A Lacrosse Weekend 4.16.22

Uncategorized Apr 16, 2022

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!

If you are a men's or women's lacrosse player, coach, or parent, I think you will love the weekly content, videos, and analysis.

In Season Podcast, Episode 3

PLL Chaos Head Coach Andy Towers and I dive into the best players, coaches, match ups, and as analysis on why these teams are trending! This past week Andy apologized to Yale fans and Josh McHugh for picking BU over Yale, "I hit the nail squarely on the side" said Towers, but at least he goes out on a limb!

If you listen to this podcast you will get a level of analysis you won't get on any other college lacrosse podcasts because we're coaches and we love to watch, talk about and analyze DI Lacrosse!

The best part of the "In Season" Podcast is Towers is hilarious! The things he thinks of and says are insanely funny! I hope you check it out! Click here to listen!

Off Ball Seals & Curl Cuts

I saw a sweet breakdown of some Seal actions on Twitter the other day from the NBA Warriors and wanted to share with how to install this with your lacrosse team. In this clip, Steph Curry passes and then seals his own man to give his teammate an opportunity to read the defense and make the appropriate cut. In this case, the cutter gets a step on his man towards the pick and immediately reads his man wants to fight over the pick and not switch. This automatically puts his man in a permanently trailing position to the basket. The defense now has a choice: help with what will become an off ball double team or don't help and the cutter will score.

Notice how the cutter slows down during the Curl Cut creating indecision on the part of Steph's man to help or not. When you get a defender trailing you on a curl like this, it is likely that two will end up on one. defender on the cutter can't easily switch once he commits with speed and momentum to getting over the pick. Meanwhile, the picker's man needs to help a little, but this will leave Steph Curry open for an uncontested 3 point shot. The result

In the JM3 Principles Based Offense, we teach players to pick on and off ball simultaneously and constantly, creating potential advantages of a 2 on 1 with every pick action! Seals and curl cuts happen naturally and regularly. The biggest key ,once you have actions occurring, is is to emphasize to your players the importance of reading the defense. Are they switching or are they staying? Notice how the cutter a JM3 Athlete intentionally baits or Invites his defender over the pick, by showing his stick or faking "receive" as he popped up.

Here is a great example of two girls from ThunderRidge HS last season executing a great seal and Curl Cut. Notice the cutter, a JM3 Athlete, intentionally brings her defender over by creeping slowly until there was a point of no return. If the cutters cut too hard too early, the defender will likely go under and meet you on the other side of the pick. This happens all the time to kids who watch the ball instead of keeping an eye on their defender.

If you want to see a phenomenal drill that teaches players how to read the defense, check out the clip from this D2P2 drill which stands for Dodger, Defender, Picker, Passer. It's an on ball / off ball 1v1 + picker which teaches the no switch reads. Watch how this girl, a JM3 Athlete, is watching her defender and doesn't look for the ball. until she knows she is open.

The ability to read and influence your defenders in 2man game is where all the upside exists! In the JM3 Athlete Program we teach all of our players how to do this and it's a huge advantage!

If you want to learn more subscribe to the JM3 Coaches Training Program or any of the other amazing programs from JM3 Sports!

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Learn more about how to implement levels of development through the various programs and systems from JM3 Sports.

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Coaching Youth Lacrosse

I'm excited to announce Mike O'Neil, newest member of the JM3 team, will be contributing weekly to the A Lacrosse Weekend Blog on coaching men's, women's, youth as well as recruiting advice.

Coaching youth lacrosse and youth sports in general, is a job that is massively misunderstood. When coaching youth and even more challenging - youth beginners - most coaches and parents defer to these fallacies:

Less experience, more teaching
Younger team, more discipline

This often turns into a 75 minute mess of yelling, hitting, crying, and hundreds of "get in line!" and very few lacrosse reps.

Throughout my 10 plus year youth lacrosse coaching career, I have done it all, including the 75 minute hurricane.

