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Whether you’re a midfielder grinding through wall-ball reps at dawn or an attackman looking for any edge you can find, the players who actually improve share habits that never show up in highlight reels. This isn’t about talent, according to Roger Chivukula. It’s about what happens in the hours nobody’s watching.
The first thing most players get wrong is treating wall ball like a chore to check off. They favor their strong hand, zone out, and call it a session after ten minutes. The players who see real results are deliberate about it. They work both hands equally, simulate game catches on the move, throw off-balance and on the run, and push through the reps that feel uncomfortable. Aim for 300 to 500 intentional reps per session and keep an honest count of how much time you’re spending on your weak hand versus your dominant one. That number will tell you everything about where your game is headed.
From there, most players make another mistake: they pour everything into stickwork and ignore their feet entirely. The attackmen who drive defenders crazy aren’t just skilled with the ball. They’re almost impossible to stay in front of because their feet are constantly moving with purpose. Ladder drills, box drills, and short shuttle runs build the kind of lateral quickness that no amount of stick skills can replace. If you’re not training your feet at least twice a week, you’re leaving a massive part of your game on the table.
The high-IQ players on every roster aren’t always the fastest or the strongest, either. They’re the ones who have already seen everything before it happens. Watching your own game footage is uncomfortable at first because you’ll notice tendencies and habits you didn’t know you had. That’s exactly the point. Even 15 to 20 minutes a week spent reviewing your own film alongside footage of elite college or pro players will sharpen your reads and decision-making faster than almost anything else you can do off the field.
When it comes to the weight room, too many lacrosse players spend their time on exercises that look impressive but don’t carry over to the field. Lacrosse is a rotational sport from the ground up. Every shot, pass, and dodge runs through your hips and core, so that’s where your training should be focused. Medicine ball rotational throws, landmine presses, cable woodchops, and single-leg work will do more for your shot speed and body control than any amount of bench press. Build power in the right places, and everything else on the field gets easier.
Then there’s the part most young players resist: recovery. You don’t actually get stronger or faster during training. You get stronger and faster during recovery, and if you’re skimping on sleep, skipping meals, or treating rest days like wasted time, you’re undermining everything else you’re doing. The players who stay healthy and keep improving through a full season are the ones who take sleep seriously, get protein in after training, do their mobility work even when they don’t feel like it, and treat rest days with the same intention they bring to practice. It’s not glamorous. It works.
Along the same lines, there’s a training habit that separates the serious players from everyone else: practicing when they’re already tired. Games don’t pause to let you recover. The fourth quarter of a tight game will expose every bad habit you have, because fatigue strips away everything that isn’t deeply ingrained. So stop ending your workouts when you’re fresh. After your conditioning work, pick up your stick. Run shooting drills. Do wall ball. It feels sloppy at first, and then it starts to feel normal, because you’re building the kind of muscle memory that actually holds up when the game is on the line.
The last piece is the one that gets dismissed most often: visualization. The research behind it is solid. Running through game scenarios in your head activates many of the same neural pathways as physically performing them. Players who use it consistently tend to make quicker, cleaner decisions in live situations because their brains have already been there. Five to ten minutes before bed is enough. Walk yourself through a dodge, a feed to the crease, a ground ball in traffic. Don’t just picture success. Work through the whole sequence. Over time, it builds instincts that show up without thinking, which is exactly when you need them most.
None of this is complicated, but most of it is easy to skip. The players who close the gap between good and great aren’t doing anything mysterious. They’re just more intentional about the work, more honest about their weaknesses, and more consistent when no one is holding them accountable. Pick one or two of these habits and actually commit to them this week. Then build from there.