A Lacrosse Weekend 5.21.22

Uncategorized May 21, 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.  

How NOT to Get Recruited This Summer

 Summer club tourneys and recruiting will soon be in full swing and the truth is, college lacrosse recruiting is getting significantly more competitive as there are more and more kids playing and training at high levels. Normally I give advice on what to do, but this time….

  • Play back to back or back to back to back events (no recovery)
  • Think about who's watching, your last play, what your coach said to you, what your parents said to you instead of being in the present with your attention directed to the play at hand.
  • Don’t dodge much
  • Don't pass much
  • "Be more selfish" out there
  • Do a ton of “Give and stand-theres”
  • Don't set picks off ball, rather wait on the perimeter for the ball to get to you
  • Dodge full speed right into slides
  • Be the kid putting on your cleats when everyone else is warming up
  • Play primarily on the “Wrong” side of the field as opposed to your “Natural” side of the field
  • Stand or cut right into your teammate’s path when their trying to dodge instead of clearing space, picking, or “Fading/Drifting”
  • Show how fundamentally sound you are by switching hands a lot, always have your stick to the outside, especially for shooting!
  • Don’t initiate contact on your man when you dodge
  • Project what you're doing so everyone on the defense knows what you are doing and when your doing it!
  • Do a lot of palms up when your coaches tell you something
  • Get noticeably frustrated after you make a mistake
  • Wait until you get the ball to figure out what you’re gonna do
  • Have your dad coach you up during the game and drop knowledge on college coaches on the sideline whenever possible in between yelling at refs, players and other parents.
  • Shoot side arm alley shots
  • Stand up straight and tall on defense and watch the ball
  • Play with a huge whip that allows you to shoot wicked hard and the ball can't come out of your stick
  • Routinely make the more difficult play
  • Fade behind the net on your finishes

Man Down Defense: Covering the 132 Carry Play

Last night I did a zoom call with a couple JM3 Athletes who are defenders on the Deerfield Lacrosse team, watching film of their next opponent, Lawrenceville who they play in the prep nationals.  Lawrenceville is very slick and they run an EMO carry play that has been around for a long time but is still quite effective!  I first learned this play from Chip Mayer, former All-American and assistant coach at North Carolina, he called it Carry and Carry Cross back in the summer of 1991.  Princeton ran this play through the 90's and I remember BJ Prager on the receiving end of the inside slip action.  I can also remember my Denver defense being scored on by a Tony Seaman Towson team around 2006.

Here is a clip of the play from the Deerfield vs Lawrenceville game earlier in the season.

 

Here is a breakdown of x's and o's as to how to cover it!

Installing Ram Screens in Women's Lacrosse

Last week when I was in NorCal for the Pearl Jam concert I had an amazing opportunity to be a guest coach at a St. Ignatius Girls Lacrosse practice as they prepared for their NorCal playoffs.  SI is one of the top high school programs in the west and is coached by Erin Burns, who is also Co-Director of STEPS Lacrosse, one of the top Club teams in the nation!
 
By far the best part of my job is building relationships with coaches and players through a shared passion for the game of lacrosse combined with a growth mindset.  Teaching, sharing learning and integrating the JM3 Principles Based Lacrosse model which is rooted in Free Play, a Constraints Lead Approach, and the power of Ecological Psychology is done through on field coaching / in person coaching, and zoom calls with coaches / players and individual zoom calls with JM3 Athletes.  The synergies of this model are both powerful and fun!
 
Since February, Coach Burns had been utilizing small sided games variations, small nets, keep away, and the JM3 Principles Based Lacrosse concepts of simultaneous pick actions combined with ball movement, so when I got there, this group was primed for the focus of the day: Ram Screens!
 
Ram Screens are an 3man action that I have written about before in this blog where the offense does an off ball pick before an on ball pick.  Ram Screens is a basketball terminology which I have adapted to lacrosse creating more variability than what you would see if you googled Ram Screens.  
 
On a 3man side, we teach the top two or bottom two girls to work together in a ball side, off ball pick action immediately before one them engages in an on ball pick action.  We call a “High Ram” when the ball is high and the two low girls work together and a “Low Ram" when the ball is low and the two high girls work together.  The reason why Rams are so effective is because stacking actions together makes it very difficult for the defense to coordinate their coverages of back to back 2man games.  If the defense successfully covers the off ball action they are often times late on their approach to the subsequent on ball pick action.
 
If you want to learn the build up drills and the nuances to how to make your offense look like this, check out the Women's Lacrosse Coaches Training Program!  We also do consulting with high school and college programs in person and on Zoom.
 

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Have a great weekend!

 

 

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