The style of lacrosse and coaching in this video below has completely changed my life. I have gone from dreading coaching young kids to absolutely loving it.

Here is the practice plan (And the key to my happiness and sanity!)

Drill #1 Beehive - everyone has a ball and you can teach almost every skill in lacrosse!
Drill #2 Crank Passing - throwing and rolling the ball hard and with different swing angles - this teaches so many skills
Drill #3 Dodging and finishing - always have a goalie (we are using coaches) and you have the goalie play half goalie and half defense - figure out how to get the ball in the back of the net!
Drill #4 Sharks and Minnows - always end with a game! Also, notice the skills from the previous drills!

Girls Recruiting April 2022

I am thrilled to have Colleen Magarity resume her contributions to the "A Lacrosse Weekend Blog." Colleen is as well connected and experienced in women's lacrosse recruiting as anyone you'll ever meet and has some great words of wisdom!

The summer recruiting rush is right around the corner and High School girls and parents are starting to plan their summers and I am sure there are lots of nerves and excitement around what's to come. Here is some advice for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes as you wrap up your high school seasons.

Uncommitted and Committed 2023's

Committed 2023's- You need to continue to work hard and finish out your seasons with your club team. I am a big believer that you should be working even harder now to elevate your game so that you are prepared for the next level. You do not need to go to any showcases but you should be trying to play as much as possible.

Uncommitted 2023's- Your High School season is extremely important and college coaches will be able to catch a lot of your playoff games towards the end of their seasons. The coaches will be watching 2023's to fill out their classes in June so be ready to play hard for all levels (D1, D2 and D3). Make sure you are emailing the schools you are interested in and that you have an advocate helping you so you know exactly who still has spots left in that class or not.

2024's

Focus on finishing your High school season strong. Whether you are getting time on your Varsity team or not you need to be making sure you are putting yourself in the best position to be at the top of your game starting in June.

This is your big summer to shine but you also need to be very SMART. It is physically impossible to perform at your best when you go to a showcase, camp and a tournament in one week for 7 weeks straight. You need to plan the extra showcases and camps around your club schedule. Make sure that you take the appropriate days to rest in between events. Before your tournaments you should be emailing the coaches you are interested in with your game schedule, your jersey number and some information about yourself. It does not need to be long but just making sure they become familiar with seeing your name when they spot you out on the field.

At the tournaments control what you can control. Your work ethic, your body language and working off ball. You may only get the ball a few times a game so you need to make sure all the other parts of the game that are in your control, you are going 100%.

You can start to put together highlight film throughout the summer and make sure your Sports Recruits or Recruiting page you use is up to date so that schools can easily look up more information as well.

Remember if a coach emails you that they have general interest in you. That does not mean it is a done deal. It means you may be on a list of 100 girls so keep an open mind and continue to work hard and not compare yourself to others.

2025's

Start to be a confident player on your High School team and finish strong whether you are getting a lot of time or if you are being challenged every day by great upperclassmen. Have fun this summer and get better! You do not need to stress or overdo it and you do not want to force the recruiting process upon you faster than it needs to be. College coaches are wrapping up 2023's and starting the 2024's this summer. You are just starting to get on their radar at camps and clinics but have time on your side to continue to grow and progress over the next year before the next summer.

Do not sign up for a million things. Enjoy lacrosse, have fun with your friends and start to pick a few camps to learn the coaching styles of some colleges you may have interest in.

I will be transitioning to JM3 Full time this coming summer and I am SO excited about helping uncommitted and committed girls chase their dreams of playing lacrosse in college through JM3 Athlete Program. continue to grow as a player. This summer we will have some sick committed training in Denver, Narraganset, RI and Philly! The bottom line whether you're committed or uncommitted is you have to get better! The JM3 model of free play combined with video review and zoom calls is an efficient and powerful model that has had great success. If you want more information on how we will help on the field and in recruiting, email me at [email protected].

Have a great weekend!

A Lacrosse Weekend 4.16.22

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