S&C Coaching for State Lacrosse Players

I have been privileged enough to coach some of SA’s best Lacrosse players the last few weeks. Lacrosse requires a broad ranges of performance characteristics including play skill, agility, repeat sprint ability (RSA) and the overall ability to take a solid hit, after all, everyone out there has a big stick! 

In understanding the sport; a study published by Hall et al., (2013) investigated the occurrence and severity of injuries and reported 50% of respondents had suffered some form of injury with ankles, knees and concussion found to be the most prevalent.

In further developing an understanding of the performance characteristics required by the sport a recent article in the Australian Journal of Strength and Conditioning aimed to investigate agility training and found that agility application is not just the generation of a gross motor program but includes a ‘decision making’ process where the required motor pattern must be generated.

Finally; as lacrosse is a game play sport, the notion of ‘peaking’ in the way a mixed martial artist might is not suitable, players need to remain in a constant state of general physical preparedness week to week. 

Based upon the above mention requirements of the sport, my strength and conditioning protocols have been developed in to: 

• -          Base motor program and skills acquisition – to simplify this; teaching the athletes all the required skills need to partake in S&C (mobility, squats deadlift etc).

• -          Mobility and flexibility – as I always promote, if you can’t get in to an ‘organized’ position in a controlled environment, you have no hope of finding your strongest positions dynamically in game play or while under a bar.

• -          Base conditioning cycle – here I introduce the basics, 5RM Squats and Deadlifts, Overhead press, sled work and we also aim to seek out a general idea of where the athletes true 1RM is. Furthermore; I strongly encourage the athlete to partake in HIIT training when outside of the gym, this obviously includes sled and hill sprints, shuttle runs and tire flips.

• -         Peak Conditioning phase – This is the real-talk phase, where I prescribe Post Activation Potentiation protocols as first developed by Verkhoshansky (1959) using either a heavy squat or Deadlift immediately followed by depth jumps. Furthermore; dynamic high-pulls have become the go-to movement for developing explosive power and increase CNS capacity. Finally; agility training is prescribed by a simple reaction drill where the athlete needs to make a decision and formulate a response in a rapid time. 

Holding et al., 2013

It has been a real honor to work with this small but super talented group of athletes, there have been a number of unique challenges that have pushed my limits as a S&C coach and have resulted in massive improvements in their game plays. The state Lacrosse season is still young and im really looking forward to what the future holds