You’ve heard it after practice a hundred times. Go hit the wall. Then everyone leaves, and you’re standing in a driveway with a stick and a bucket of balls and absolutely no idea whether you’re supposed to be out there for six minutes or an hour.
A lacrosse wall ball routine is a structured sequence of throws and catches against a flat surface, typically 100 to 400 total reps inside a 15 to 20 minute session, weighted roughly two-to-one toward the weak hand. Youth and high school programs commonly assign it about five days a week. Clean, repeatable release mechanics matter more than the rep count itself.
That’s the short version. The longer version is where it gets useful, because the published routines disagree with each other in ways that are worth understanding.
How many wall ball reps should you actually do
There is no governing body for wall ball. Nobody certifies a rep count. What exists instead is a pile of routines published by real programs, and comparing them side by side tells you more than any single one does.
| Source | Session length | Total reps | Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopkinton Youth Lacrosse (HopLAX) | 15 min, 5x per week | 400 | 50 strong hand, 100 weak hand, across three exercise blocks |
| Edina High School lacrosse | 20 min | 100-rep cycle, repeated as many times as possible | 25 reps each of four hand combinations |
| Lacrosse Library “300” workout | 6–8 min | 300 | High-tempo, sourced from a college program |
Three legitimate routines, three different totals. The useful part isn’t picking a winner. It’s noticing what they agree on.
All of them commit to a fixed daily block rather than “whenever you feel like it.” All of them separate strong hand from weak hand instead of letting you drift toward whatever’s comfortable. And the one aimed at the youngest players, HopLAX, is the most aggressive about the weak hand, assigning double the reps to it. That’s the number worth stealing.
If you take one thing from this section: throw twice as many weak-hand reps as strong-hand reps. Your dominant hand is going to get plenty of work in games. Your off hand only improves on purpose.
A wall ball routine you can actually follow
Here’s a progression built from those published program workouts, scaled by level. Start where your hands are, not where your ego is.
| Level | Session | Reps | What you’re working on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | ~15 min | 100 total | 25 right-throw/right-catch, 25 left-throw/left-catch, 25 right-throw/left-catch, 25 left-throw/right-catch |
| Developing | ~15 min | 300 total | 50 strong hand two-handed, 100 weak hand two-handed, 50 strong hand one-handed, 100 weak hand one-handed |
| Advanced | ~20 min | 400+ | The above plus 100 alternating-hand transfers, then quick-stick reps at close range and shooting-distance reps from 12–15 yards |
A few mechanics that matter more than the numbers:
Stand roughly 10 to 12 feet from the surface for standard throwing and catching reps. Move in to 3 to 5 yards for quick-stick work, where the whole point is that you don’t have time to reset your hands. Back out to 12 to 15 yards when you’re working on shooting mechanics.
Wear your gloves. HopLAX puts this in capital letters in their routine and they’re right. Barehanded wall ball teaches you a grip you can’t use in a game, and it teaches your hands to flinch on catches.
Track your drops. Not to punish yourself, just to have a number. A player who dropped eleven in a 100-rep session in March and drops two in May has proof the work is doing something, which is most of what keeps anyone going back out there.
The technique argument that might change how you do this
Here’s the part most wall ball advice skips.
USA Lacrosse published guidance from Roy Colsey, a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame player and an assistant coach with the 2024 U.S. Men’s Box National Team, that pushes against the standard model. His suggestion: for players building form, take the catch out entirely. Throw at the wall repeatedly without retrieving the ball, so nothing interrupts the throwing motion.
His reasoning is that chasing a rep target like “50 right, 50 left” quietly turns the session into a catching drill, and a player worried about the incoming ball tenses up and shortens the throw. Establish the motion with the dominant hand first, replicate it with the off hand, then add movement. Velocity and release come before volume.
You don’t have to pick a side. Most players get the best of both by opening a session with a few minutes of catch-free throwing to set the motion, then running the rep counts above once the hands feel right.
How to make wall ball not boring
Boredom is the actual reason routines get abandoned. It’s not effort, it’s tedium. Some things that help:
- Give the session a finish line. “400 reps” ends. “Practice for a while” never does.
- Compete with yesterday. Same routine, count the drops, try to beat the number.
- Put music on and throw to tempo. Sounds trivial, works remarkably well for quick-stick blocks.
- Add one new variation per week. Behind the back, around the world, through the legs. Not because you’ll use them in a game, but because learning something novel resets the attention span.
- End on a made rep. Never walk away from a drop. It’s a small psychological thing and every coach who’s ever run a practice knows it works.
What to do when you don’t have a wall
This is where the honest part comes in, and it’s also where this company came from.
