Free Play Academy Newsletter #37
Topics that will be covered:
1. Foot-striking for injury prevention.
2. Jake Withers.
3. 3 ways for athletes to alchemize their emotions.
Foot-striking for injury prevention.
Fix your foot strike!
--
The further in front of an athlete the foot is cast, the more demanding it is on the hamstrings.
Forcing them to claw at the ground to pull the body through during sprinting exposes them to excessive stresses and risk of breakdown.
Protect our hamstrings!
—
Jake Withers.
Verbatim from this weekend’s Inside Lacrosse article:
“Jake Withers Makes an Early MVP Case.
I’m going to kick things off with what some might think is a hot take:
Jake Withers’ stat line on Friday night was the most impressive single-game stat line for a defenseman in NLL history.
In my opinion, it is one of the greatest stat lines, period, in NLL history.
Three goals, 1 assist, 32 loose balls, 31 of 33 at the faceoff spot, a 93.9% win percentage and 4 blocked shots.
Soak all of that in for a moment. This never happens, but if Withers continued at that pace for the rest of the season, he’d have a 50-plus goal year to go along with 576 loose ball recoveries (more than doubling the NLL record) and winning more than 200 faceoffs above and beyond the league record.
He would also finish the regular season with 79 blocked shots, which would almost triple the current NLL record.
Now, of course, lacrosse isn’t just a numbers game. Withers also was reliable and consistent on defense. If you put it all together, Withers’ effort Friday night played an important role in the team’s 17-12 win.
I’m going to echo something similar to what Pat Gregoire said on the broadcast: even if Withers’ numbers drop a little bit throughout the regular season, he looks like he could be in the MVP conversation this year.”
As a former buckeye, Jake was the ultimate competitor to go against and one if not the nastiest matchup I endured while in college. Blue-collar ethic that makes him great.
If you haven’t already, get yourself an ESPN+ subscription to catch most if not all the NLL games being played this season!
3 ways for athletes to alchemize their emotions.
Have you caught yourself being affected by negative or positive emotions during a practice or a game?
If you haven’t you are a unicorn and I’d like to meet and talk to you..
but for us others that have experienced this and wish to alchemize our emotions please continue reading..
There are no bad emotions, just bad responses and interactions with them.
In fact we should view our emotions as gold because they can serve as the greatest resource we have to fuel ourselves and our performances.
So, emotions, by definition are “e-motions”, the “e” standing for energy and “motion”, simply put energy in motion, that is why we feel emotions in our body.
How often have you felt an emotion come over you and you’ve allowed it to build up in your body until it popping off in less than healthy ways?
The solution, to transform our emotional energy into healthy actions.
To change our emotional state, change our physical state.
Here are three ways to alchemize our emotions in a positive way:
1. The Body Breath, take a big smooth breath filling our body fully & outwardly and exhaling it in a similar fashion.
2. Expand our physical body, similar to the body breath with expanding our body, simply make yourself bigger, stretch out, straight up your posture and spread yourself as far and wide as you can.
3. Channeling (taken from The Free Game): Use the emotional energy in your body as fuel for a physical action, in the context of lacrosse, if you are frustrated that you just got beat top-side from a low wing dodge, next on-ball engage use that feeling of frustration as fuel into a precise check on the opposing player’s hips directing him with you wish for him to go.
Easier said than done!
Food for thought!
The Free Game
The part of lacrosse that is played with the mind.
What will be covered are the 8 Principles of Performance.
Any lacrosse player can own the 1st ever sport psychology methodology specific to the game of Lacrosse.
This purchase will include a FREE consultation with Coach McDonnell via in-person or Zoom.
Here is a preview.
The cost is $24.99
You can purchase The Free Game here.
Lean in, do the work, stay focused and become uncommon.
Have a great week.