Winter is Coming
Yesterday at 11:43 AM
December is the longest month. December is about buckling down for final exams and returning home for the holidays.
It's a month spent back in your hometown with old friends. It's a month of temptation and distraction during the holiday season. It's a dangerous break of routine prior to training camp.
College players should use free time in December to formulate and write down goals for the season. Get yourself a calendar and journal. Write down your short term and long term goals – they can meander in any direction.
Goals
- I will try harder to be a great teammate every day.
- Work to improve my shooting by 5%.
- Keep my locker clean
- Win 10 games
- Make the postseason
- Play my best in adverse conditions.
- Improve my communication and passing.
- Drink more water.
- Show daily gratitude for people in the program.
- Compete fiercely every practice.
- Get A's and B's this semester.
- Only drink on Saturday nights.
- Bounce back from setbacks.
- Trust the coaches and leaders.
- Don't eat junk.
- Spend less time surfing on my phone
- Watch more film.
- I will embrace my role. Whether I'm a starter, backup or never play in games , I will work to be to become a star in my role. That doesn't stop me from wanting more, while trusting that my time will come.
- Prioritize sleep.
- I work too hard not to have fun.
Set your goals but understand that they are empty words – without work.
Training camp opens in January, many on Monday January 6. The first day of practice is a finish line #1 in the race with multiple finish lines. The opening game on your schedule is a finish line. Break the season up into segments with training camp, February 1, March 1, April 1, May 1 and the championship game being circled dates on the calendar.
Lacrosse has morphed from a four month season into a five month marathon. Training camp in January is either 3 or 4 weeks in duration, depending on the school. Scrimmages cap off each week. The regular season is 13 Saturdays, with a league championship week and then three weekends of the NCAA tournament. That's 20 plus weeks for teams competing on Memorial Day, a duration that rivals the NFL.
It's a long grind. Burnout is real, especially for freshman, who tend to hit the wall in the later stages of April. Burnout stems from a lack of physical, mental and spiritual nourishment. Prevention is a shared responsibility between coach and athlete. It's the athletes job to work harder while the coaches job to tap on the breaks.
As you read this, there are less than 60 days until real D1 games. February 1 is a Saturday. Lacrosse is now a winter sport. A sampling of games I found opening week.
February 1
- Johns Hopkins at Denver
- Loyola at Georgetown
- Jacksonville at Syracuse
- Air Force at Lafayette
- Navy at High Point
- Holy Cross at Providence
- Bellarmine at Duke
- VMI at St Bonaventure (Feb 2)
Many programs open on February 8. The Ivy's begin competition on Saturday February 15. Memorial Day falls early on the calendar this year – May 26.
If you're at a high level D1 program, you have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them, is up to you. Everybody practices for the same amount of time. It's the 15 or 30 minute segments of individual work that you do before or after practice, or on Sundays, that will chart your personal growth. Train to win and to dominate.
The season is a roller-coaster ride of emotions – unpredictable and littered with bumps. Remind yourself that you are here to learn lessons. Each crisis is an opportunity.
December is about preparation, discipline, structure and maturity.
