Geekin' Out
The art of total immersion.
In life, I’d like to think most people find passion in certain things. Whether it be music, art, literature, or sports, you find that one thing that you really enjoy and it just seems to grab hold of you, like an obsession. I’m sure everyone knows what I am talking about. I’m sure everyone knows one guy that can recite baseball statistics spanning 50 years. Seems like most SID’s I meet love baseball trivia for some reason, and it never ceases to amaze me how people remember the most minute details for a sport that has seemingly endless specialists and almost an encyclopedia worth of stats and history. Or your casual fantasy fan who enjoys movies like Dune or Lord of the Rings (like me) vs someone who not only has read every book cover to cover, but also every prequel and sequel, and subscribes to fan clubs, and can speak elfish and etc, etc, etc. We are not describing casual fans here, but the top 1 percenters of fandom. As long as I have painted somewhat of a picture, I think all of us either know that guy, or may be that guy when it comes to something truly special in your life.
If your reading this post, I am assuming that you are at least a moderate fan of the sport of Lacrosse. Lacrosse, like many other sports, requires a lot to master. As a field sport, if you have size, speed, athleticism, and agility, a lot will say those intangibles are half the battle. If you are not a genetic freak with natural god given physical capabilities (like yours truly), you at least have to have great feet. You should have proficient stick skills in both hands, but if not than you can master the game with elite stick skills in one hand, and serviceable stick skills in the opposite hand. You have to be able to pass, catch, shoot, and gather ground balls, all while simultaneously running, and not just standing stationary. One that gets over looked in the stick skills department is protecting the stick as well. You have to be able to throw checks as a defenseman. You have to be able to throw fakes as an offensive player. You have to have some savvy with you stick. The last thing you also need if you’re to master this sport, is great IQ. You need to understand, as a flow sport, how to read the opposition, and make great decisions on the field. Defenseman need to have great spatial awareness and problem solving abilities. Offensive personnel have to see two or three steps ahead of what the defense is doing in many cases. Goalies have to be deceptive and anticipatory on the clears. All these things make a complete lacrosse player. Combine that with someone who is strong, in great shape, and gives exorbitant levels of effort, you will have a first class player on your hands at any level. As a coach, to have a player like this would be a dream. But I dare to pose this question: Is all this still enough?
If anyone fits the description of the hypothetical player above, obviously that’s enough for just about any team or coach. I can’t help but feel like guys today are taught that those things are the most important things, however. And before I go any further, I want to let everyone know that I am risking coming off as the ‘back in my day,’ guy with this article. Just as my generation rolls their proverbial eyes at the boomer generation and their jargon, I can imagine the gen Z group doing something similar, though I do think there is real value in what I want to get across.
In the sport of Lacrosse, like many sports, we are in a perpetual buyers’ market, though we might not realize it. We cater to the consumer. Just because club fees, travel tournament teams, specialized coaching, and the entire club experience comes with outrageous costs, we are putting more value on getting to the next level, being seen by top coaches, and just playing games over getting better. Overnight camps, and instructional clinics are dying. People would rather pay to play on travel team, than have a more intentionally instruction based experienced. That is where the ‘value’ is seen, when in reality, kids are playing games before they can master the skills. When I was growing up, there was day camp at local high schools and colleges, summer leagues played around central NY (where we practiced every day, far more than actually playing games), and huge overnight camps, like Top 205, Blue Chip, and Champ Camp. Instruction was the foundation, NOT just simply playing. And you may be thinking that kids are way better today than they were back in the day so what is the problem? That is true, but the cream will always rise to the top at these events. The top tier kids are getting more notice and attention now, just like they did back then. I could argue it’s easier to stand out when you are playing on a top club team playing in the B division just so you can stock pile wins and claim a great record for your club’s summer seasons (yes there are teams that actually do this). Also, there are exponentially more kids playing today. In the early 2000’s there just wasn’t the sheer volume of kids playing that demanded this huge club market. It was more competitive because the pool was smaller in both numbers of players and possible post-high school destinations. If you wanted to stand out at a camp where there were only so many kids, and everyone was good, you needed to practice more than play. You needed to “Geek Out.”
I don’t think obsession is a bad word. In fact I think it’s healthy, especially for our youth. I’m not an expert in child psychology, nor do I claim to be an expert on this subject, but I just think it’s normal and generally encouraged for young people to find things that excite them; things that give them a reason to look forward to the next opportunity where they can tinker, experiment, perfect, or just practice whatever they are into.
