Breaking Bad Habits

"me ball". Thats the term I hear for kids who won't pass, play with their heads down and try to dodge two, three and sometimes even four defenders. Coaches complain about it all the time. I heard one story of a player who hogged the ball for an entire quarter, and when his coaches finally pulled him from the game, he quit the team at half time! Two days later he was begging come back on the team. Here is my view in the subject. The reason it happens is two-fold. Many players in "non-hotbed" regions of the country simply don't know good lacrosse, have never seen good lacrosse and have never played against good lacrosse teams. In many areas of the country kids start playing at all different ages, creating the good, the bad and the ugly on teams. This leads to the "studs" holding the ball and not passing to players who may cough it up. Many are just coached poorly by our peers who want wins and goals. When that becomes the priority, the "hogs" are rewarded by cheering parents and pats on the back from coaches on the sideline. The truth is, this isn't helping players prep for the next level. Although a great individual effort is commendable, I suggest we let kids know we appreciate the effort, but would like to see some assists and display of lax IQ instead. Here's a plan of action to kill the me ballers. First put in tempo in practices. Based on skill level, I put in the "three second rule". (make it four or five if the kids are younger or less skilled). In practice and scrimmages, I simply blow the whistle and reward the ball to the other team if someone holds the rock past the time limit. The ONLY exception, is if we are climbing the ladder to to dodge. Secondly stress "ONE MORE" in every scenario. Teach kids "dodge to feed" over "dodge to shoot". Lastly park kids who don't obey the concept. Taking away playing time works on the cement headed types. Make sure its a reasonably time off the field, not too short or too long. Make sure to reinforce why they are off, and they give their word to work the ball. One waring, do not put in the "get three passes in" before you shoot drill. This teaches another bad habit, passing when you are open and in the hole for a shot. We want kids to move the ball but also develop the IQ to know when to finish.

Train your goalies

I hear coaches all the time say " I dont know what to do with my goalies" The reality is most youth and HS programs goalie routine is ONLY a brief warm up then jump in shooting drills! Expect poor results from the keeper if this is you. Training goalies is not rocket science. You do not need to have played the position to be a goalie coach. Here some simple tips to give your goalies a well deserved daily workout. My regiment is based on the what I call the "P.A.S.S" system. Prepare, Agilities, Saves, Stickhandling. PREPARE- Goalies need to get some daily work in that does not involve a shooter ripping from 9 yards to start their day. I like to mix up some drills to get them prepared first. Yoga stretches, Tennis ball tosses, walking the arc, walking the line, mirror drills, and other non shooting drill can all be done without helmet and gloves before they suit up. AGILITY- The best goalie are extremely agile. No matter how quick you hands are, you need legs to "get there" first. Agility train every day, all season. Jump Rope is #1, ski jumpers, ladder work, squat thrusts, cone work, more cone work. Youtube has a ton of great stuff to build speed and agility. Create a program of drills on paper and mix it up daily. SAVES- A proper warm up is CRITICAL. It needs to be built up from a medium to hard shots over the duration of the warm up. Dont let players shoot on cold goalies. Don't allow shooters to rip inside 12 yards. At the next level outside 12 is on the goalie, inside 12 is on the Defense. Some coaches work on specific areas in progression (stick side high, off stick high, stick side hip, off stick hip, stick side low, off stick low, 5 hole,then mix it up.) I prefer high shots mixed, hip shots mixed, low shots mixed, 5 hole, bounce shots, and finally mix it up with some feeds from behind. It is EXTREMELY important to get feeds from behind and teach game like saves, blind saves, screens, in tight crease shots, in close garbage or hockey shots, rebound and saves, etc. If they get reps seeing all types of shots in practice, they will make saves on all types of shots in games. USE TENNIS BALLS for close in stuff, it saves on wear and tear on the keepers and creates soft hands, reducing rebounds. STICK WORK- Goalies need to pass and catch well, they need to work on both hands to build confidence and simply handle the stick. They need to know how to FACE DODGE, ROLL AWAY and throw ON THE RUN. They need to perfect "touch" passes and "frozen rope" passes. They need to throw to moving targets. Get them in SHOOTING DRILLS as a shooter. Its fun and is stick work in disguise. One other key point is COMMUNICATION. Work on building your goalies ability to run the Defense. He needs to be the leader. Calls should focus not only on Ball Position, but other important calls, such as "TURN HIM or HOLD" at GLE, "CHECK,CHECK,CHECK" when balls are fed into the hub, and even slide calls for a more accomplished keeper. I like Defense to call slides or even a coach on the sideline at the youth level. I have been working on my goalie e-book forever, I do promise to complete it one day soon. It will feature 50 goalie specific drills. Email me at 313lax@gmail.com to be put on the wait list or if you have any questions about the drills mentioned here or other questions feel free to drop me a note. B

Watching Lacrosse DVDs

I have to admit, I ve spent the rent money on Lacrosse DVDs. Some are outstanding, some are outstanding at putting you to sleep. Anyone new to the game can go to Championship productions and browse a huge library. A lot of them have excerpts on Youtube. If you go on the site and see one thats interesting, search youtube first to see if you can catch a preview. Out of respect to some great coaches who I pale in comparison to in experience, I will only list the ones that I have found useful. I’ve see approx. 40 different instructors (which is not all of them) to come up with a short list. #1 Jim Berkman, Salisbury - everyone of his are awesome. I ran a JV team an entire year with ONLY his drills and they improved ten fold. #2 Mark Millon (U Mass, Baltimore Bayhawks) - offensive wizardry- any one who plays offense, teaches offense or want to learn how to teach offensive skills needs this video. Its been out there awhile and is still unsurpassed. 3#Dave Pietramala (Hopkins) - Developing on ball defenders - A classic. Very basic, but if you watch it and really listen you will see what exactly is important in defense stance, footwork, and how to. Hopkins defensive drills, taught by the greatest defenseman that ever lived. I’ve watched literally 50 times. When I run a D clinic for boys, I mirror his DVD. 4# Anything from Starsia (Virginia), Danowsky (Duke) or Corrigan (ND) has merit and are worth the price. Starsia’s and Danowsky’s stuff are keen on fundamentals and techniques, Corrigan's show more of an advanced level of drills and terminology. If you have and extra $100 laying around the full access 3 DVD sets are really cool. You actually see a full practice run by the top lacrosse coaches on the planet. Again no disrespect to coaches I haven’t seen all of them...but I’m working on it. B