Lacrosse Fitness 101: Sprint Before You Run

By: Jeff Cathrea, B.Sc. Kinesiology

Most people would agree that running and speed are both vital components to the athletic performance and success of a lacrosse athlete. But too often, athletes and coaches overlook the importance of sprint technique or linear speed, which is simply the combination of these two vital athletic attributes.

It is important to remember that linear speed is classified into two components; acceleration and top end speed. Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity, athletically speaking, acceleration is an athlete's ability to switch gears on their way into their top speed. Top speed is simply an athlete's maximal speed that they can maintain. Therefore in order to truly train for linear speed, an athlete must first focus on each of these two phases separately, then on the coordination of acceleration with speed before truly achieving one's full top end velocity.

As stated in my previous speed articles, the most effective way to train acceleration revolves around speed, agility and quickness (SAQ). SAQ drills are exercises that train the neuromuscular system to activate your fast twitch muscle fibers. Remember, your nervous system needs conditioning the same way your muscular system or aerobic system needs training and performing these SAQ drills are the most effective way to work on one's acceleration. When training for sprint speed, it is important to train your body for linear acceleration and speed, therefore all drills should be designed for with forward movement in mind. (This is not to say that any lateral, backwards or zig zag type of movements are not effective for performance, but these particular movement planes are not specific to linear speed).

Improving upon top speed lies primarily with understanding the correct technique for sprinting. One of the most common things I work on with my athletes is teaching them the difference between running versus sprinting. Running is the act of rapidly picking up your feet while trying to get from point A to point B. Sprinting in turn is a maximal effort version of running which involves a full body coordination of arm swings, combined with high knee drives, explosive hip extension and core activation. To further illustrate this, visualize Usain Bolt running the 100m sprint event and compare that to watching a lacrosse player run up and down the field.

Improving sprint technique is analogous to perfecting a golf swing; once the technique is correctly learned and reinforced, the body becomes more biomechanically efficient at performing the series of moving pieces and thus translating into improved performance. Sprint technique can be effectively trained within a sequence of drills focused around the ABC's of sprint mechanics. These ABC's are drills which separate each component of the sprint movement (hip extension, hip flexion, bounding, and arm swings). These drills are initially introduced with the emphasis on perfect technique, then over time once this technique is perfected, the speed and velocity of the drills can be increased.

The final phase of linear speed training would be selecting drills which integrate the acceleration phase into the advanced sprint mechanics with velocity. This can be creatively done with the use of elaborate equipment such as high velocity speed treadmills, speed parachutes, weighed vests, elastic tubing or an can be done simply with an empty field or open track.

Whichever methods you choose, remember to select drills and exercises in the correct order of progression while keeping the golden rule for developing speed and quickness;"In order to get fast, you must train fast." This may sound very simplistic (and it should), however, many athletes fail to adopt this strategy while speed training.

Following this recipe for linear speed should provide a real advantage to your lacrosse game by allowing you to sprint past your running opponents and killing your competition with linear speed.

For more information on how to improve linear speed and your game through sport-specific conditioning, contact a Strength and Conditioning Specialist from Performance Institute at Ice Sports 8-Rinks at 604-291-9941 or contact us by email.