The exercise began every off-season workout. Shoulder-to-shoulder, the entire Syracuse lacrosse team collectively dropped down into a squat with its thighs parallel to the ground and back completely straight. Striking pain started in the pelvis and progressively crawled outward. Knees wobbled and faces cringed – accompanied by aching yelps. Bodies wanted to drop, but a three-word command by its strength and conditioning coach Hal Luther helped keep it upright.

Hold the rope! Everyone hold the rope!

‘If your mother, your father, your brother, your best friend, your wife, whomever, is hanging over a cliff and they’re holding onto a rope and you’re holding onto the other end, no matter what happens, you cannot let go,’ Luther said. ‘You can’t let go.’

The Orange’s strength and conditioning program has taken on a life of its own this season. Out is the individual-based off-season work of the past. In is the fiery Luther and a grueling, accountability-based workout regimen.

It’s paying off. No. 2 Syracuse has endured difficult stretches of games and become fourth-quarter-oriented, all while remaining injury-free. After its most recent three-games-in-seven-days whirlwind, the Orange has had six days to prepare for Albany (5-6). They’ll meet tonight in the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m.

At the first workout in September, Syracuse (10-1) stayed in the ‘squat hold’ for 30 seconds. The next week, 45 seconds. The next week, one minute. One week later, 1:15. Another week, 1:30. And on the final ‘squat hold’ in December? Five minutes.

Luther, who has worked primarily with the football team since coming to SU in 2000, brought a new culture to the team’s off-season. Twice this season – against Georgetown and Johns Hopkins – Syracuse trailed by three goals in the fourth quarter and came back to win in overtime. It’s not a coincidence.

‘I think it’s hard to say there isn’t a correlation,’ SU junior midfielder Matt Abbott said. ‘We worked hard in the offseason last year but not nearly as hard as we did for this season. Without it, we definitely wouldn’t be where we are today.’

Added head coach John Desko, ‘(Luther) helps keep the guys motivated. He’s very upbeat and has a great feel for how to push them.’

The re-haul began last July when Desko and Luther discussed a new workout plan for this season. Desko offered Luther full reign, and he obliged. Under one condition. The usual six-week gap in training created by fall ball from September to mid-October was unacceptable. Luther wanted continuous training.

‘Quite honestly, in the fall, we don’t play anybody. It doesn’t count,’ Luther said. ‘It counts in the spring. So I was very adamant in telling John that we need to train in fall ball. … (I said) ‘These guys are going to get killed, but in the end it’s going to be better for them.”

So Luther ‘smashed them’ in the fall. The Orange lifted weights three times per week and ran four times per week. Luther had worked individually with several Syracuse lacrosse players before, including four-time All-American Michael Springer and Jake Plunket. But now he needed the entire team unified.

Commitment had been sporadic – an ‘afterthought,’ Luther said. But after last season’s 5-8 letdown, the mood changed. Syracuse lost five games by three goals or less last season. The status quo needed a shakeup.

‘Guys bought into his system,’ Abbott said. ‘Guys really believe in what Hal says. Everyone is in much better shape than they were at this point last season. It’s showing as the season has gone on.’

Previously, Syracuse gauged preseason fitness with a two-mile test, Luther said. Lacrosse, however, is built on a different energy system. It’s anaerobic (without oxygen), demanding the body release and reload lactic acid – without oxygen readily available – at a frantic rate. Luther instilled a new run test to coincide with the sport’s biological demands.

At the start of fall training, Luther had Syracuse run three ‘400-yard gassers,’ a down-back-down-back sprint on the football field. Players needed to finish the first run under 62 seconds, the second under 68 seconds, and the third under 72 seconds. A workout culture shock. Only 10 of 50 players passed the first test in September. All who failed were required to put in additional conditioning. Four months later, 40 of the 50 passed.

A carryover effect has resulted. Syracuse is dominating the end of games this season. In the fourth quarter and overtime, SU is decisively out-shooting (139-71) and outscoring (45-24) its opponents – appearing as fresh in the fourth quarter as it does in the first. Syracuse’s conditioning was also put to the test with two stretches of three games in seven days. In both three-game flurries, SU went 3-0.

And unlike years past when mainstays were lost for the season (Steven Brooks and Greg Niewieroski in 2006), injuries have been a non-issue this year.

Luther is the constant common denominator.

‘Definitely, definitely. It’s the strength and conditioning,’ SU senior Evan Brady said. ‘Guys aren’t getting hurt as much as before.’

Sitting on a track mat inside Manley Field House, with his hands clasped behind his head, Brady smiles as if reminiscing.

‘He’s just like a really intense guy,’ Brady said. ‘But at the same time, he really cares about us. He comes to our games and is looking out for us.’

Luther admits his ‘hold the rope’ metaphor is extreme, but it’s caught on. Syracuse still trains twice a week, albeit with slightly less intensity. But the ‘hold the rope’ culture has become permanent, and SU is one overtime blemish away from being undefeated.

‘That was a philosophy we built,’ Luther said. ‘When one guy wanted to give in or one guy wanted to stand up or one guy wanted to catch a blow, whatever, we’d say ‘Hold the rope. Hold the rope.’ …These guys held onto that phrase and bought into everything.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on April 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm