Welcome to “A Lacrosse Weekend,” my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, history, stories, myths/truths about the great game of lacrosse! I hope you find it enjoyable.

I happily write you this morning from my favorite chair in my home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado! My daughter Emily and I drove home from Niagara on the Lake, Ontario on Monday. It’s good to be back! Today’s plan: we have a little shooting session on a DI goalie and some 3x in the morning, then the Kenny Chesney concert at Mile High Stadium tonight!

There is a lot of lacrosse going on in Denver this week.The Vail Tourney continues as the old guys finish up today and the young guys get it going tomorrow. The World Series of Lacrosse kicks off its opening ceremonies tomorrow night, and of course the Denver Outlaws play their annual July 4th game which attracts 30K fans.

A Goalie Goal

For last year’s July 4th game, I was Dave Huntley’s defensive coordinator. We were coming off a big win the previous Saturday night and feeling pretty good about ourselves .In the first half we were getting hammered with the halftime score 14-6. We couldn’t win a faceoff and all year Denver played great team lacrosse and that night was no exception.

If you know Hunts, you know he had a way of making you feel better. He also had a way of simplifying a tough situation. Here’s what he said: “Guys, we’ve dug ourselves a hole, no question. If we can win the 3rd quarter by three goals, it will be a five goal game in the fourth and we know we’re in it! Here’s how we’re going to do that. We’re going to triple pole the wings of the faceoffs, make that a shit show, and it’s going to get us back in this game. We can do this.”

Well, with less than 10 seconds in the 3rd quarter, Randy Staats (our world class attackman) picks up the ball from out of bounds, and we’re up 2-0 in the quarter. We had been winning faceoffs, playing great defense, and playing smart offense. The plan was working!

Then Randy tried to feed it to Matthews cutting backside and Denver’s goalie Jack Kelly picked it off. Aware of how little time was left in the quarter, Kelly immediately shoots a full field shot. At that exact moment, our goalie Adam Ghittleman was digging his water bottle out of the back of the net and didn’t see the shot or the ball in flight. It went in. And it was a 2 pointer! A quarter’s worth of hard work was erased and as you can imagine the game turned into a gong show and we were done! You can see the goal on YouTube

Adam Ghittleman, for the record, is not only a great goalie, he is a great person. Adam is on the staff at the University of Utah and it was one of the great coaching pleasures of my career to work with him. He’s a team guy, he’s coachable, and I’m telling you he is an unbelievable goalie. In my opinion he would have been a great choice to represent the USA this summer.

Team USA vs MLL All-Stars

I only got a chance to watch the 4th quarter of this game. A 14-8 4th quarter USA lead and snoozer turned into a 15-14 OT thriller with the MLL All-Stars coming all the way back to win! Poor USA clearing, winning face offs, and big plays were the keys to the MLL comeback.

We can all have our opinion on the USA roster and clearly there were a lot of guys on the MLL All-Stars who could be on the USA roster… and they were out to prove it. Scott Ratliff, Connor Buczek, Will Manny to name a few. And I’m not worried about the USA losing a game like this under MLL rules. It’s totally different in international play with out the shot clock.

My question is why is there a righty attackman playing the lefty finishing spot on EMO and on fast breaks? They start three righties on attack! Sorry, but you have to have a money lefty finisher in… at all times! Sure they have Kavanaugh, and he’s awesome, but he’s more of a play maker than a finisher. There’s only one ball and they needed a guy like Will Manny, who by the way was MVP of that game and scored the game winner!Just my 2 cents.

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast

I have thoroughly enjoyed my podcast interviews. This week I had the pleasure of chatting with Lars Tiffany, Head Coach of the University of Virginia. Lars and I were captains of the ’89 Brown team and have remained great friends and fellow students of the game. We talked about the biggest influences in his coaching career, how he develops his team culture, player development, team defense, the value of video, and much more. Here’s the link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/phi-lacrosse-o...

Yesterday I interviewed Mark “Red" Burnham, Head Coach of the Iroquois Nationals and IMG Academy. Mark is one of my favorite people in the world. He has an amazing attitude towards people and is as passionate and knowledgeable about lacrosse as anyone I’ve ever met. We discuss a lot of great topics, but the most interesting one is this amazing statement that Dave Huntley always talked about: Per capita, the Iroquois produce the most world class players in the world by far. Red credits player development to the “Pass it down” model combined with the “Sandlot” model or “backyard lacrosse model” that is played incessantly on the reservations. Definitely worth the listen. Subscribe to the Phi-Lacrosse-ophy podcasts here so you can be notified when it becomes available!

“Daddy Ball”

I regularly hear clubs or other lacrosse organizations say things like, “We don’t have any dad coaches” as if that’s a big key to a successful program. There are certainly nightmare stories about out of control dad coaches, but there are a lot of success stories too. Let’s really look into the value of dad coaches versus non-dad coaches.

First let’s establish that no matter who is coaching the team, there are going to be some unhappy parents.

