You are most likely reading this article because you don’t want to put down your stick after your High School or College playing days are over. We don’t blame you! By the end of this article, we will have you strapping on the goggles and running on to the field to play. Let’s talk about playing lacrosse after college!
- But how do you go about getting on a team?
- What steps should you take?
We have you covered in this complete guide to playing women’s lacrosse after college. Whether you are in college and are not playing on the school team, not playing as a young adult or maybe you feel like you want to regain your glory after many years away from the game.
We also have some great suggestions from ladies who have walked the walk. We interviewed women who currently play in a post-collegiate women’s lacrosse league and are loving every minute of it. You’ll read their testimony later in this article.
Are You Ready To Play in an Adult Lacrosse League?
Yes! That is the simple answer. The fact that you are reading this article indicates your state of readiness. Now it is just a matter of piecing together a few elements to making this happen and that is:
- Getting the basic stick skills back to where they were or where they need to be.
- Getting your fitness level up to the point where you feel comfortable playing.
- Finding a place to play
- If you can’t find a place to play, we will show you how to do it yourself!
1. Getting The Basic Stick Skills Back
You’re not going to be surprised by this one. You can probably hear the echos of coaches past assigning you some ridiculous amount of reps of wall ball. Well just like your parents, the coach was right! It is time to hit the wall for a daily routine. Fortunately for you there is a treasure trove of wall-ball routines out there on the internet and there are a great selection of reasonably priced bounce-back rebounders out there to choose from.
The great thing about picking up a daily wall-ball routine is that it has many side benefits that you might not have thought about:
- It is a form of meditation (it is about getting into a flow state)
- It increases your upper body strength and muscle tone (you don’t always have to put dumbbells in your hand to get a ripped upper body)
- It increases your cardiovascular fitness level (you don’t always have to be moving your feet to accomplish this)
2. Getting Your Fitness Level Back
This is the point at which a reader of this article might be extremely confident in their fitness level because they’ve maintained it over the years OR this is the point where you want to cry at the thought of how far you’ve fallen off the fitness radar. No matter which of these two categories you put yourself in, you’ve definitely got some work to do.
I am so out of shape, there is no way I will be ready for this.
We can stipulate that you are out of shape but whether or not you are ready is mostly a mental game. You might not be ready now but you will be soon enough.
You may remember those insane workouts from High School or College where you were on top of the fitness world. Those are known as the old days for good reason. It’s going to be tough to get back into that kind of game shape so it would be wise to look at getting back in game shape as a series of progressive, small goals.
The best way to get started is to write some goals down on a small whiteboard and check them off as you accomplish them. Trust me it will help. Examples might include:
- Today I will play wallball for 5 minutes straight, tomorrow for 6 and in two weeks I’ll build up to a 10-15 minute routine.
- I will run field sprints today at 1/4 speed, next week 1/2 speed and in a month at full speed.
- Today I will pick a field painted for women’s lacrosse and run every line; next week I will do that with my stick in hand; the next week after that, I will do it while cradling a ball.
Before you know it, you will have what it takes to participate at a respectable level. You may not be the best one out there but at the very least you can be initially confident that you can at hang with the rest of the pack. We will leave the MVP season for another year.
Gaining a game shape level of fitness doesn’t have to involve dedicating every spare minute to a long duration cardio workout. Workouts have evolved over the years and new science tells us that we can really maximize cardiovascular health in a much shorter period of time.
Try to focus on doing a program based on HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) rather than killing yourself on the treadmill. HIIT training can bring you surprisingly good results in a shorter period of time than the classic lengthy cardio programs.
3. Finding a Place to Play
The web is your friend in this journey. The closer you are to a large metropolitan area the more easy it will be to find an organized team but there are plenty of rural options as well. For your search, you should try to:
- Review the U.S. Lacrosse Post Collegiate Lacrosse database for a club near you
- Perform a Google search such as “women’s lacrosse club near me” or “women’s lacrosse club in (Some State)”
- If the both of these come up empty try meetup.com for a potential MeetUp (maybe it’s smaller scale and not a full league), craigslist.org (post a reverse classified stating “I am looking for a women’s adult lacrosse league”), reddit.com (ask about clubs under https://www.reddit.com/r/womens_lacrosse)
3. Can’t Find a Program Around You? Start Your Own.
It’s understandable that you may not have a program near you but that shouldn’t stop you. Consider starting your own program. This is not as difficult as it may seem. Once you get going, you can use the same techniques we recommended above for promoting your new club.
Women’s Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the country and there are players to be found; you just have to know where to look.
