Every offseason, Vancouver Warriors forward Keegan Bal takes a closer look at his game, identifies areas for improvement, and gets to work preparing for the season ahead.
Coming off a season in which he was named the NLL’s Offensive Player of the Year, there was a lot to like about his performance. Bal led the league in scoring with 124 points (45G, 79A), setting a new career and franchise high while helping Vancouver to a 13-5 regular-season record. It was also the fourth time in the past five seasons that Bal eclipsed 40 goals.
Although Bal isn’t chasing individual numbers, his production has continued to climb over the past four seasons. Those results are a reflection of the work he puts into his game and his commitment to finding ways to help Vancouver win.
“When I watch film, I might see that there's five different areas of my game where I can get better, but I look at it more that we didn't get the job done as a team, and it's not about me, it's all about the team and how we can win. At the end of the day, everything I'm thinking about is what can I do differently to help us win,” Bal said.
One area that stood out during his review of last season was the urgency they played with in the first half. The Warriors often built significant leads, but Bal noticed a tendency to ease up in the second half.
With the NLL now featuring 12 teams, and even more parity than the year before, Bal knows Vancouver will need to maintain its intensity for the full 60 minutes.
“Obviously we had a terrible 22 minutes against Halifax in that last game, and I think our ability to close out games is something that we need to improve on,” Bal said.
“We had a lot of big leads in the third quarter last season, and we coasted in a lot of fourth quarters last year when I went back and watched our games. I think that mentality, whether we like it or not, conscious or subconscious, you're used to taking your foot off in the fourth quarter, that's just a habit that I think we can be better at. Regardless of what the score is, we don't change and we just keep playing super hard.”
Finding ways to improve is part of what keeps Bal motivated. One of the many things he loves about lacrosse is that no two seasons are the same, with a new challenge and a different puzzle to solve every year.
That approach extends to his offseason preparation, as he says training at 34 is different than at 24, but the results still need to be the same. He’s continued to adapt his training to make sure he’s getting the most out of his work while keeping himself ready for the demands of an NLL season.
Earlier in his career, his offseason routine included a high volume of shooting reps every day. In recent years, he’s become more intentional with that work, scaling back on shooting and incorporating prehab, and band and core work that serves him well throughout the season.
“I've found with my training, that's always been just a new iteration that I have to bring in. I started noticing a couple years ago [during the season] if I geared back on my training just a little bit throughout the week that I would be fresher coming into games, and that made such a difference,” Bal said.
“I've had to switch my mindset that sometimes less is more, and that's been hard for me because I've always prided myself on hard work is how you get through anything and how you do anything.”
Between the end of last season and his offseason training, Bal only took eight days off.
Coming into camp, he felt strong and in good shape, allowing him to capitalize on his continuity of training. He worked through multiple phases of a training program with Vancouver Warriors Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Holtzmann, while also maintaining his own conditioning and weightlifting routine.
Once the Mann Cup wrapped up, Bal also got back to his early-morning shootarounds with goaltender Christian Del Bianco.
That preparation has him feeling good heading into the new season, and he’s already liked what he’s seen from the group during the first weekend of training camp.
“Guys came into camp in great shape, ready to go. You could tell everyone is just really hungry, wanting to prove themselves. I think one player that really stood out to me this weekend was Marshal King,” Bal said.
The veteran forward was really impressed with fellow right-handed forward, who joins a Warriors offence that already features a strong returning core. Playing with Marshal brought back memories of seeing his brother Jesse join the team last season.
“I couldn't believe how good Jesse was seeing him in practice. I always played against him, I knew how good he was, and then you see him in practice, see the things that he does, the way he thinks the game, and I was just blown away. I feel similarly about Marshal,” Bal said.
Bal believes Marshal brings a different element to Vancouver’s offence and having more options to work with will make the Warriors a tougher team to defend.
With much of the team’s core returning in black and gold, there’s also a sense of continuity Bal doesn’t take for granted. Having been part of the group’s growth over the years, he appreciates the opportunity to continue building alongside the same teammates.
“I think for us older guys, we've all been a part of this building year after year after year, and it means a lot that they still want to roll with that same core,” Bal said.
“Obviously, we've added every year to that core, just to make it stronger and better, and we want to get it done for the fans, we want to get it done for the Aquilini family, for everyone here in the organization who they just pour so much time into this franchise, and we're very appreciative of that.”
There are three weeks of preseason left and three preseason games for fans to take in.
The Warriors will play the Las Vegas Desert Dogs on Saturday, November 7th at the Langley Events Centre Fieldhouse at 7:00 p.m. PCT.
Admission to the exhibition games is free, but space is limited. Fans can RSVP now to secure their spot by clicking here.