Why He's Exhausted in March

He was fine in January. By the second week of March he's asleep in the car at four in the afternoon, snapping at his sister, and telling you practice was fine in a voice that says otherwise.

Every goalie family hits this, and the usual response is to look at the lacrosse. The lacrosse is usually only about a third of it.

The short version

March fatigue is cumulative and it comes from four places at once: a competition season, a school year at its heaviest, a body that's growing, and sleep that's quietly slipped.

None of those alone would do it. Together they add up to a young athlete running a deficit for weeks.

The fix is boring and it works: less volume, more sleep, more food, and a willingness to take something off the calendar rather than adding a recovery gadget to it.

What's actually stacking up

The season itself. Two or three practices and one or two games a week is a real load, and games are high-intensity by nature. For a goalie that's concentration plus repeated explosive movement plus impact, for an hour, with a number attached — which is why the program shortens home sessions in-season on purpose.

School. March is the heaviest stretch of the academic year in most districts — projects, testing, the long grind between winter break and spring break with no days off in it.

Growth. Spring is a common window for growth, and growing costs energy on its own. A kid mid-spurt is tired before he does anything.

Sleep debt. Later practices push bedtimes back. Thirty minutes a night, five nights a week, for eight weeks, is a large number — and sleep is the one input everything else depends on.

And under-eating. In-season appetite frequently drops just as needs rise, particularly in a kid who's nervous before games.

How to tell tired from something else

Ordinary March tired: sleeps heavily, eats well when food is in front of him, still enjoys the parts he enjoys, recovers over a weekend.

Worth acting on: tired despite sleeping plenty, picking up every bug going, vague aches that move around, snapping at everyone, and a noticeable drop in the unprompted things — the wall ball nobody asked for, the interest in watching a game on TV.

That last cluster is the one to take seriously. It's where fatigue tips into something that needs load taken off rather than managed around, and what it looks like from a kitchen has its own article.

Suggestions on what you can do

Cut the home training first. It's the only piece of the week you control. Ten minutes, or nothing, for a fortnight. The season is providing plenty of stimulus.

Move bedtime earlier, not the alarm later. Thirty minutes earlier for two weeks does more than anything else on this list.

Add food rather than supplements. More carbohydrate, a proper recovery meal after practice, something in the bag for the drive.

Protect one full day. Not a light day. A day with nothing owed.

Say no to the extra tournament. March is the worst month in the year to add a load spike, and it's exactly when they get offered.

And ask the open question once. What's the most tiring part of your week right now? Frequently the answer isn't lacrosse at all, and that changes what you'd cut.

By age: third and fourth grade, this rarely bites because the volume is low — if it does, cut the schedule. Fifth and sixth, watch for sleep slipping as practices move later. Seventh and eighth, growth plus a step up in volume makes this the classic year for March fatigue. Ninth and tenth, school plus season plus lifting is genuinely a lot, and something has to be light. Eleventh and twelfth, recruiting stress sits on top of all of it, and your most useful sentence is that he looks wrecked and should take Sunday.

A few things worth avoiding

Try not to respond with more. A private lesson, extra conditioning, an added session — all of it lands on a kid who's already over.

Go easy on the discipline framing. "You committed to this" is true and unhelpful when the actual problem is a sleep deficit.

Try not to let the rest day disappear into catch-up homework. Something else has to give.

And don't wait for an injury to force the decision. Overuse injuries in young athletes turn up at the end of exactly this kind of spring.

The version worth remembering

March tired is normal, predictable, and mostly not about lacrosse.

It's a season, a school year, a growing body and a sleep debt all landing in the same eight weeks — and the answer is almost always less of something rather than more of anything.

Take the load off in March and you get a goalie who's still playing well in May. Push through it and you get one who isn't.

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The program's in-season block is deliberately the lightest of the year, because March is when a family needs the home training to ask for less. Three real days of a fifth-grade week are open on the site, no signup. Take a look at the free week.

Coach Greg — LAX Goalie Hub

General information from a coach, not medical advice. Persistent fatigue in a young athlete deserves a proper look — if it doesn't lift with rest, or comes with pain, low mood or changes in sleep or appetite, talk to your doctor or a qualified clinician.