous, so if you drop a pass, dont hang your head, shake it off and go get that ground ball! No matter what always work your hardest, the extra effort will take you a long way. 


Be a coachable player, that means maintaining that all around positive attitude. Run on and off the field at all times, be attentive in huddles and show the coaches and your teammates that you mean business. Listen to what your coaches have to say to you, they are telling you it for reason. They know the game and they know what is best for you. 


Overall, be comfortable, be confident and play the game you love the way you know how. 

Climbing the Ladder

So far we have worked on our endurance and core strength, the next few weeks will be all about speed. Regardless of position speed is essential: your first step, your break away spend, or your ability to catch up are all important. One of the best ways to work on your foot speed is with ladder exercises. This is a piece of training equipment that you can not live without. They are not incredibly expensive, and they are definitely worth the investment.

Below is a video courtesy of our friend Chris Barnard from Overtime Athletics. The video is a compilation of 8 ladder exercises, varying from easy to very difficult. Take a look.

Like almost every exercise we do, form is key. Notice how the man in the video always has his knees bent in an athletic stance, he isn't bobbing up and down he is staying low. His arms are also pumping in sequence with his legs, like he is running. Don't try to go to fast you will only trip, make sure you are well balanced and going at a fast but manageable pace

Begin by trying the first five techniques: one foot, two feet, two feet in one foot out, two feet in two feet out, and two feet lateral. Do each variation down and back ways 3 times with 20 seconds rest in between technique. This can also serve as an endurance drill so push yourself. As you begin to get comfortable move on to the other three more challenging techniques. 

Shape Up: Playing Wall Ball

This week's article is throw back (pun intended), we are brining back an old post to remind everyone how to properly practice your throwing and catching, nothing is more important!

The more you work on your stick skills the better they get and lacrosse is a sport where continual practice is essential. While having a catch with your buddy is great he can't give you the repetition and consistency of a wall. Playing wall ball is the best way to improve your skills. You can use a cinderblock wall in the gym, a brick wall behind your house or a bounce back. What ever you use make sure that you don't have your mom chasing after you for breaking a window.  

Aggressive Athletic Stance

The most important thing while working the wall is to practice like you play. Make all your movements realistic and at game speed because otherwise it's pointless. Start with an aggressive athletic stance, your opposite foot forward, knees bent, chest up and out and elbows up and back. Before you even pick up stick, practice throwing with your hand. Exaggerate every motion, stepping forward, arching your arm, snapping through. This is how you should always throw and catch the ball. The lack of having a stick and second hand to rely on should show you how important it is to fully follow through. When you do pick up your stick, stand a good 8 to 10 feet away to give your self room to move, throw and catch. No matter what type of wall you are using pick a spot, a crack, a brick, and piece of tape and aim for that spot continuously. Work on your aim and consistency. Remember to keep your hands away from your body and to always move your feet, step towards your target and follow through.

Keeps hands up and away 

from your body

This is your opportunity to work on your off hand. Every time you throw against the ball try to get in at least 50 concise, quick, clean, precision passes with each hand. Once you get comfortable practice catching with one split dodging and then throwing with other. Hopefully after enough practice this motion will be fluid.

To continue to be successful you must be comfortable and efficent using both of your hands, so practicing on the wall is incredibly important. Try to 'play wall ball' at least twice a week. No matter what level of lacrosse you play at, you must continue to practice the fundamentals.

Getting Buff from Home

In the game of lacrosse you rely on your entire body to generate power, everything from your legs, your upper body, your core, and your arms. You dont have to go to gym and throw around big weights to become strong and powerful. There are simple exercises you can do around the house to increase your strength. Spend 20 minutes before school performing these workouts and you will see the difference in no time.


Push-Ups (20 reps)
Push-Ups are not just for your chest, they are great for strengthening your back, arms, chest, and core. It is probably one of the best no weight exercises you can do. Everyone thinks they know how to do a pushup, but do you really?

Squat Jumps (10 reps)

This exercise is great for you leg and core strength and explosion. Watch the first video below on how to a correct squat but the exercise doesn't end there. Watch the second video to see how to explode out of your stance and land softly in the same position. The absolute most important thing here is form!

Underhand Pull Ups (10 reps or as many as you can do)
The video says it all. The best upper body work out possible. Remember not to swing or wiggle, slowly lower yourself down and pull straight up.

Forearm Hammer Curl (15 reps each hand)
Your form arms are essential when it comes to having follow through power on your shot. The forearm hammer curl does not require a lot of weight or time, but will have a huge effect.

Traditional Sit up (20 reps)
The core is one of the most important muscle groups when it comes to power. Its in your core that all your power from your legs is transferred, combined and channeled through your arms. The Sit up is the perfect exercise to target the abdominals and the core, but like the Pushup not many people know exactly how to do them correctly. Watch the video below for the perfect Sit up technique.

