I was offered the S&C role in October 2020 to strengthen the Belgium Women's National Lacrosse Team U19s to prepare them for the European Lacrosse Championships in 2024.
I accepted the challenge and was excited about the future may hold but saddened my appointment was at the height of the lockdown. Nevertheless, I got to work immediately to provide the girls with two core training sessions per week, which provided an excellent foundation to build from.
Lacrosse players need flexibility, speed & power with great sprint technique through all planes of motion.
They must maintain an optimum body position with good stabilisation while performing the quick, explosive changes of direction the sport requires.
Fast forward one year on, and I was tasked to fly out to Brussels for the weekend to meet my colleagues face to face for the first time and provide them with much needed physical fitness tests to see where we are currently at.
We covered the following disciplines:
Sit & Reach - flexibility
The plank - total core strength
Push up - upper body
30m dash - speed
Illinois Agility - quickness
Broad jump - power
Yo-Yo test - cardiovascular
On completion, I gathered all the necessary data to interpret the test results as a team and break down my finding to individual players.
In addition, I had time to observe the team's functional movements, run technique, work ethics and performance.
Now the hard work commence!