indoor pre season

if you are from an area in the country that has inclement weather, you may be forced indoors for a few sessions. lax coaches are always practicing in gyms, church rec centers, in roller rinks and at golf domes.

if you are in a confined space, and are trying to figure it out, here are a few ideas to make it work.

1/keep the groups small. the smaller your venue the smaller the group needs to be. too many kids running around in a gym creates a dangerous scenario. i like to split them up by position, alphabetically, by grade, whatever works to get groups of 12-20 max.

2/ forget the pads. helmets, gloves, and short sticks ONLY. long poles are useless indoors for the most part. maybe give the goalies a break in the pre-season by letting him in on some passing, catching, feeds, and shots. they will improve the stick skills and have some fun doing it.

3/ wall ball. how many times have you heard a coach say "you need to get to the wall". good advise, but what do they do there? i see kids out there all the time mindlessly facing the wall and throwing and catching only strong handed. not what you want. like everything else in lacrosse, technique is what is most important. use the indoor facility to show the players the right way to do wall work. kudda.com has some great stuff posted. come up with your own wall ball program

4/ get them a ton of touches. i run all types of passing drills. keep the drills at 6-8 minutes, and constantly coach techniques. make sure you have plenty of balls. keep them moving. you can do 4 corners, criss-crosses, drill using cones, etc. work right hand, left hand and over the shoulders.

5/ use no bounce lacrosse balls. no bounce balls tend to work better in gyms or anywhere you have hard surface. great if you need to control where the balls end up. i was once denied use of a gym until i showed the director the no-bounce balls. switch to tennis balls as a last resort if a hard ball is not allowed. one note on no-bounce balls. they work great for strengthening shooting muscles. have a shooter stand 10 feet or so from a wall and try to bounce and catch a NBB. it takes a big wind up and follow through to get a NBB to come back to the shooter.

6. shooting drills. a natural for indoors. i run 3 to 4 drills (see my shooting drill post) approx. 6-8 minutes each. they love to shoot and will do it the whole hour if your let them. middies, attack, defense and goalies should all have their short sticks in hand and be firing at will. i have found d poles and goalies get a special treat when allowed to be shooters. rage cage makes an collapsible cage that is perfect for indoors. if you need to drag one in from out doors, use foam pipe insulation or a carpet remnant on the bottom rails to prevent scratching the floors

7. what about defense? plays? formations? save it for outdoors. focus on the stick skills. of course indoors can be use to do conditioning, more on that later.

see you at the gym...

playing strong opponents

It happens at every level, you end up playing a team that seems like they are in a different league, or sometimes from a different planet. I have been on the wrong side of this scenario more than once, its no fun for anyone to be on the down side of a lopsided blow out.

The best or worst in a coach can come out during a route, I have a few tips to help keep your sanity during a game and keep the experience positive for the players while in the process.

In middle school, the level of talent varies dramatically from team to team. At times it is good to be prepared when a team of very skilled opponents show up on game day.

1. Slow the game down by controlling the ball as much as possible. Try to have your offense avoid fast breaking and early shots. Settle, move the ball around the horn, and make the extra pass.

2. Drop quickly on defense, get the midfield back to play team D. Trying to play the ball or get takeaways usually results in someone getting beat one on one way up the field. The result is an odd man rush and a quick goal against. Stress that the rides have to be deep and aggressive to slow transition. Attack must get into a defensive mindset from beginning to end.

3. Teach a zone D to clog up the middle and force outside shots. A box and two with four poles and two short sticks on the crease can slow a powerful offense. You will get the goalie some good looks and eliminate some dunks. One tip, don't stay in zone all game, use it as a look or to rest the D.

4. If you are playing man to man defense, anticipate getting beat. Slide early and often. make sure the second slide comes early as well. I like to double a very strong offensive player and leave the weakest player open. Even great teams have new players or poor stick handlers.
You want the ball in their hands. It is key that you identify who they are and that your team knows as well.

5. Praise your team for what they are doing right. Praise hustle, never quiting, ground balls, good shots, whatever you see as a good play from a coaching standpoint. Minimize the focus on the score, and maximize focusing on the teams effort and attitude.

6. Give credit where credit is due. The Iroquois played this game hundreds of years before we came here. They believed it was an honor to play a better team. Legend says the creator rewarded them by showing them the next level. I always mention this to young players.

There is nothing wrong with taking the high road when superior players make outstanding plays. Teach your boys to throw in an occasional "nice play" or "great shot". It works better than showing frustration or trash talking. You can play hard and respect an opponent at the same time.

7. Concede the face off if necessary. When getting killed at the X, it is sometimes fruitless to continue to send your face off player on mission impossible. Put your long stick middie or your best D middie on the face off and play D from the whistle. players who are used to winning a draw and starting the break are usually surprised by a LSM playing hard D on them the second they pick up the ball. It will slow the pace of the game and give you time to set up on the defensive end. Win the ball by winning end line chases, saves or grabbing ground balls.

8. Lastly, win the small battles. Break down the game in to segments. "Lets see if we can win this quarter", or "lets shut them down for the next 2 minutes". Above all show class when dealing with a one sided contest. Lead by example and show your team that winning at all cost is not the most important thing in the game of lacrosse. Some one has to win and lose every game.

Learning how to do both with class is paramount.