Making The Cut 2017: Chirping

3rd quarter. Tight game. Your team needs one here. Everyone is struggling tonight, but you’ve made it happen all year. You call for the ball. The pass comes and you hit the gas to go downhill. You shake the dmid on an split dodge to get space and wind up for the righty rip on the run. Your bread and butter. The release is nearly perfect.

But it doesn’t drop. The keeper makes a swift, textbook save. You get pummeled by the second slide. As you’re getting up, it happens. If you hadn’t lost focus to think about your shot, you wouldn’t have heard it.

“Sick rip there eh bud?” sneers the keeper looking for the outlet pass. You try and forget about it, but you can't. You’re shook. He got so deep in your head he knew what you wore on the first day of kindergarten. One chirp. That’s all it took.

The supreme art of war is to subdue your enemy without fighting. — Sun Tzu

Every sport possesses a unique set of physical requirements and attention to fundamentals that makes it difficult to compare one game to another. However, the mental aspect of competing as an individual within a team is the common denominator. Chirping is simply a part of the game that is played between your ears. It affects everyone differently, but one thing is clear — nobody teaches you mental toughness. It is learned. For some, it takes time. For others, it’s a napalm baptism.

Many argue that smack talk has no place in sports. There’s definitely a line and it’s often flirted with, but chirping is an inevitable product of being in a testosterone filled environment. If anything, it’s a finely tuned art. Some of the greatest athletes of all time were also renowned trash talkers. John McEnroe. Deion Sanders. Randy Moss. Larry Bird. Reggie Miller was so good at it that Michael Jordan took a swing at him on the court.

The difference is that they backed it up every time. Some of you youngbloods are out there hootin’ and hollerin’ “YEAH SON WHAT IT DO” after scoring BTB up 6 goals in a summer ball game. There need to be boundaries for chirping, because boundaries separate us from the animals:

1. Never, under any circumstance, chirp an official.

2. Mothers, sisters, and girlfriends are off limits.

3. If you’re going to dish it out, be prepared to get it back.

4. If you’re terrible at it, just don’t do it.

Reader’s note: a few years ago we drew Arizona State in the first round of the MCLA Championship tournament. One of our players (who has since graduated) kept repeating loudly, “it’s a longgggg flight home boys” in warmups. We got spanked 17–5. Yeah. He is arguably the worst trash talker in existence and we’re sorry.

5. There’s a time and a place. The lacrosse community is smaller than you think and people hear everything.

6. Give credit where credit is due. I played with a faceoff guy in high school who would tell his opponent what move he was going to do before the faceoff, and he’d execute every time. Cold.

7. Remember that it’s all in good fun.

8. See #1.

At the end of the day, your game is going to speak for itself. If lacrosse is a meal, chirping is Tobasco brand hot sauce. It’s probably fine without it, but there’s nothing wrong with adding a little extra flavor. Just be careful, because too much can spoil it.