Lacrosse, hits, and stuff.

Lacrosse season is over for my team, Bayou City Lacrosse Club, and I’m already looking forward to next year. The GCLA playoffs were tons of fun, and although we could have used a few more bodies out there, we played pretty well. Metro beat us in our first game on Saturday, and then we got beat by Southside in the consolation game. We lost a couple of players during the second game for various reasons, so we had to play nearly ‘Ironman’ for the whole time. Let me tell you, that’s not quite as easy now as it was when I was in my 20’s!

I felt pretty good about my performance overall. I scooped the ball well, made decent passes, and even managed to score a goal in the second game. Oh, did I mention that I tried to hit nearly everyone on the field? And I almost succeeded!

Don’t get me wrong…I know that it’s not a good thing to ALWAYS look for the hit. However, I’ve been working hard all season, increasing my speed and endurance, improving my stick skills, and I’ve been applying myself much more on defense in recent weeks. And so I became a wrecking machine of sorts this weekend. I’m not sure just how many solid hits I threw out there on Saturday, but it felt gooooooood! I think I put 6 or 7 folks on their backs at one point or another, including one player with whom I played at TX A&M. He’s awesome…fast, great stick skills, and a fabulous dodger, but I got lucky and caught him just right while he was going for a ground ball. BOOM. I’m betting that won’t happen again! Oh, one other poor fellow had to leave the game after I hit him. It was a perfectly clean hit, and I felt like Conan the Barbarian after watching that guy fly up in the air and land flat on his back. I do hope he's OK.

And so, after being off the field for several years, it seems that I have regained some of my old confidence and skill. Woo hoooo!!! It was a really great feeling to have the guys pat me on the back as I’d come off the field, and saying ‘Wow, great hit!’ ‘Geez, we should call you SifuNinja!’ and the like. One fellow mentioned that I’d done a complete 180° from the beginning of the season. I thought about that comment, and realized that I had done just that.

When I first stepped on the field this year, I was still thinking thoughts like “Man, I hope I don’t drop the ball out there!” and “Geez, where the heck am I supposed to be?!” I was tentative and a bit nervous on offense, and didn’t really get aggressive when going after the ground balls. I messed up on the field far more than I did well. But I focused on improving where I could…sprint drills and burpee workouts helped me gain some confidence in being able to run fast and hard out there, and scoop drills helped me get comfortable in going for the ground balls. I got a cheap stick that worked a ton better than my old one, and that helped lots. As my stamina and speed improved, I noticed that my defense improved with it, because I could keep myself in position much better than before. And since I was in good position, I starting hitting folks when the time was right. And it worked! By the time I stepped on the field on Saturday, all those nagging doubts had disappeared. I was there to tear…them…up, and I couldn’t wait for the whistle to blow.

I am not a superior lacrosse player. Far from it. I’d like to think that I’m a wee bit above average, but that may be wishful thinking. Every team has folks that their opponents keep their eyes on. “Hey, watch number 2…he’s got a killer shot!” We all remind each other at the start of each game about which players we need to be cautious. I want to be one of those guys next year. I want to hear those other players saying, “Hey, watch out for number 13…he’s fast, he’s a shooter, and he’ll put you on your ass!”

I've got several months to prepare for next season...I’ll keep you posted. ;-)