Invictus Sports Performance is breaking new ground in more ways than one in 2009.  During the first week of winter break, we hosted our first Lacrosse Strength Camp and Combine.  Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing team sports in the country.  High schools and colleges are adding men’s and women’s lacrosse programs each year.  Lacrosse clubs and leagues are spreading like wildfire.  With its popularity growing, it’s important for athletes and coaches to understand the role strength and conditioning will have on an athletes’ performance.  As a game predicated on the ability to score while out maneuvering your opponents, the components needed to successfully perform this sport are speed, agility, accuracy, power and strength.  Understanding the role of these athletic elements as they relate to lacrosse performance is the foundation of any sound strength and conditioning program and this was the purpose of our camp.

With nearly a dozen varsity, junior varsity and club programs represented, we began our camp introducing these young athletes to the importance of strength training and it’s related elements to fix all aspects of your individual game.  We were able to instruct many of them, some for the first time, to proper warm up methods, effective speed and agility drills, basic athletic movements, bodyweight strength training and barbell lifting techniques, and stretching.

Day one covered our most basic element that are fundamental to all sports – the athletic position, aka: SQUATS!  Teaching young athletes the importance of squatting to develop hip and leg strength is easy enough.  Getting them to properly perform this movement and reproduce the movement efficiently is a different animal.  By the end of the session, we were seeing much improved squat technique from all of our varsity players…active hips and shoulders.  We finished out day one with a short strength WOD.

After a thorough warm up on day two, we inducted this group of athletes into the training while sore club by putting them through a full regimen of speed and agility drills.  Speed and agility drills are tough.  They are even tougher when attempting to perform them at a level that will improve you athletic ability.  So being the conscientious coaches we are, we asked our athletes to perform them with stick in hand.  Last time we checked, that’s how the game is played so that’s how we trained.  Besides, we needed to get them acclimated to “stick in hand” combine drills.

On the third day…we put it all together.  Time to apply our strengths and find the holes in our game.  Time to run the Combine.  We put these athletes through a full battery of tests and drills designed to assessment the lacrosse player’s athletic potential.  We accurately measured Vertical jump, Broad jump, 3 Cone L, and the Long Shuttle to get base line data on explosiveness, speed and agility.  Two drills we developed specifically for this lacrosse combine, the 5-10-10-5 n Score and the 20 Scoop 20 Score, assessed not only speed and agility, but the athlete’s ability to score while moving at maximum velocity.  With the data gathered from these drills both lacrosse coach and the strength coaches can coordinate training to effectively enhance the player’s performance.

The Coaches at Invictus Sports Performance would like to thank all of the athletes for their participation, and all of the parents and coaches for their support.  We also want to recognize our friends at JaxLaxSports for their assistance in making this camp a success.

For more information about our Varsity and JV Lacrosse Strength Program or upcoming Lacrosse Camps and Combines, please contact us here.