The Worst Fitness Test for Lacrosse!

-May 10th, 2012-

I make my living as a Strength Coach, which means that I’m all for physical testing for lacrosse.

I think it’s important for athletes to know how much they can Hang Clean or how many Chin Ups they can do. Single Leg Strength: Test It! Bench Press, which is my least favorite test for athletes…Test It!

I don’t believe these numbers should be the criteria for picking a lacrosse team or deciding who starts in a game.

But every single player can be an even better player if they improve on their athleticism.

Give me someone who can score 2 goals a game and then increase their power, speed, and strength and you’ll have a better player the next season.

So while I’m all for testing and know the benefits of it (keeping players accountable for their workouts and commitment to the team) it still pains me to know that one of the main tests that most teams still do is the 2 Mile Run.

Absolutely Horrendous!

I know, in a game you will run over 2 miles.

So what?

Will you jog for 13 minutes straight at a steady pace? For your sake I hope not.

There is a saying in the Strength and Conditioning world: “Training Slow Will Make You Slow”

How do you train for the 2 Mile Test? By running slow for a prolonged period of time.

The test goes against what you want to be as a Lacrosse player.

You want to be fast. You want to be powerful.

Shouldn’t you train that way then? Shouldn’t you only be concerned about testing for that?

Hopefully soon teams start to realize not only the waste of time the actual 2 Mile Run test is but that they are also making their players train opposite to how a Lacrosse player should.

I mean, which one of the following would you rather look like as a lacrosse player?

I rest my case!

Do You Agree or Disagree?

Tags: 2 Mile Run, Chin Ups, Hang Cleans, Jogging, Lacrosse Testing, single leg strength