Reflections on the European Lacrosse Championships [#82]

I just got back from the European Lacrosse Championships. Reality hits hard after two weeks outside of the normal cycle. So today, I want to share a few reflections about what it’s like to compete in such an international sports event, with all the ups and downs that you usually wouldn’t see. Let’s dive in. 🤿

Some context first for those of you who are new here.

Besides running Generalyst, I play Lacrosse, and was previously nominated to represent Germany in the European Championships. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and haven’t always been successful in making the team. This was my second international tournament, and damn … there’s a lot to learn from it. 

The tournament itself took place in Wroclaw, Poland, and we stayed in a spartanic, Soviet-era student dorm. Quite the experience and definitely not the accommodation you’d expect for top athletes. But it worked out surprisingly well. (Here’s a room tour.) 

24 teams competed, and we came in hot. Winning a medal was definitely possible (or so we thought). Well, as usual in life, the tournament went very differently from what we expected. 

Here are my 4 biggest learnings from this tournament: 

Welcome to the big leagues.

With Lacrosse becoming olympic again, a lot of money is floating towards the sport. Which means that countries will now do whatever it takes place well in a tournament. 

For the longest time, it was frowned upon in European Lacrosse to stack their rosters with American imports. Lacrosse is biggest in North America, and the best players come from there.

In order to grow the game in Europe, teams would get a few players from the US onto their roster, but also keep a bunch of roster spots for athletes from their own country, so that they can bring the international experience back to their home clubs. 

Well, that’s over now.

Germany was one of very few teams that wasn’t speaking English – as we had 100% Germans on the roster, athletes who grew up here and learned the sport here. A few of those guys now play in the US to take their game to the next level, but all of them were German. 

Out of the top 4 finishers, only England came to the tournament with a non-imported roster. Israel, Italy, and Ireland all exclusively consisted of American athletes (although for Israel, a lot of them actually live inside the country.) 

Out of the top 8, Latvia and France also bolstered their roster with ~50% US-based athletes, and even our friends from Czechia (probably the country with the best developmental work in Europe) took in a few strategic role players. 

Hell, even Poland, the host country, signed a bunch of Americans (and allegedly – I have no official confirmation for this – even granted at least one player citizenship specifically for the tournament). 

I think it’s hurtful for the growth of the game; Lacrosse is barely played in Italy, Ireland, or France. But there’s money involved, and if you want to be the best in the world, you gotta beat the best in the world. Those come from North America. 

At the end of the day, we have 2 options in Germany: 

1. Get better
2. Play the game like everyone else and sign Americans 

We’ll see how we handle this in the future. Right now, I’m proud to have been part of a purely native team that was able to hang with the big leaguers. That’s very cool. 

Take nothing for granted.

Personally, I didn’t have the best tournament. I got to play very little (didn’t see action at all in 2 games, very limited shifts in the other 5), played most of the tournament at a position I’ve never played in a game before, and therefore had my fair share of mistakes. 

Most of the time in league games, you’ll rotate players so that more people get playing time. But in the big leagues, that’s not the case.

You want to have the best possible lineup on the field at all times, and if you’re not part of that starting group, then there’s little playing time for you. 

That was difficult for me. I’ve been a starter on pretty much every team I’ve played on in the last 7 years (even in the 2022 World Games). It took some time and a lot of frustration to process the fact that there’s other guys on the team who are simply … better. 

Which is the typical experience at a high level: in these selection teams, everybody is a starter on their own teams. The competition is 10X tougher here. 

Nobody owes you anything. If you want to play, you gotta earn it.

My objective for this time was to make the team. I did that. 

Next time, I want to start. 

Embrace your role.

A mental shift that really helped me throughout the tournament was to embrace my new role as a backup. If everything goes well, the team doesn’t need me.

But as soon as someone goes down (which happens), you’re the next man up, and go from zero playing time to all the playing time. 

Simply being there, always being prepared, gives the team and the staff the confidence to play all out. Because they know: if something happens, you’re there. 

I’m a defensive generalist (funny how that goes into all aspects of life, isn’t it), so if at any defensive position, a player went down, I was the next man up.

Which happened in the last game – our face-off man’s knee gave up, so they needed another defensive midfielder. All the sudden, the reps were there, without missing a beat. 

The tiniest events influence the entire perception of the tournament.

In our second-to-last game, we played against Czechia to see who will get to play for fifth place. We had already beaten them in the group stage, and as we play these guys a lot, knew exactly what to expect. 

On the day of the game, it started pouring, and the rain wouldn’t stop. The turf was slippery, conditions difficult to play on. Mood was down already as we had lost to (“Long”) Ireland the day prior. 

After going up 2-0 early in the first quarter, we quickly dug ourselves a hole, trailing 6-3 against Czechia. We mounted a comeback in the 4th quarter, going up 8-7 with 3:34 left to play. 

The Czechs scored the equalizer with 80 seconds to go, and then won in overtime.

Any given event in that game (such as winning one extra face-off, not hitting pipe, maintaining possession) could’ve completely changed the outcome.

Had we won this game, we probably would look at the tournament very differently: we would’ve had a chance to play for fifth place (not a bad outcome at all), maintained our perfect record in field lacrosse against Czechia, and had a blast while at it. 

This way, we had another day off, and then played for seventh place. Which we won, and punched our ticket to the 2027 World Championships in Japan. 

Bare minimum objective achieved. 

Guess I’m going to have to continue to play for another 2 years. 

At the end of the day, the outcome in such a tournament is only somewhat inside the control of an individual. What’s 100% inside your control however, is the process leading up to it. 

Control the controllables.

We all put in the work consistently, made the best of the circumstances, and mostly, stuck together as a team.

I don’t think I’ve ever played on a team with such a chemistry, no divas at all, where everybody knew and embraced their role, from top scorer to backup goalie. Zero ego, tons of chemistry. 

That’s what made the tournament great. Regardless of the outcome. And while at it, we all became better players. 

Looking forward to the next few years of Lacrosse. 

And now, it’s back to the reality of running a business, writing these newsletters, and interacting with normal people. The first calls will be funky after exclusively communicating with dudes that all converged on the conversational level of a teenager after 2 weeks. 

Are these types of insights valuable to you, even though they’re different from the typical programming? Please let me know by dropping a quick reply. (Particularly, if you think it’s not useful at all – critical feedback is always welcome.) 

Great day to have a day today. Hope you have a high energy start to this wonderful week.

LFG. 🔥

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