I was definitely that kid. I had many obsessions throughout my life. Growing up I loved drawing. I loved going to art class every day and getting an opportunity to draw things. Then it was football, then cars, then writing. When I got to high school, I really wanted a guitar. I had an acoustic that I taught myself to play rudimentary chords with a simple beginners book my uncle gave me, but I really wanted an electric one. My dad told me that he would get me an electric guitar provided I take lessons. He did not want to invest in something I would ultimately lose interest in. He didn’t want me to put it down after a short while, and not pick back up again. I took maybe 3 or 4 lessons max, before I was completely immersed in music. I was fully geeking out on guitar. I bought every guitar magazine I could get my hands on. By the time I was old enough to get summer jobs, every cent I saved was going to my guitar rig. I bought an amp, and foot pedals, and processors, and cables. I was practicing every day. I was printing guitar tabs from the internet and storing them in my basement where I was trying to learn every song on the radio. I was in a band my senior year in high school. We would practice in my friend Kevin’s basement for hours on end. It got to the point that my dad would come home from work and the walls would be shaking. He’d come downstairs where he’d find me in the basement, yelling over my incessant playing to turn the distortion off. He was dead wrong about me putting it down. It wasn’t until I went away to college that I eventually did put it down and wouldn’t really ever get back to that same level of interest. Now I have a nice acoustic where I play lullabies for my daughter while most of my electric gear is gone, or down in the basement collecting dust.
The point of all this is that I know there are great players now out there, but I really question how many young ones really immerse themselves in the sport. How many of them are obsessed with Lacrosse. Regardless if they are more or less experienced, or competing at a high level or not, is it all about just showing up and playing games, or are they truly in love with everything the sport has to offer?
It’s an interesting question. Not a life or death situation by any means, but I think to compete for 4 years at the college level (any level) you have to really love what you’re doing because there will be days that will really test that love. Could be a losing streak, or injury, or outside forces pulling you away. Just like any love, it’s a commitment you make. It’s a choice you make day after day after day.
The whole reason I thought to even write about this was I was observing my own team. Now I know I have a couple guys that are absolute lacrosse junkies on my team. A ‘Lax Rat’ is common nomenclature that we would label someone like this where I grew up. They live it and love it. But I believe those guys are in the minority. I overheard a conversation that only 1 or 2 guys, on my team of 45, knows how to string a stick. I was rattled. Guys have their friends at home sting sticks for them, or their buddy that plays DI or whatever, to do it for them. For a long time, my old assistant would string our guys’ sticks, and it just amazed me. Like how doesn’t every player know how to string a stick? I mean it’s your STICK!! My purist brain can’t comprehend that. It made me do some thinking. Another great example, I asked my two assistants the other day if they could help me re-string the game nets (yes me as a head coach at a DIII school has to re-string the game nets. Not saying this to brag, or to complain, but I would be curious to know how many other college coaches have to do this). My assistants are relatively young, both under 25, and they replied, ‘sure but I’ve never done it before.’ I said, ‘well you’re going to learn.’ That’s what really inspired me to write this article. I can’t tell you in my life how many heads I’ve strung, goals I’ve netted, fields I’ve lined, shafts I’ve taped, etc. The list goes on and on. And I know what you are thinking, I’m around the game a lot, so this should all be expected. But I’ve done most of these things by the time I went to college and well before. That’s the difference I feel about being totally obsessed with a thing rather than it being a passing interest. And it made me wonder. How many young players today are really geeking out over the sport? How many of them are totally immersing themselves with the game? If so many guys now and days can’t even string a stick, I have my doubts.
I remember growing up, I fell in love with lacrosse at an early age. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. I was hooked from my first summer ever playing, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I wasn’t a natural. I think it took me 2 or 3 summers to score my first goal. I fell in love with the long stick at an early age and knew I wanted to be a defenseman. Once I made that decision, I focused all my time and energy on learning everything about the sport. I went to camps all summer long, played in the fall, winter, and spring in between football and basketball seasons. I wanted to learn how to string sticks, so I asked my mom to buy me a string kit as opposed to getting a stick factory strung (my mother who will no doubt read this article would give me an ear full if I failed to mention that she was the one who taught me how to string a stick). She is good enough at crocheting that she took one look at a pre-strung head and said, ‘I can do this.’ But once I learned, I was the only one that was stringing all my heads. I even stung some heads traditional just because I wanted to figure out if I could do it or not. I had nets in my backyard (every one of my friends, cousins, anyone I knew that played lacrosse had a net in their back yard). We went a step further at my house. My backyard was surrounded by some nasty brush and wooded areas. My dad attached wooden beams all around our fence and hung big back stop nets in my back yard to keep the balls from flying into the woods, which probably nearly killed him during my HS years, because he took such pride in his backyard landscaping. Meanwhile I’m in the back yard with this gigantic eye sore of black netting running across the back fence like something you would see at an indoor sports complex. But he did it, because he knew I would be out there constantly by myself playing. One year for Christmas, I asked for a year subscription of Inside Lacrosse Magazine (back when it existed, not sure it does anymore). Another year I asked for a drill so I could change out heads and shafts more efficiently. All the tools and stick kits that our guys use here for our team are all my stuff that I personally own. You can ask my wife or mom and both of them will tell you straight up, I am probably the least handy guy you would likely meet. But I learned how to string nets, because when I was young, I would break them so often, I would have no choice but to figure out how. My friends and I in college would dye heads different colors on the front lawn of our house using plastic bins and glue guns to create words, and designs. As a 36 year old adult, I still don’t remember the last time I missed watching the national championship game, whether on TV or in person. I spent a summer in Costa Rica in 2009, and had to go to an Internet Café just to watch the championship game. And it was one for the books, if anyone recalls (Cuse comeback on Cornell scoring 3 goals in last 5 minutes and beating them in OT). I was constantly around the sport, following the sport, and just plain and simply obsessing over the sport. It was just something I couldn’t stop, but never knew how much I needed.
