A Lacrosse Weekend 3.28.20

Uncategorized Mar 28, 2020
 

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!

Today would have been an awesome day!  I was looking forward to March 28th!  Denver at Georgetown in an epic Big East Battle with national championship aspirations!  Instead, we are home on a beautiful spring morning with a few inches of snow.  It will be 48 and sunny today and the snow will be gone by early afternoon.  A family brunch is on the docket along with some family lacrosse.

Jon Torpey Podcast

One of my best friends and favorite people in the game is High Point Head Coach Jon Torpey.  Torp was my assistant at Denver for five seasons and is also a great guy to talk lacrosse with!  This discussion includes his favorite drill, 2man game, dodging techniques and the way he invented "Torp Soup" AKA Half & Half (half Maryland Crab, half Cream of Crab.  You will love this podcast!  Click here to listen!

Quarantine Hoops

Every day that the weather permits Colin, Emily, Lucy and I take around 90 minutes and get a workout in together.  Basketball has been our main activity, but we also always play some lacrosse.  The basketball has been awesome!  Have you every heard the analogy that dodging in lacrosse is like playing basketball without double dribble and offensive foul rules?  Meaning, you can dodge, set your feet, fake, and dodge again, slam your defender with your body, fake and dribble again!  
 
I highly encourage you all to get hoop games going.  It  will absolutely make the kids better at lacrosse and it’s a great change up!  A great way to play as a family if you have younger kids or inexperienced basketball players: let them double dribble (they will learn lacrosse dodging) so they and you can have more fun playing!  It instantly levels the playing field!  We've been doing that and it's great!
 

A  Box Breakdown By Darris Kilgour 

What I love about this is how it the set up and the execution is just good enough. They start with a double seal pick up high and the top off player doesn’t set a great seal pick but just enough to change the def man slide angle and made the def player slide to the top side. The second part that is extremely important is that the shooter keeps his feet moving and changes the shooting angle on the goalie. When he sees the def player coming over the top he moves down the side with a nice face dodge and keeps his stick in a shooting position. This causes the goalie to freeze his feet and lose his net position and open up the short side. The last thing is that the shooter doesn’t need a big wind up,  just accuracy and  deception and they are the most important things in shooting. This is due to the shooter knowing how the goalie was going to react to what he did and then took advantage of it.

Workout Videos on Social Media

Everyday on social media coaches, pro players, and lacrosse trainers are posting "Do it at home" workouts aimed to help kids get better during this quarantine.  I love the spirit of helping provide content for kids who are missing their seasons and want to play!  The workouts are mostly videos of wall ball, bounce back, defensive approaches vs. cones, dodging vs cones, speed ladder cradling, shooting on empty nets, shake school double-jab footwork, etc; all geared to help players improve. 

I don't believe these types of drills can make you a better player.  They will make you sharper, stronger or more "Accurate" at a particular skill or technique, (especially if you don't know how to do a certain technique) but it won't make better at playing the game of lacrosse. 

I'm not totally against doing wall ball, cone drills or any of the drills I'm referencing.  If kids have time on their hands, want to work out by themselves, and enjoy working on the "Accuracy" of their skills, I think it's great!  I just want to educate folks on what will actually them better at the sport.  Playing with and against human beings is the key!  Playing with and against actual players is where you learn a feel for how to get a step, fake a pass or shot, deceive a goalie, read a pick, anticipate an opponent's move etc.

If you want to learn more about this topic, i have two great resources for you:

Lacrosse At Our House

As I mentioned we are playing a lot of hoops, but most days we play 25 minutes of lacrosse.  I have figured out several new drills that I believe are a game changer!  One is the best 1v1 drill I've ever seen!  And now I've morphed it into teaching on ball and off ball 2man game as well!

At home, I'm motivated to help my kids improve at their dodging, shooting, feeding, 2man game through putting them in drill or game environments that develop the type of Fluency that is referenced in the article above.

My backyard is my lab, I film everything we do, and I'm in an insanely prolific content creation mode right now for my kids and my JM3 Athletes.  I'm determined to make this quarantine and opportunity for legit improvement.

Some days, like yesterday we take a break from hoops and drills and just play pick up lacrosse.  Here we played a family 2v2 with Me and Lucy vs Colina and Emily with my wife Sara in the net!  How fun does this look?!   Mamma with some saves!

This. game Colin and I used girls sticks and we played on the hoop court with out of bounds rules which made it super tight.  If you look closely, there are a lot of interesting things going on!

JM3 Athlete Program

I started a remote coaching and consulting program a couple years ago with a goal of helping serious athletes become the best they could be by putting them on a whole new trajectory of development, training concepts, and recruiting advice / advocacy.  Little did I know just how important remote coaching would become in this crazy Coronavirus age we are living in.

The results I am having with my athletes has been incredible.  No matter how you want to measure "results": player improvements, recruiting opportunities, college commitments, on field honors, knowledge of the game, and even love of the game.

I love working with my JM3 Athletes.  I'm a life coach and mentor, an advocate and friend, as well as the creative lacrosse mind who will help a motivated athlete have an edge in this incredibly competitive era of lacrosse recruiting.

If you want to get an update on just how competitive it is, Listen to this podcast with Ty Xanders.

Right now, while all my JM3 Athletes are in quarantine, I'm helping each player and family figure out optimal ways to have fun and really get better at the game of lacrosse.  We take at their facilities and human resources in order  

If you want to learn more, email me at [email protected].

Virtual Lacrosse Summit 

I'm fired up to announce the Q2 VLS coming the week of April 13th!  We have an amazing line up of speakers that will allow us to forget about this dreadful virus and focus on lacrosse!  

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: www.VirtualLacrosseSummit.com

Here's our list of speakers and there are more to come! (list is subject to change)

  • Jana Drummond, D Coordinator UMass
  • Jim Stagnitta, Head Coach PLL Whipsnakes
  • Steve Brundage, Offensive Coordinator Hobart
  • Dave Pietramala, Head Coach John's Hopkins
  • Darris Kilgour, NLL Hall of Fame player and Championship Coach
  • Tim McCormack, Head Coach Arizona State
  • Sean Allen, Box Lacrosse Coach/executive
  • Pat Myers, Head Coach Lafayette
  • Andrew Baxter, Head Coach Fairfield U
  • Tom Mariano, Head Coach Pace University and MLL Bayhawks
  • John Galloway, Head Coach Jacksonville
  • JP Brazel, Assistant. Coach Stony Brook
  • Gerry Byrne, Head Coach Harvard
  •  Kevin Corrigan, Head Coach Notre Dame
  • Jon Torpey, Head Coach High Point

 

Have a great weekend

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