Protected rosters came out this week, a reminder that despite the season ending only a few weeks ago preparations are already being made for the 2013 season. I have to say that it has been nice to enjoy some weekends off and catch up with friends and family, and of course, watch football. My season was particularly busy coordinating my efforts on The Voluntour with the Boston Cannons responsibilities so it has been especially relaxing now that both commitments have come to a close.
From my experience playing lacrosse, it is important to make sure to take care of yourself physically in the offseason to make sure your body isn’t too startled going into the next season. I’ll usually take a couple weeks to relax and take advantage of the free time and then get back to work preparing for the next season. I’ve extended the free time period this offseason because of the particularly busy summer, but will begin my training next week (I feel like I’ve said that before…). I’m fortunate that the Cannons value our fitness and have set us up with a great trainer, Mark Cinelli at CATZ Performance Center, who works closely with us to prepare for the season. We use a number of different motion training exercises which increase stability, flexibility, and strength. Exercises range from low weight, high repetition drills to bag pushes and change of direction training exercises. As a small midfielder I spent my first couple years in the MLL working on increasing strength during the offseason. This year my focus will change to flexibility and endurance as I have a couple nagging injuries due to my life-long battle with extreme inflexibility!
The season recently ended, but I already miss playing lacrosse on a regular basis. I just registered in a local men’s league and plan to join a couple others playing indoor and outdoor consistently throughout the off season. I think the skills learned playing indoor can be incredibly helpful in the outdoor game and try to play indoor when not in the MLL season to improve on those skills.
A great part about the offseason is that there is a lot of time available to do things other than play lacrosse! I am a big football fan and love spending Sundays with friends watching the games. The Patriots are the highlight of my weekends now, but when they’re not on I’m hooked on NFL Redzone, watching in amazement at Scott Hanson’s incredible ability to announce every game without moving. I also manage a couple extremely mediocre fantasy football teams and find myself talking more trash than actually winning games. Other than that I try to stay busy by playing basketball, traveling to visit friends in other cities, and plan to continue volunteering around Boston.
I had one of the most enjoyable seasons of my lacrosse career this past season, and I look forward to another great one next year. The offseason is a great way to relax and recover after a season, but it also provides an excellent opportunity to go into a season in shape and ready to play. It is my goal to use this time to get better and improve on the success we had last year, hopefully ending the 2013 season with a championship.
