It's one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. The fast pace and aggressive play make good physical preparation a must for surviving, let alone excelling on the Lacrosse field. To prepare for the game, we must first assess what actually occurs on the field. What are the specific requirements of the sport? And what do we do about them?

1: Conditioning the Energy Systems

The body is an amazingly intelligent machine. Depending on the physical need, it accesses different sources of energy, created differently and stored separately. For activities that last longer than two minutes (jogging around the field), Aerobic energy is used. For those lasting less, Anaerobic energy is used. But Anaerobic requirements can be broken down to those lasting less than ten seconds (shooting, dodging, jumping, defending) or lasting less than two minutes (sprinting down field).

Lacrosse athletes use all of the above, with slight variations in percentages occurring by position. In general, Lacrosse-specific conditioning workouts should be broken down into 15% Aerobic/85% Anaerobic drills and exercises. Midfielders should get slightly more aerobic work; Attack and Defenders require slightly more anaerobic work; Goalie conditioning will be different all together. But as you can see, traditional distance running should NOT be dominant in Lacrosse-specific conditioning.

2: Training the Movement Patterns

Train to do what's done. Simple, right? Not so simple if what's naturally a part of the game is athletic motions that are as diverse as cutting, lunging, sprinting, pushing, rotating, squatting, even jumping at times.