Lacrosse Fall Ball: Where Winning Teams Are Built
10/23/2024 01:45 PM
Lacrosse Fall Ball: Where Winning Teams Are Built
Fall ball at the college level is a beast in and of itself. Once you become a collegiate athlete, the idea of an offseason essentially disappears. Your summers may be the closest you'll get to an offseason, but even during that time off from school, the work never really stops. If you show up to lacrosse fall ball out of shape or with subpar stick skills, you might be closing the door on your chance for playing time before the spring season even begins. But what exactly makes fall ball so important?
Lacrosse is a complex game with countless elements that require hours of practice in each specific element in order to be successful. These elements include offense, defense, face-offs, man-up, man-down, clearing, and riding as just a few of the facets that teams must focus on. The spring season simply doesn't provide enough time to install all of these crucial components, especially with today's college lacrosse landscape of games starting as early as February. There is a heightened pressure to get these major elements installed in the fall. If a team doesn't spend enough time investing into each these elements, they will face an uphill battle come spring, scrambling to install concepts that should already be in place.
With only two hours of practice each day and so much to address, every minute of lacrosse fall ball needs to be productive. The fall is not the time to focus on getting in shape or learning basic stick skills. If a team is still working on fundamentals during this period, they are missing out on valuable time that should be spent fine-tuning strategies and learning the X's and O's of the game. Coaches understand this more than anyone. If you're a returning or freshman player who shows up with poor conditioning or lackluster stick skills, you're starting at a disadvantage. First impressions matter, even for veterans, because each season brings new dynamics and new expectations. Coaches aren't concerned with last year's performance; they're focused on the future. If you can’t keep up with the concepts being installed from the start, you’re setting yourself back in the eyes of your coaches and teammates.
Fall ball is the perfect time to instill the core principles of a program, both on and off the field. It's not just about learning plays or refining skills; it's about building and reinforcing the team's culture. How does the team handle adversity? Who will step up as a leader when the going gets tough? How hard will the players work when no one is watching? These are questions that need answers, and they can't be left until spring. You can't expect a team's culture to develop overnight—it takes a dedicated fall season to set the tone for the months to come. Ignoring these cultural aspects during lacrosse fall ball will inevitably lead to problems down the line. A team that sleeps on the fall will find it impossible to fix its cultural issues once the season is in full swing.
While all of this might sound harsh, the truth is that no team is a finished product in the fall. The best teams are the ones that embrace the process of getting better everyday and are not focused on the results. A bad week of practice in the fall doesn't mean you're doomed to miss the field in the spring, but coaches expect effort, commitment, and progress everyday. The players who show up in shape and with sharp stick skills demonstrate their dedication over the summer, which makes a good impression. Championships are built in the fall, not the spring. Success starts with showing up every day, paying attention to detail, and giving your all. Lacrosse fall ball is a time to hoot and holler, stay dialed in, and buy into the process of improvement. No team will win games in the fall, but they can certainly lose them by failing to put in the necessary work.
Lacrosse fall ball sets the foundation for the entire season. It's where teams build their culture, hone their skills, and lay the groundwork for success. The fall may not be about results, but it is about preparation, and the teams that thrive in the spring are the ones that have already put in the work long before the season starts.
