Simple Secret to a Faster Lacrosse Shot
Contrary to popular belief, lacrosse is less about strength and a lot more about being agile. To be a master lacrosse player, you must start working on perfecting your shot which requires you to take note of various components including the rotational strength from your body, flexibility and control over the lacrosse stick. Understandably, beginners would require initial familiarity with such aspects. But intermediate and tournament players must incorporate and work on the mentioned aspects to be able to get better at the sport with each passing day.
Offensive lacrosse players must practice playing faster shots. Acing your offence shall give you an upper hand in the game and enhances your chances of bagging a win. But remember, you will have to get down to the basics of stickhandling to gradually establishing yourself to be the master player. For a faster, powerful and more agile lacrosse shot, you have to have more control over the stick, enhanced strength in your core, and balance over your posture.
If you are wondering how to start improving your lacrosse shots the right way, this article is all you have to read and understand. Here is a compilation of 5 tips for a faster lacrosse shot, helpful for beginners and advance players alike.
Hold The Stick Loosely
It is a common tendency to tighten our grip on the lacrosse stick to be able to shoot more powerful shots. However, holding your lacrosse stick looser can help you make quicker and more powerful shots. We often tense up and get into a rigid posture but identifying the force of your grip on the lacrosse stick and adjusting your grip to hold your stick looser may help you accelerate the velocity of your shot.
Keep a check on your wrist joints and ensure that you let your wrist joints loose while gripping the stick. Practising with a loosened grip can eventually help you increase the shot speed.
Focus on the Core
Taking powerful lacrosse shots not just requires your arm strength but also the strength of your core which is inclusive of your abs, legs and back. You can talk to your gym trainer to help you get on with exercises that build your core strength. Planks are the DIY way of building core strength if you are training without weights.
There are various tutorials on how to rightly do a plank on the internet. You can refer to any of them and see if you can hold on to a plank for 20 seconds straight. Rest for the next 10 seconds and try holding another plank for 30 seconds. Try to increase the duration as you go along. Repeat 10 times.
Place Your Hands Right
Shooting powerful shots has always been about hand positions and stick grip. You can practice improving your shot by bringing your hands as far from the body as you comfortably can. The posture in itself may be discomforting at first but with continuous practice, you can improve on your hand posture. When you have your arms in close as you pass the shot, the shot is more likely to go bad. Coaches call it ‘alligator arms’ and you must avoid that to be able to take measures to correct the arm posture.
Right Release Point
Using the right release point means handling the stick from an angle that maximizes the ball speed. Maximizing ball speed with the right use of release point would mean that compare the position of your stick to hands in a clock. Therefore, the straight overhand shot would look something like 12 O’clock while the straight underhand low to low shot would look something like 6 O’clock.
Analysts recommend the practice of 3 quarters release which would be around 1.30 on the clock as the position allows you to strike a perfect balance of power and accuracy.
Use Momentum While Shooting
Shooting the ball in lacrosse is much different from shooting the ball to the goal in other sports like basketball. In context to the latter, you can shoot the ball straight with the flip of the hand. However, in lacrosse, you must follow through as you shoot. It means that you would have to gain some momentum before you take a shot.
Ensure that your back is facing the goal and turn around to use your momentum as you shoot at the goal. You can practice shooting on the run and ensure that you can get the ball into the goal often. Focusing on improving on shooting as you run will enhance accuracy while providing you with the momentum you need to shoot the ball.
Extra Tips
An essential part of practising any sport the right way is to identify the areas where there is some scope for improvement. It is, therefore, a good idea to film yourself as you practice. Place the camera at an angle that visibly captures you as you shoot at the goal. This will help you take note of how you handle the lacrosse stick, your hand position and agility. You can practice playing power shots by moving a few steps back. You may also change hands to have more flexibility around handling the stick.
Lacrosse is a high-intensity sport. Perfecting your sporting skills would not only require you to learn and incorporate some tricks but also incorporating disciplines like running, dodging, jumping etc. To make workouts more interesting, you can try cross country running, exercises like log jumping, hill training, tempo training and interval training. The idea is to mix high and low-intensity workouts to improve running speed and build core strength.
Regularise practising goal shots when you are practising alone. You can mark a goal for yourself and try hitting the target. Investing around 30 minutes a day on wall practice would improve accuracy and help you get better on the field.
Challenge yourself to maintain a regular streak of the routine workout and dedicate 30 minutes a day for lacrosse practice to be the master lacrosse player you so desire to be.
