Best “Advice to a Young Player” we have heard so far.

Lacrosse is growing in popularity at a very impressive rate, both in the US and around the world. We have heard from parents in places like Colorado, Kansas City, even in the South, that are pulling their kids out of football because of the concussion risk and are looking for something else for their kids to play. In a developing area, where Lacrosse is a relatively new sport, this can seem like a flood of new players. And we all know what happens when someone starts playing lacrosse. They get totally hooked. We see it all the time.

Lacrosse is clearly on the verge of exponential growth. In fact, according to US Lacrosse and this Wall Street Journal article recently, Boys and Girls Lacrosse participation increased by 158% from 2008 to 2012. Participation in the four most-popular youth sports for boys and girls ages 6-17- football, basketball, baseball and soccer- declined by about 4% over the same period.

When you are young, what you do and how you spend your time is your entire identity. Kids that play the guitar become obsessed with the guitar and many kids start incorporating the "look" and "attitude" that goes along with it. Kids that play lacrosse get obsessed with lacrosse and with it the image of being a lacrosse player.

Is the first image of the sport for all these new people going to be the so-called "Lax Bro Culture"? Or is it going to be about something more? Is having long hair and getting Mom or Dad to buy you some argyle shorts, is that success? Is that something to be proud of? We don't think so. You have some work to do first.

This is the best advice for a young athlete just finding Lacrosse that we've heard so far- 25 Things Every Young Lax Player Should Know over at 24SevenLax.com. We would move the last three on this list all the way up to the first three, but you get the idea.

Check out the article and see how many of the things on this list you are encouraging with your team.