In closure there are three things that I want to emphasize. For one, you don’t need to totally obsess with something in order to be good at it. I’m not picking on anyone in particular. You can be a great player and not know how to string a stick, so I hope no one takes any sort of offense or misconstrues the point of this piece. But in cases like myself, you may need to obsess in order to be the best possible player you can be. I was never the most athletic guy. I was never the fastest nor the strongest. But I think I was able to push myself to figure out how to be someone that could serve a team. I had great stick skills because I spent hours up hours of my own time on them throughout my youth, on my own, and in practice. I had a strong lacrosse IQ for 2 reasons; I was very coachable and willing to do whatever my coaches told me because I knew they all had successful playing careers (growing up in NY I was very lucky to have amazing youth and HS coaches that were legends in their time both as players and coaches). I knew they had the keys and I bought in. I also was a student of the game from the beginning. I was always watching the game being played. Any chance I could go to the Dome to see Cuse play, my dad and I would go. I was constantly watching my position on the field, rather than watching the ball. These are what allowed me to overcome some genetic limitations and get recruited at the college level. The second thing is the amazing power of working solo. I am reading a great book entitled Quiet, by Susan Cain. The book mainly talks about the power of introversion in a world that really values extroversion. There are a lot of talking points the book highlights but the best thing that I took away from Ms. Cain is that nothing truly great was ever created by committee. This is such a good book, and I would encourage anyone who is in a leadership role and happens to be an introvert (like myself) to give it a read. Basically, extroverts like to work with people, and as a coach of a team sport, this is obviously important. Unless you play tennis singles or golf, you need to learn how to work together with others to be successful in a team setting. But what Ms. Cain examines that most of the work is done individually, which is something I can relate to. Now in no way, shape, or form am I claiming to be a foremost authority on the sport of Lacrosse, nor was I a savant or prodigy either. But I can tell you, as an only child, I spent thousands of hours alone by myself, shooting, playing wall ball, or just doing stick tricks or whatever. Ms. Cain argues this is the stuff that is critical to greatness; Individual, and uninterrupted practice. Some famous introverts like Steve Wozniak, didn’t create the Apple 1 with a bunch of other people. Steve Jobs may have been involved, but the majority of the engineering and processing was the sole work of Wozniak working on his idea of a personal computer while at work, and when he went home on his free time. Obsessing over developing his PC, he worked tirelessly for months alone in his home until the Apple 1 was born. I remember reading this, and I really believe there is something to this. I believe if guys grab a bucket of balls, and find a net or wall, and practice in solitude for hours upon hours alone, I think that is where true greatness is realized. I would argue people like Kobe Bryant demonstrated this strategy in their pursuit of greatness. And Finally, the most important thing to remember about obsession is that you may be able to obsess alone, but that doesn’t mean your obsession doesn’t still need support from others. Throughout this whole article, I spoke about my mom and dad. The sacrifices they made throughout my childhood, whether it involved lacrosse, music, art, or whatever, were truly extraordinary. I don’t remember a time where they really ever said no to anything I wanted to try. As long as they knew that I understood I was going to try my best at whatever it was I was geeking out over, they were going to support that obsession by allowing me to pursue it relentlessly. That is not saying they just bought me whatever I wanted, but they were going to make me understand that they were going to support my endeavors, as long as they felt strongly that I was going to practice with intention and persistence. They, just like any parent, wanted their son to have opportunities to find out not only what I was naturally good at, but things that would challenge me to work harder in order to succeed at. When I think about my daughter, I want nothing less for her as she grows up and discovers her own interests and passions. So if you’re of HS or college age and you stumble across this humble article, please remember you didn’t get to wherever you are without the help and support of your family. Remember to thank them.
KASEY BURST
The HC at the University of Dubuque, Kasey brings all things college lacrosse to your inbox.
Nothing more relaxing than stringing a stick or goal. More kids need to learn that skill. It binds a player to their tool. There are only a handful of kids on my high school team that string sticks and most of my staff has no idea how to string one either!