The Calm Before the Storm

By: E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us

ATLANTA, GA- The quiet period has arrived. Fall semesters are either already over or are wrapping up now. Our member teams are splitting up as players depart campus for the break. As we leave campus for this busy season, it is easy to put lacrosse on the back burner. Fall is over, there are no team activities, and January practice can feel like a distant event on the horizon. That does not mean this period has no impact on our spring season.

Many coaches will take some time during the break to analyze what went right and what went wrong during fall practice and to make plans for the spring. The calendar for 2026 is a little awkward and will likely take a week of preparation away from MCLA teams, with the New Year holiday falling late in the week and pushing the start of classes later than usual. As a coach, if you normally have three to four weeks of preseason practice before your first game and that window is reduced to two to three weeks, you had better have a plan in place before practice starts. Otherwise, that first game will sneak up on you and you will be scrambling to cover two weeks’ worth of material in one.

Players who had strong falls have a choice to make. Do they rest on that momentum, or do they use these few weeks to ensure they are ready to hit the ground running in January? Some players can take the break off and simply pick up where they left off. Others will need a few days to find their footing again. I have seen plenty of young men have strong falls, take the break off, and never find that form again. Players need to ask themselves which group they fall into and how confident they are in that answer.

Other players may be disappointed with where they finished fall practice on the depth chart. These players can use the break to put in extra work and arrive at January practice ready to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves in the first week or two, making up ground on that depth chart or they can be bitter about the fall take the break off and find themselves further buried.

Many players will enter the break dealing with various minor injuries. The smart move is to use some of this time to rehabilitate those injuries so they are fully healed by the time practice begins. If you fail to ensure an injury is healed and you are limited during the first few weeks of practice, you may spend the entire spring playing catch up, leaving yourself with the pain of regret rather than the pain of rehabilitation or preparation.

Enjoy your break and spend time with family and friends, but understand that a little time invested now can pay big dividends once practice starts.

Everything is calm now, but rest assured, the storm is coming and it will be here before we know it. What can you do now to be ready?