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When Do You “Flip The Switch”?

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Last week I was a little late to to my ILA Summer League game but quickly realized Dirtbags (0-3 at the time) had a couple ringers on their team. Mind you, this is two days after receiving an email from the league stating, “you may not bring in ringers.” Anyway, Dirtbags were beating us (Thug Lyfe) by a few goals at the time but it seemed like the game would be more competitive than I thought. After getting into the flow I quickly realized the ringers were carrying the team and scoring or assisting on probably 75% of  Dirtbags’ goals. As if it wasn’t enough that the ringers were taking advantage of match-ups against less experienced players, they would brag to each other after goals – “Did you see my sweet cone-drill dodge? That was GREAT!”  As a competitive person, I could only take it for so long (about halfway through the 3rd quarter) before deciding I wasn’t out there just for fun anymore – I wanted to win.

Not a ringer but definitely a Dirtbag

Photo via Shawn Carmen

Instead of lollygagging through the rest of the game I decided to start sliding hard, throwing more and harder checks, communicating better and giving more effort to try and steal a win from the Ringers – uhh, I mean Dirtbags. We cut their three goal lead to one with about a minute left but were unable to score an equalizer and ended up losing 13-12 giving Dirtbags their first win of the season (I’m still a little chapped if you didn’t notice).

Anyway, what I’m really getting at is – what does it take for you cross the line from playing for fun to pulling out all the stops and playing to win?

For me it can be any of the following – a high level of competition, a team or person I don’t particularly like, showboating, sh*t-talking, a good opponent, being behind/losing, getting cheap shotted, playing against a couple ringers, getting scored on or just messing up. Obviously the age and skill level of the competition plays into this – I’m not going to start lighting up high school kids or old men if they don’t deserve it but you get the point.  This isn’t something exclusive to summer league lacrosse –  it could be a pick-up basketball game at the gym, men’s league softball, pick-up hockey, or any type of league game.

What does it take for you to “flip the switch”?

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Sports enthusiast, college football addict, Boise State alum, and all around awesome sports blogger. Follow Drofdarb on Twitter.

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  • Brett H

    My coach got run (high school baseball) after arguing with the umpire about the other team’s player plowing through our first baseman for no reason. That got me super amped. I seem to recall going 3-3 from the plate the rest of the game.

  • Jake C

    My teammates are the ones that usually get me to “flip the switch.” When I see one of them going all out, getting a big hit or goal, that always gets me fired up.

  • TReitz

    For me, so far it has been frustration with my team not being able to accomplish the “little things”. My summer league team was 3-0 going into Thursday nights game and if it wasn’t for the fact that no one could pick up a ground ball, it would have at least been a closer game. Until that point I took the games pretty lightly, but when you start losing because people are too lazy to scoop through the ball, it’s enough to get me going I guess.

  • Jan

    When someone cheats or hooks me!!! Oh yea! 

  • Krieg

    Playing against better players helps you become better. You see how they do certain things and you try and mimic it. If you can’t keep up, that’s your problem. The ringers that the email about was for kids that didn’t pay in the valley or friends joining for one game and a good time. These guys are coaches and are hand-picked by Rhino Lacrosse to help better the players around them. They were in Boise for the week so we decided to allow them to play to show people what NCAA talent looks like. Tuesday night, two of them played on the Owlax Extreme and still lost. Throughout that game they were coaching guys and helping them with different aspects of improving their skills. 
    Looks like the score was pretty competitive to me, I’m not sure what all the crying is about, maybe your team should have “flipped the switch” earlier, instead of over halfway through the game. It might just be Summer League to you, but to me any league that has a playoffs and championship is good enough for me to want to win every game, and at the very least, improve upon your own skills.

    I know from being around these guys since June that all it takes for them to “flip the switch” is just putting on their helmet and pads. For that matter, just put a stick in their hands and watch them become more competitive. 

  • http://laxallstars.com/ Jeff Brunelle

    I think the #1 thing that makes me flip the switch is knowing that my team is the underdog. There’s nothing more fun than proving the doubters wrong!

  • http://drofdarb.laxallstars.com Drofdarb23

    That’s a good one I forgot to mention. Maybe I shouldn’t have underestimated Dirtbags…?

  • Mitch Narkoff

    For me if it’s being taped, if its not on video than I can have more fun with checks and everything else,