A Lacrosse Weekend 4/20/19

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!

Virtual Lacrosse Summit - FREE REPLAYS!

We are opening up the flood gates on Q1 and Q2 Summit presentations!  60 hours of incredible educational lacrosse content will be available for free until midnight 4/26!  The list of speakers, the quality of presentations, and the willingness of some of the greatest players and coaches in the lacrosse world to provide instructional content was amazing!

Click Here to see complete list of speakers and get access to content!

College Lacrosse Recruiting

Thanks goodness the NCAA exempted men's and women's lacrosse from the new legislation that would have allowed recruiting contact to be made on June 15th after sophomore year instead of September 1st of Junior year.  My daughter is a 2021 and I'm looking forward to a fun summer of playing lacrosse, getting better and doing what you gotta do to get some looks.  And I'm REALLY glad we don't have the distraction of phone calls, text messages, or NOT getting phone calls / text messages, during this precious summer of just playing and enjoying it!  Let the players play, let the coaches evaluate, and everyone enjoy that process!

Coaches are equally fired up because they need to focus on evaluating the class of 2021 throughout the entirety of the summer.  Had this rule passed, coaches would be on the phones constantly trying to land prospects which would have made their ability to "Turn over every rock" to find studs much more difficult.  

The #1 Thing Most People Screw up in Recruiting Process

If your kids are serious about trying to play college lacrosse, you need to prioritize development ahead of exposure.  Being "Good enough" is by far the most important part of the process and inexplicably, most folks have no plan for this!  Do you?

Over the years, tons of people have shared their kid's summer schedules with me and usually every weekend is taken up by tourneys and tryouts, while the weekdays are littered with prospect camps and showcases.  With so much travel and physical exertion, where is the time to actually get better at lacrosse?  

Players don't get better at lacrosse at tourneys and showcases because they simply do not get enough touches!  Look at the stats below from two games in a recruiting tourney.  Note: this kid is one of the best kids on the team and a definite D1 prospect.  A grand total of 26 touches in two games.  By the way, I've done hundreds of statistical assessments on players and this is the norm. 

Interestingly, I did a statistical breakdown of one of my JM3 Athletes playing a 3v3 pick up game.  In 37 minutes he had 77 touches, 24 shots, 16 ground balls, and 18 dodges.  Mark my words folks, the pick up game is the best development model and the funny thing is hardly anyone leverages the power of this FREE activity.

If you want to learn even more about this topic, ,listen to legendary Salisbury Head Coach go into detail on my Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast.  Definitely worth a listen!

Here's a Development Plan 

1.  Video Breakdown: have someone review your son/daughter's game films looking at their fundamental skills, 1v1 ability, off ball play and IQ.  If your kids are not leveraging the benefits of film study, you are missing the boat!  Video is by far the best way to learn YOUR GAME and THE GAME!   There is a reason why college and pro sports use film every day! Click here to learn about JM3 Video Assessments.  The families I've done assessments for have been blown away!  

2.  Development plan: Now that your son / daughter got a video breakdown,  they should know what to work on.  Next, there must be a plan of how / when / where / with whom your kids can practice.  If you can get a little bit better everyday it makes a huge difference.  Here is a basic breakdown of what every player needs to do:

• Individual work: footwork, strength & conditioning, wall ball, shooting.
• With a friend: passing/catching/shooting, 1v1's.
• Shooting on a goalie: you simply cannot learn to be a great scorer shooting on empty nets.  In fact, I believe shooting on an empty net can actually make you worse!  Think about what you're practicing: staring down your shot, shooting it has hard as you can, and admiring the shot as it stings the corner.  This is the exact opposite of deceptive shooting.
• Pick up games: by far the most impactful development time you can spend is playing these small sided games with small nets and tennis balls.  There are many different versions of pick up games and they are all great.  Watch the video below for a breakdown on pick up games!

3.  Practice, Practice, Practice: Wanna know the saddest thing?  When I see is kids who legitimately work at their game, put the time in, and don't get much better because they don't know what to practice.  Playing catch with a bounce back for hours won't move the needle, nor will shooting for hours on end.

Your sons and daughters are up against kids who are being coached by guys like Team 91's Joe Spallina, who is a DI women's coach and an MLL Head coach.  His teams train 100 days per year!  These guys are pros at player development.

This is why I have created the JM3 Academy which details every variation of every skill.  If you don't have coaching like Joe Spallina and you want your kids to have that type of coaching, then  Click here to review the JM3 Academy.  The content I have created in this academy is a total game changer! 

 Coaching Lacrosse 

I love teaching players the art of offense: ball movement, picking, cutting, dodging and feeding.  One of my favorite ways to teach players the nuances of the art of offense is through  "Nations Looks" which is a two pass pick and roll.  There are many different variations of Nations looks: up pick nations, down pick nations, razor pick nations, flip nations, and mirror nations to name a few.  In all cases, the beauty of this look is it teaches 2 man game with 3 people and two passes.  Dodge off the pick, throw it to a third player who feeds the pick and roll.  The teamwork, IQ, passing/catching, efficiency, and vision it requires to execute nations looks are HUGE skill and IQ expediters.  Have fun with this and get "Nations Looks" built into your practices!

Here is a clip from a the high school girls team I coach where we run an "Up Pick Nations" in our transition:

 If you want to learn how to teach "Nations Looks" check out the Coaches Training Program I've created.  It quite simply is the best and deepest treasure chest of lacrosse coaching content on the planet.  There is a ton of content fo anyone and everyone.  The combination of  cutting edge with practicality for men's lacrosse AND women's lacrosse is awesome.  

Have a great weekend!