Second, let’s establish that a dad coach will be far more committed to the team than a non dad. It’s not even close.The dad coach will give his time for extra training, video, will constantly work at recruiting players, show up early…. You name it!

Third, let’s establish that whether it’s a dad or a non-dad, you need to have a good coach. What is a good coach? Here are a few of the qualities: committed, a good leader, runs a good practice, good in game coach, fair, has contacts in college lacrosse to help in recruiting. Rarely will you find all of these bases covered by anyone, so if you can find a few of these qualities it’s a big win.

Fourth, let’s establish that if you have a dad coach there will be some level of bias towards his son. I remember talking to Kevin Corrigan about his coaching of his son Will. Kevin said something like, “it’s impossible as a dad, not to be aware of my son on the field more than another player.” Where this bias becomes a problem is if the dad doesn’t hold his own son accountable to the same standards of effort, team play, attitude or plays his kid ahead of players who are clearly better.

I founded 3d Lacrosse and I can tell you that many our most successful teams measured by a combination of winning, recruiting success, profitability, and retention were coached by dads. I can also tell you that if we had a dad who just couldn’t cut it, we moved on ASAP.

Over the past 5 years, what has been the most dominant club team in the nation… by far? Team 91 on Long Island which was build almost exclusively on dads. And by the way, they have dads lined up for years to come.

I was a dad coach and I still am. I can tell you that the players who were along for the ride, who showed up to all the extra training sessions, pick up games or box lacrosse practices with 3d, Blue Sky, Mustangs, or Vista, simply received the gift that any dad would give his son. Everything he had.

How to Get Recruited

One question that I’m asked frequently is, “How do I write an email to a coach?” You must understand that the coaches are receiving endless emails from recruits and they are usually checking their emails on a mobile device. Don’t write a long note as coaches will usually just skim the email looking for key words like:

• 4.0 GPA, 1300 SAT
• 6’3’’ 190
• Play for HHH (or notable club team)
• Deerfield Academy (notable HS team)
• Also a running back or point guard… multi sport athlete
• All-State, All League, All-American
• Captain
• 45 goals and 55 assists
• Lefty
• 4.6 in the 40
• Play box lacrosse in Canada
• Made the NE Under Armour Team
• I play for Coach Jones (it’s better if coach Jones is a well known coach)
• A legacy at the school

I would also recommend copying assistant coaches on the email and include your summer schedule and highlight film. Be careful not to put the wrong name in there because you copied and pasted your email to a ton of coaches!

Remember, the most important part of recruiting is being “good enough,” but ideally you will get on the list of players a coach wants to see because if he’s looking for you, it’s easier to stand out.If you haven’t already, watch this video: www.JM3GetRecruited.com

Sports Analogies

Everything I look at makes me think of lacrosse. If I’m at a green light turning left behind one other car, I’ll use him as a seal all day if I can slip through that intersection too! Every time I watch sports I’m thinking about how it relates to lacrosse, which is why I love the sports analogies topic I’ve created. Today, let’s talk about Tennis, not that I’m an expert in tennis. First of all, wouldn’t you love to have seen John McEnroe play goalie? Here are a few thoughts:

• A serve is similar to a jump shot
• Set your feet when ever you can
• Ground strokes on the run has the same footwork as shooting on the run
• Open up to hit a ball up the line with a inside out forehand is comparable to a a “Leaner” or even a look away skip pass on EMO.
• Staying closed, holding your opponent in place to pull a cross court forehand or backhand is akin to a time and room pull shot.

I’m sure there are many more and I’d love to hear your feedback as I am going to create a document of sports analogies to share with you all. Bottom line, tennis is GREAT for lacrosse!

Coaching Lacrosse

I got a call “out of the blue” from JT Pitcher, an assistant coach at Auburn HS in Syracuse, NY who wanted to talk lacrosse.I had recruited him back in my early days at Denver, but he went to Penn and was recruited by Marc Van Arsdale, played for Matt Hogan as a freshman and then for Brian Voelker for his last three years. I had never met JT, but he said he got my name from a mutual friend, Matt Bocklet. I tell you this story because JT is an example of part of what it takes to be a great coach. He has a voracious appetite for learning and he sought me out while on vacation with his family. I felt honored actually. We met for lunch and talked lacrosse.

In all of my podcast interviews I ask Division I coaches what they do to “Sharpen their saw.” They basically do what JT does. They seek out people who they think they can learn from.Lars had a great quote, “Even if you don’t want to change what you do, you need to know what everyone else is doing.”

Part of the fun of coaching is the never ending quest to learn the best methodology to develop players, run a motion offense, coach defense with simple rules that cover every situation. The problem is, for most of us lacrosse is not our career so we can’t just set up these types of meetings as often as a DI coach would.

Your solution is the JM3 Coaches Training Program. It has the best content you can find on the web and we’ve just begun! Check video about the program: https://vimeo.com/277509797

And if you want to sign up, go to www.JM3Coaches.com ….. It’s going to be the best way for you to sharpen your saw!