Gladiator Lacrosse was started in 2012 by Rachel Zietz, then a 13-year-old player in Boca Raton, Florida. Her coaches told her the same thing yours are telling you, to play wall ball as much as possible. The problem was the gear. The backyard rebounders and goals she could find were either priced out of reach or fell apart from living outside. So she built the version she actually wanted. The rebounder isn’t a side product in this catalog for that reason. It’s the founding one.
A real brick or concrete wall is a great training surface, and if you have one, use it. Plenty of players don’t. A gym wall with a rec-league schedule on it, a garage door that dents, an HOA with opinions, or a neighbor twenty feet away all end the same way.
The Gladiator Lacrosse® Wall Rebounder exists for those situations. It gives you a 4′ x 3′ rebound surface on an adjustable steel frame with three rebound angles, so you can set a low return for ground balls and quick sticks or a high one for catches above the shoulder. The rebound surface is dampened, which matters more than people expect in a small backyard, and the whole thing folds flat when you’re done. Full dimensions are 82″ high by 47″ wide by 55″ deep at about 60 pounds, so it’s movable but it isn’t a toy. You can see it alongside the rest of the wall and rebounder lineup.
There’s also a Casey Powell Signature Edition Lacrosse Wall Rebounder. Powell is a former professional player and the 2014 MLL MVP, and the Signature Collection launched in March 2016. Relevant to this post specifically: that rebounder ships with a training and use guide designed by Powell, which is a reasonable starting structure if you’d rather follow something than build your own progression.
One honest caveat on rebounders generally. The ball comes back at close to the speed you threw it, which is exactly what makes them useful and also means a beginner should start at a lower angle and shorter distance before opening it up.
The stuff nobody warns you about
Wall ball is hard on lacrosse balls. A few hundred reps a day against concrete or a rebound panel scuffs them, and a slick, worn ball changes how it sits in your pocket enough to affect your release. A pack of official lacrosse balls beats one ball you keep chasing down the street, and it means you’re training with the same ball spec you’ll play with. The full ball lineup runs from singles to cases, and includes a soft weighted training ball if your only available surface is somewhere a hard ball would be a bad idea.
If you’d rather see technique than read about it, the training video section is a better fit for footwork and stick mechanics than any written description.
Bottom line
Wall ball works because it’s the highest-repetition thing a lacrosse player can do alone. A 15-minute session at 300 reps beats a two-hour practice where you touch the ball forty times. Pick a routine, weight it toward your weak hand, wear your gloves, count your drops, and show up five days a week. The players whose hands look effortless in games aren’t gifted. They just did this when nobody was watching.
A Word on Gladiator Lacrosse
Gladiator Lacrosse builds lacrosse equipment for players who actually use it, which is a direct result of how the company started. Rachel Zietz founded it in 2012 at 13 years old because the backyard gear available to her couldn’t survive being left outside. That standard still runs through the catalog: official-size steel-framed goals, replacement nets in four thicknesses, NOCSAE-standard SEI-certified balls, shooting targets, and rebounders.
For wall ball specifically, the Gladiator Lacrosse® Wall Rebounder is the piece that turns any flat patch of yard into a training surface, with three adjustable rebound angles and a dampened surface built for small spaces. Pair it with a pack of official lacrosse balls and a player has everything they need to run the routine above without a partner, a field, or a ride to practice.
You Might Also Like
- Wall rebounders and training walls — the full lineup, including the Casey Powell Signature Edition
- Official lacrosse balls — singles through cases, plus a soft weighted training ball
- Training videos — stick mechanics and skill work you can watch instead of read
FAQ
How long should a lacrosse wall ball session be? Most published program routines land between 15 and 20 minutes. Hopkinton Youth Lacrosse assigns 15 minutes five days a week; Edina High School’s routine runs 20 minutes. A short session done daily beats a long session done occasionally, because the goal is accumulating repetitions over weeks, not surviving one workout.
How many wall ball reps should you do a day? Published routines range from 100 to 400 reps per session. A beginner can start at 100 and build up. What matters more than the total is the split: aim for roughly twice as many weak-hand reps as strong-hand reps, since your dominant hand already gets work in games and practice.
How far should you stand from the wall for wall ball? About 10 to 12 feet for standard throwing and catching. Move in to 3 to 5 yards for quick-stick reps where you have no time to reset your hands, and back out to 12 to 15 yards when you’re working on shooting mechanics. Changing the distance changes what the drill trains.
Can you do wall ball without a wall? Yes. A rebounder does the same job and is often better, because you can adjust the return angle and it’s designed for surfaces where a hard ball against a wall isn’t an option. The Gladiator Lacrosse® Wall Rebounder offers a 4′ x 3′ surface with three angle settings and a dampened panel for small backyards.
Do you need gloves for wall ball? Yes. Program routines specify gloves, and the reason is straightforward: barehanded reps teach a grip and a catching reflex you can’t reproduce in a game. Train in the equipment you’ll play in.