mental toughness trainingThe sport of lacrosse is exploding across the country in popularity and so we wanted to share with you an article by Gavin Kent, a sports hypnotist who coaches junior and professional athletes on mental game tactics for lacrosse.

Why Mental Toughness Is Important For Lacrosse…

The wide-open, fast paced nature of lacrosse rewards creativity and ingenuity. A variety of different looks, plays and schemes, require an adaptable game plan and dynamic strategies and tactics.

Above all, lacrosse demands explosive athleticism combined with a high level of Mental Toughness!

I interviewed a wide range of high school and college lacrosse coaches, players, and former players and several important themes became evident in terms of the “mental” side of the game:

1. Focus, Focus, Focus

For an athlete to play in the “Zone,” their skills, plays and reactions must become automatic.

As coach Brooks Sweet, Head Coach New York State Empire Games 2012 puts it, “Players have to approach every one on one and two on two drill as if they were down by a goal with 2 minutes left in the game.”

Self-imposed game-like pressure during practice will help to insure that players are used to playing with focus and intensity EVERY time they hit the field.

Commit to upping your intensity and focus throughout your entire practice session and you will see a remarkable difference at game time.

When you catch your mind drifting away during a drill to thoughts of an upcoming game, your playing time, schoolwork or social activities, immediately bring your attention and focus back to the practice drill.

Maintaining a high level of focus and intensity during practice helps instill confidence in your game and will prepare you for any situation presented on game day.

2. Visualize The Possibilities

Lacrosse is a game of constantly changing variables and so you need to be flexible to make the right decisions. Visualize different plays, defenses, passes and try to come up with as many different scenarios as possible in your mind.

Visualize/picture/imagine (however you like to think of it) making the right pass, or shot and being in the correct position on the field……whatever the perfect play would be. Go over this many times. Make it big and bright in your mind. What do you see, feel, and hear? The more vivid you make it the better.

The more you work on visualizing different possible game situations, the more automatic your reactions will be during an actual game. You don’t want to have to hesitate and consciously “think” about where you should be on the field or what you should do. You want to be one step ahead of the competition!

3. Let Go Of Those Mistakes

Let’s face it; mistakes are going to happen. They are part of the game. The key to a successful performance is learning to let go of mistakes, and not let them carry over into the remainder of the game.

Holding onto mistakes causes hesitancy and tension, which creates more mistakes, and the cycle continues.

Develop an internal saying that helps you move on from your mistakes. It can be something as simple as “Let it go,” or “Move on.” Maybe, “That’s done. Next.”

You can use anything that feels comfortable to you and gets your focus back on the current play. As your ability to quickly let go of mistakes improves, so will your confidence and your performance.

While this is not a comprehensive list of the mental factors affecting lacrosse players, all three of the above issues were highlighted as important by almost every coach, player, and former player I spoke to.

Lacrosse is a thinking man’s game. It involves a lot of strategy with constantly changing variables.

For this reason, it is crucial that the lacrosse athlete gets as much of this “thinking” taken care of during practice and visualization sessions. This allows the player to play freely and react to changing situations automatically.

 mental toughness trainingMistakes must be quickly forgotten. The game is just too fast to allow for any dwelling on previous mistakes. There will be plenty of time to analyze your game after it is over.

If you incorporate these mental skills into your daily practice routine, you will quickly find your performance improve, as well as your enjoyment of the game. After all, isn’t the whole idea to go out there on game day and play loose, freely, and IN THE ZONE!

Gavin is the founder of Athletic Performance Advantage, a mental sports performance firm based out of Northport, NY.