| EliteFTS

About a year and a half ago, I got a question on the Q&A from a D# lacrosse coach. Over the years, I have become fairly in tuned with the dynamics of college lacrosse and offered the best advice I could give.

This was the question that was asked:

I coach lacrosse so we deal with explosive actions and endurance training, I think type of training would be best? What would be the principles to help develop those aspects? What areas should I focus on and frequency? We have a very limited weight room but we have the basics to get things done. Also since we are located down in South Carolina, the dining hall is basically southern comfort food not ideal for fueling refueling meals, so what should I be telling to eat, heck should we all be eating, principles, philosophies ,focuses on eating and maintaining any gains of muscles and help shred some summer weight?

I wasn't sure if I needed to write an e-book to answer this or not. I felt for the guy in his situation so I tried my best:

MY ANSWER
You are absolutely right that those young men deserve the best opportunity to succeed and it says a lot about you as a coach that you are reaching out like you are.

In an effort not to write an e-book to answer this question, I will sum it up as best as I can. Asking how to create an entire training program along with incorporating nutritional strategies is what some coaches has dedicated their lives to. It would be like me starting a lacrosse program from scratch and trying to recruit, form a staff, schedule, set up travel, etc. So with that analogy, I respect your dedication and know the huge task you have in front you.

NUTRITION
I will tackle this issue first. I realize your challenge, but the fact that you are on a college campus trumps the fact that it is in the South. Being a former Marine and stationed down south, I know a little about Southern cooking, but my point is, every college campus has poor food choices at their dining halls. This is why DI schools have training tables to at least somewhat control the food they give their athletes.

My suggestion is this. There is not much you can do to influence or control what your athletes eat. As much as you may think all of your Lacrosse Players will carry tupperware containers of chicken breasts to class, they will eat at the cafeteria or at fast food places. So what can you control. Here are my suggestions:

1. Don't worry about giving your athletes a diet of what to eat. First of all it is illegal and you are not qualified. Giving them a specific diet they do not have access to will set them up for failure.

2. Set up individual meetings with all first year players and review their class and practice schedules. Give them some advise on when to eat. Nutritional timing can be crucial to success and this is a factor that your athletes have more control over. They have a say in when they eat more that what they eat in most cases.

3. Give them nutritional strategies to help them get set up for success. Talking to them about little things like planning their meals for the day (based on the schedule you gave them), planning their meals for the week, and help them with how to shop to make the best choices concerning macronutrients.

4. Make nutrition a priority when talking to your athletes. Always relate nutrition to performance. Make sure they understand the connection between how they eat and how they sleep to how they perform.

TRAINING
Ok. I will do my best to sum it up. I cannot actually give you a program to follow, so I will ask some pertinent questions and if you feel it will help, respond directly to my Q&A and we can come up with a plan for the Fall.

Todd Hamer has said multiple times that a coach can't prescribe a workout until he knows what equipment he has to work with. Division II school that is below the Mason Dixon Line that has Lacrosse (not very common) who just cut the strength coach. Got it. So here goes:

1. How big is your faciity?
2. How many racks do you have?
3. What other equipment do you have? Specialty bars, GHRs, Dumbbells, etc.
4. Who do you share the facility with? Other athletic teams? Narps?
5. Do you have the facility to yourself if you reserve it? Can you train your whole team at once?

Those are just the basics. We can probably come up with something with that information.

Regardless of your answers, it program wil probably consist of Sprints, Jumps, Throws, Cleans, Snatches, Squats, Pulls, Presses, Rows, Drags, and Carries.

How you incorporate them is the question we have to figure out.

I never got a thank you or follow up response. One thing that is always important for strength coaches is you will never have all the answers but you can have an idea of what questions to ask.

TRAINING

MONDAY

SS Yoke Bar Squat (5 sec. Eccentric)