The Importance of Effort

Hockey was my favorite sport growing up. I didn’t start playing until first or second grade and was typically not the most skilled player on the ice. I started playing Varsity Hockey when I was a freshman in high school and made the team by effort alone. I got a couple lucky goals when I got my chance and managed to dress the second half of the year. My athleticism started to kick in around my Junior year, but it was that fore-checking/back-checking grinder mentality I learned in hockey that I took into lacrosse.

I don’t know why but often it’s the attackmen or offensive players that develop a lazy style of play. I have done it too so I know first-hand, but it is almost as if it is not cool to hustle. Luckily, I got past that mentality and over the course of my career tried to find new ways to push myself and show how much I cared through my effort. It’s one of those things that when you get it … it just makes sense.

Give everything you have to help your team win. Sprint on the floor. Sprint off the floor. Fly into the corners to battle for a loose ball. When you get tired and feel fatigued use that as a sign to push on harder, not to ease up and take a break. You get used to working so hard that it becomes second nature. I guess the laziness and apathy become second nature for some as well.

I was looking forward to seeing Minnesota in person last Friday. I had heard that they were a team that hustles and flies up and down the floor. Maybe it was their game plan to slow things down and not get in a track meet against a fast and athletic Wings team, or maybe it was just an off night. The Swarm led through 3 quarters before falling apart and being out scored 11-1 in the fourth quarter. The Team effort and hustle I had heard so much about was not apparent. Sure there was the occasional press from Chad Culp going from O to D. But the tell tale sign of a hustling team is sprinting on and off the field … and like so many teams in the NLL these days it wasn’t there.

When I think about what it is going to take next year for an expansion Blazers team to compete in the competitive Eastern Conference, I keep going back to effort. I am looking for guys that care enough about the game and winning that they find new ways to push themselves and maximize their effort.

So all of you guys sitting at home this winter wishing you were strapping it up. If effort is not apart of your game and you are not willing to sprint on and off the field like you life depended on it …. don’t bother inquiring about a tryout come September.