Lacrosse Tip

Presented by Brian Lalley, Camp Director
St. Olaf College - Boys Lacrosse Overnight & Day Camp

Lacrosse Excellence - What's That?

Bring it in!

Xcelerate Nike Lacrosse National Program Director, Brian Lalley, discusses, Lacrosse Excellence:

I recently asked the high school program I coach with, “What is Excellence?” It is a term used in areas like sports, business and academics. It is presented and discussed so often, but what it actually means and how we can maximize its impact in our personal lives and on our teams can become fuzzy. When I asked this question, it was answered with a number of different responses. Most of them were rooted in a result. “Excellence is winning the state championship,” Excellence is beating a great opponent,” were a couple.

Whether it’s business, athletics or academics, everyone wants to achieve. Whether that’s a personal and/or collective goal of achievement, no great producer sets a ceiling and his/her goal is to reach the individual/collective mountain-top.

Ultimately, the result is something we do not control. It is something we influence based upon what we give to our individual and collective improvement and performance. Come competition day, we are a product of our training. Instead of focusing on that result we’re seeking, excellence in my mind is the individual and collective pursuit of getting the very most out of yourself/ourself that we possibly can on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

There are so many personal and technical elements that become a part of training and competing with excellence. Ben Bergeron, a world renowned Crossfit trainer wrote a book called, “Chasing Excellence.” He presents that before you can pursue excellence on a physical and technical levels, we have to develop the character traits (character traits are skills that are built) necessary to continually chip away at the areas that you and your team aren’t good enough at…yet.