5 Must Do Conditioning Drills for Lacrosse Players 

Elite conditioning is potentially one of the most valuable attributes for lacrosse players. 

Sure, they need to be developing strength, power, and speed to elevate their game – but at the end of the day, if they can only play their best lacrosse for as long as their conditioning allows them to before degrading their performance.

Everything from slowing down to missing shots to mental errors can be attributed to fatigue – and that’s why at Relentless Lacrosse, we’re huge on building elite conditioning levels for our lacrosse players. 

While diving into the various energy systems and understanding conditioning in a greater depth is worth its own article – in this article we wanted to share some of our favorite conditioning drills that actually move the needle for lacrosse players. 

This isn’t just going for a jog or running some suicides. It’s utilizing conditioning drills that are intentionally challenging the energy systems that lacrosse players use in a game. 

In addition to explaining each drill below, we’ve also put these into one Youtube video if you want to watch how these drills are setup.

Let’s dive in! 

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The 10-20-30 Drill: 

This not only is a conditioning drill, but also aims to enhance your speed and change of direction capacity. Being able to maintain these mechanics while under conditioning demand is insanely valuable for lacrosse players to continue to be dominant while they fatigue.   Maintaining consistent speed and intensity on the field allows you to react quickly to opponents and make crucial plays.

Starting at the goal line, sprint 10 yards out and back, then 20 yards, and finally 30 yards. Complete each sprint in approximately 40 seconds, resting for an equal amount of time between sets. 

The 5x5x20 Drill

The 5x5x20 drill focuses on really challenging your ability to change direction under a conditioning demand. Instead of just pivots, we’re going to be using lateral shuffles the entire time, allowing you to challenge the mechanics that are essential to defending in lacrosse. 

Perform a five-yard lateral shuffle out and back five times, staying low and moving quickly. We really want to emphasize a powerful change of directions here. After completing the shuffles, sprint 20 yards out and back. Repeat this drill three to five times. 

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The 10-10-100 Drill

This drill combines short and long sprints to develop your anaerobic energy system, crucial for maintaining high-intensity efforts during lacrosse games. 

Begin with a 10-yard sprint out and back, followed immediately by a 100-yard sprint. This drill challenges your body to express explosive speed and then continue it into a longer run without losing pace. There are dozens of lacrosse players that this could translate too – and we love it to challenge lacrosse players to not drop off for the entire 100 yard sprint. 

10-walk-20-walk-30-walk: Anaerobic Sprint Recovery Drill

Training your anaerobic system and recovery skills is vital for sustaining peak performance throughout a game – this drill does just that. 

Execute a 10-yard sprint out and back, followed by a 20-yard sprint, and then a 30-yard sprint. After each sprint, walk back to the starting point to recover. This drill teaches your body to recover quickly, allowing you to maintain maximum effort during sprints and high-intensity plays in lacrosse games.

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The 300 shuttle Drill

A legendary classic. 

Whether it’s a fitness test or just used as conditioning the 300 Drill is widely used by every single university program and is deeply entrenched into lacrosse strength and conditioning. In fact, because it’s so widely used by NCAA programs as a conditioning test, we like to give it to our lacrosse players in the off-season to prep them for it. 

Aside from the testing nature of this drill, it’s actually super valuable for developing conditioning.

Set cones at a 25-yard distance and sprint back and forth six times, timing yourself to ensure consistent speed and intensity. This should be a maximal sprint, we’re aiming to be beating our best time each time we run it fresh, and then match that time the 2nd or 3rd time we run it that day.  

We inevitably get asked “what’s a good 300 time” a lot by lacrosse players – and it’s tough to answer. It depends on the time of year, age of the player, and gender.

Here’s some rough guidelines for 300 Yard Shuttle Times for Female Players at the NCAA level.

• Needs Work – 70+ Second 
• Below Average – 66-70 seconds
• Average – 63-66 seconds 
• Good – 60-63 second 
• Great – Sub-60 seconds

Here’s some rough guidelines for 300 Yard Shuttle Times for Male Players at the NCAA level.

• 60+ Second – needs work
• Below Average – 56-60 seconds
• Average – 52-55 seconds 
• Good – 49-52 second 
• Great – Sub-49 seconds

This might seem like extreme guidelines if you’re a high school player, but this is what you should be aiming for. 

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Conclusion 

These are just a small handful of drills that we consider “must do” when it comes to lacrosse conditioning. 

When it comes to conditioning, the drill matters less than the intensity. Lacrosse Players need to continuously be pushing themselves in order to build the conditioning levels that will actually translate to the field. 

These types of drills, along with any high intensity interval based training, will pay massive dividends for players who are looking to truly make an impact on the field. 

If you’re truly looking to take your game to the next level and invest in your training this season – check out the Relentless Off-Season Program. This has been designed to be the complete strength & conditioning program for lacrosse players to develop the strength, power, mobility, and conditioning they need to thrive on the field.