The repetition are meant as a starting point. If they get to easy, challenge yourself by first trying to do another set of all the exercises, then maybe add another 5 to 10 repetition. In all these workout push yourself to do them all correctly, have good form and complete every repetition. And of course remember to have your Wheaties and a good balanced breakfast before school.

Shape Up!

Lacrosse is the fastest game on two feet so you need to be fit to play. While running long distance is a great work out it doesn't get you in the kind of conditioning you need for lacrosse. Lacrosse is a game of sprints where you must have short bursts of speed continuously. So sprints, and lots of them, are the key to getting into good lacrosse shape.

When training, try to avoid doing your running of pavement, concrete, or even gym floors, the repetitive pounding wears on your joints; traditional grass or turf are the best to train on. The best way to start is to mark off 20 yards. Whether you use cones or a pair of gloves it doesn't matter, as long as you mark off a start and a finish. When you do run your sprints its important to finish the sprint. Don’t run up to the finish point, run through it. You should stop another 5 yards past the finish line. Since it is such a short distance this should be an explosive, all out sprint from beginning to end.

Before you start set a goal of how many consecutive sprints you think you can do. Don’t be over ambitious but also don’t underachieve. Whatever you think you can realistically think you can do add one on too and that is your goal. Working out is all about pushing your limits. Throughout this training you should ALWAYS BE MOVING. When you finish a sprint, turn around walk back to the finish line and jog to the start line to go again. And when you finish whatever you do, don’t bend over; stand up tall and catch your breath.

As you practice more and more your endurance will increase and so will your speed. Hopefully your goals will get higher and higher too. When ten 20 yard sprints become easy, move it back to 30 yards and try again. Unfortunately, getting into shape isn’t like riding a bike, it doesn’t stick with you. If you don’t run for long enough you will lose all your progress. So it is extremely important to stay on top of your conditioning. When spring comes around and your opponents are sucking wind, you ll be glad you put in the time.

Boston Cannons Finally Break Through

Finally. After 11 straight playoff qualifications for the Boston Cannons, the franchise finally hoisted their first Steinfeld Trophy as Major League Lacrosse Championship this past August. The whole team and especially their super caliber leader, Paul Rabil, were ecstatic about the victory,


 “This victory was just a great cumulative team effort." Paul Rabil told MLL.com after the win, "You know I’ve been asked in years past about the Cannons breaking through [in the playoffs], and how the team has had some unfortunate finishes but that’s really a credit to the talents of the rest of the league. There are great players on all the teams and the Cannons have just come up short. But the way this team played in the present is such a great testament to the effort of everyone on the team.”


The Cannons had a magical season starting off 6-1 and then caped off their championship campaign with 5 straight victories. The whole team contributes their success to the passion and close nit family feel of the organization. What ever they are doing in Boston, it is working.


It seems extremely appropriate that the Boston Cannons won this year of all years. It wasn't two years ago that 4 teams folded, including two teams that played int the leagues 2001 inaugural season. WIth the loss of the Philadelphia Barrage, New Jersey Pride, Los Angeles Rip Tide, and the San Francisco Dragons the league was left with only 6 teams. So it seemed fitting that this year The Boston Cannons, one of the few original franchises left, won the championship. A symbol of the longevity and potential of the league.


Despite the past troubles the league has had, the future looks promising. This past December Commissioner David Gross announced a confirmed plan for two more expansion teams in 2012. One in Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio, both cities with quickly growing Lacrosse markets. With national growing interest, international television cover on ESPN, and an extremely competetive and diverse league the MLL has a lot to look forward too. And all of us as fans should be excited for the ride!

Summer Time, Livin's Easy

Summer lacrosse is some of the most fun lacrosse, all day tournaments, 4 games a day,

picnicing for every meal, camps with your teammates, and crazy uniforms. It is also a great time

to work on your skills and to really improve your game, take advantage of all the free time and

great weather. But just playing for your summer club team on the weekend, game after game,

does not count as practicing. Those are games where you can see the improvement in your

shot or maybe try the move you have been working on all spring. The key though is to not be

sitting on your couch all your summer. Games, tournaments, and camps are chances for you to

display and hone your new skills not practice them. With that said put on your craziest lax

penny, nicest golf shorts, highest nike socks, some sweet shades and enjoy the summer.

Under Armour: Protecting Their Secrets.

UA Website

Under Armour, the sports apparal company that started by creating warm weather gear for lacrosse teams of Maryland, has finally announced the development of their own lacrosse equipment line, complete with protective gear and sticks. But just like their slogan "We Must Protect this House", the details for their products are very slim. Other than a few leaked pictures by our friend over at laxunation.com and a small posting on the Under Armour website nothing is known. And while there is no apparent release date we will all have to just wait for the highly anticipated launch.

UA Spectre Glove

UA Control Shafts

UA Demolish Head