A Lacrosse Weekend 12.19.20

Welcome to "A Lacrosse Weekend" my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, stories, myths, truths, about the great game of lacrosse. I hope you enjoy it! 

Top 10 Things To know on How to Get Recruited

1. Know your strengths and make them stronger. Coaches want to recruit players who are special. Figure out how to be the best in the class with a combination of your talents.  Example: be the best 6'3'' LH attackman who can Post up on the Island with his head up to fake, feed and shoot, with a 3.8 GPA from a NE boarding school, a 31 on the ACT and doesn't need a lot of scholarship who can also play 2man game - in the nation!
2. Understand how to leverage to the fullest your strengths. If you're really good at something, figure out how to that thing even more!
3. Understand and mitigate your weaknesses while putting time in to turn them into minimum proficiencies. Example: you don’t need your weak hand to be as good as your strong hand. But at the least, you need to be able to throw the ball to X with your weak hand, roll back to your weak hand, dodge to your weak hand, shoot a question mark to your weak hand, shoot a 7 yard shot on the run with your weak hand.
4. Coaches will recruit the player with one GREAT hand and one OK hand before he recruits a player with two good-really good hands.
5. Dodge Physically: Count the number of times you initiate contact on your man / turn the corner on your man versus when you don’t. It will tell you if you are a good dodger. Good dodgers retain angle by initiating contact and turning distinct corners.
6. On defense be in an athletic posture, turn your head every few seconds, approach with the chopping of your feat and lowering of your hips
7. On defense, beat the shit out of people without getting a lot of penalties.
8. If you get beat 1v1, make sure it’s not on one move, but rather 2, 3, or 4 moves to beat you.
9. Be GREAT off ball! Here’s a challenge for you: go back and count the off ball movements from your last game. Then think about the movements you could have / should have done. It’s interesting!
10. Faking is the difference between good and great!

X's and O's with Bobby Benson

A new segment in the "A Lacrosse Weekend" blog will be thoughts and videos from Bobby Benson, former Offensive Coordinator at Johns Hopkins and a new member of the JM3 Sports team!  Coach Benson is a lacrosse savant and will drop knowledge for us regularly!

2v2 Off The Pass

Getting to spend a view days down here at Delray Beach with Jamie and some of his JM3 athletes has been an awesome experience.  The work ethic these guys show, their excitement for practice, and their passion to get better is extremely impressive.  It got me thinking even more about the 2 man game.  Below is one of my favorite drills and one of the first drills I took from Jamie a few years ago.  It is a great way to practice two man games on ball and off ball.  

When we took practice into the basketball court this drill translates well

JM3 Coaches Training Program

We are all in for a treat with the addition of Bobby Benson to the JM3 Coaches Training Program (CTP)!  This guy has so much knowledge it's insane!  Hopkins under Dave Pietramala was known for preparation and leaving no stone unturned!  Bobby will be breaking down the game for us in some extremely exciting ways!  One of the first webinars I personally want to see from Bobby is a breakdown on the JHU Motion Offense!  

Bobby is also going to host a weekly "Office Hours" for coaches in the CTP where subscribers all jump on a Zoom call and talk lacrosse, watch film, ask questions/get answers, submit film, etc!  If you know Bobby you know he's as good of a guy as there is and is a total lacrosse geek, so be prepared to go deep!

Another exciting part of Bobby's involvement is in the planning and execution of the 2021 Virtual Lacrosse Summit taking place January 11th-14th!  We will have an amazing line up of speakers!  Stay tuned for more details!

 Here's a video detailing the program!

Delray 2020

Check out this clip from the 4th annual "Family and Friends, Beach and Lacrosse Vacation" in Delray Beach, Florida.  This small group of family, friends and JM3 Athletes comes together to play lacrosse on the field and pick up games in an outdoor box.  On the field the boys and girls split up on separate cages, but in the box we all play pick up games and it's awesome!  We love to play a pick up game called 5x (five-by) which becomes a 5v4 situation and is just like box lacrosse power play!  In the video below we even had a fully padded box goalie in an NLL net and it was awesome!  How slick is the ball movement from this clip?  Skip passes, one touch passes and a pretty nasty Twister to finish the play!  This is why I'm so big on pick up games!  

The Step Back Move

One technique I've been particularly interested in lately is the "Step Back Move.  Canadians are masters of this move and there are a couple observations I'd like to point out: 

• It's challenging for a defender to guard your topside ,your underneath and your pop out
• This is kind of a "Stick to the Middle" variation of a Questionmark Move
• Backpedaling and winding up simultaneously can put the on ball defender in a tough position: if they check or cross check, it is a lunge that the dodger can take advantage of, if the defender doesn't check or cross check the dodger can shoot.

Shayne Jackson uses the Step Back to perfection in this clip.  Also, check out how the goalie responds to the hitches!

Here's Jeff Teat operating in the final seconds of their 2020 Penn State victory.  Teat gets the switch and takes the shorty down to his sweet spot, The Island.  Teat uses a series of moves: goes hard underneath to one hand, tries a quick Open up Re-dodge to get under, only to roll back topside.  Again Teat tries to get under with an inside roll and uses a back hand pump to gain a little separation, which is where Teat uses his Step Back shot fake to lunge, opening up a Swim Move / RollBack combo resulting in a goal. 

Here's a classic example of how Canadian Box players use the Step Back from a post up situation.  I love the Powless Pump before the shot!

Check out Selena Lasota doing the move a couple years ago vs UNC in the NCAA play offs!

Three years ago in August 2017 I was doing some filming of some Canadian kids from St Catharines, ON.  Check out the slick Step Back by Carter Zavits, currently at Princeton vs Latrell Harris of the Toronto Rock and Team Canada!

Have a great weekend!