1. Indifference/Apathy – There’s no room for these feelings if you want to develop your skills and improve your performance. Always put in 110%.
2. Stubbornness – Being stubborn leads to being uncoachable, which leads to being unsuccessful. Be open-minded and you might be exposed to a new skill or technique that you would’ve otherwise ignored. There are always new skills to learn especially in dynamic game such as lacrosse. Whether it’s perfecting your pinch and pop, your shot, or improving IQ, your coaches know things you don’t chances are your teammates do as well.
3. Pride – It’s ok to be confident in yourself, but don’t let that confidence make you be obnoxious or prideful. Being prideful will lead to silly mistakes and potential embarrassment.
4. Self-Doubt – It’s easy to be overly critical toward yourself. Just focus on the positive things about yourself. For example you have an open shot and it misses over the top right corner. Instead of beating yourself up, acknowledge that you’re right on the doorstep, The next three are stinging corners!!
5. Cautiousness – If you’re too hesitant, you miss out on key opportunities and leave room for the other team to swing momentum. Any sort of progress in the game of lacrosse comes with a certain amount of risk. Be a little risky.
6. Perfectionism – Be careful when setting goals because you don’t want to force high expectations on yourself. It’s ok to make mistakes and to continually work on being a better lacrosse player. Plus, once you’re a “perfect” athlete, it’ll become boring!
7. Over-seriousness – You should play lacrosse because you like it and you enjoy it. If you take it too seriously, you lose some of the enjoyment and add extra stress on yourself. At times like this, try to remember why you started playing lacrosse in the first place.