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 hope everyone has had a great July! There’s a ton of stuff to talk about so let’s get after it!

Playoff Lacrosse in Canada

Last night was game five of the BC Junior A best of 7 series with the winner headed to the Minto Cup. The matchup features two of the best all-time nicknames: The New Westminster Salmonbellies and the Coquitlam Adanacs. What is an Adanac you ask? It’s Canada spelled backwards. Tell me that name wasn’t invented in a bar! “Hey buddy, I know what we should call the team!”

The Adanacs have one of the better goalies in the history of Jr A lacrosse in Christian DelBianco. Jr A is a 21 and under league and Christian was up for Goalie of the Year in the National Lacrosse League last year with the Calgary Roughnecks. The nets are smaller 4 x 4’6’’ in Jr A than they are in the NLL 4 x 4’9’’ so you can imagine how nice it must be to get back to a bigger wood stick in a smaller net.

Last night Coquitlam won a pivotal game five. 13-2, with game six on Sunday night 5pm PT. You can tune in on playfullscreen.com and I highly recommend you do. I watch in part because my son plays for the Adanacs, but I’d watch anyway! It is great lacrosse!

Notable players in this series

• New West's Tre Leclaire, Team Canada and Ohio State All-American
• Coquitlam's Chase Scanlan, Iroquois Nationals, an IMG product, headed to Loyola,. Mark my words, this kid will be a multi year All American and the next Lyle Thompson. They play eerily similarly. He’s off the charts good.
• Coquitlam's Ryland Reese, Team Candada, All World Team 2018, Stony Brook University

Jake Elliott on Playfullscreen.com

One of the best parts of the webcast of the games is listening to Jake “Jumbo” Elliott call the game. This guy has a great voice, immense knowledge, sees everything! For me, I didn’t grow up watching/playing box lacrosse, so I love watching when an expert is calling the game.

Girls Box Lacrosse

Next week my daughters and I head up to Whitby, Ontario for Provincials. It will be the culmination of a summer of girl’s box which has been been remarkably fun and productive. For about six weeks of the summer, there were between 4-10 girls playing box in St. Catharines. Our daily routine was a pick-up game before lunch, floor time with a box goalie in the afternoon (which never gets old), and St Kitt’s box practice or games at night. The girls got so much better, smarter, tougher and their love for the game grew as well. It was especially fun for them to make so many new friends! There are some pretty hard core box lacrosse girls up there too….. with maple leaf tattoos with crossed sticks on their calfs!

Box Lacrosse Game Breakdown

I did a couple game breakdowns this week that were a total blast! Paul Day, Head Coach and GM of the Philadelphia Wings, and I did a box lacrosse game breakdown of a regular season match up between the Peterborough Lakers and the Brooklin Redmen. This is a must watch if you are interested in box lacrosse and understanding the nuances of two man game, shooting, finishing etc. Here’s the link https://vimeo.com/282596073

USA - Canada Gold Medal Game

On Thursday of this week I did a game breakdown with Jacksonville Head Coach and Team USA goalie, John Galloway. It was so cool to listen to John’s insights on the game plan, the match-ups, and the adjustments. Here’s the link https://vimeo.com/282911940

Previous Game Breakdowns

Denver-Notre Dame 2015 Final 4 with Cleveland State Head Coach Dylan Sheridan

Duke-Maryland 2018 NCAA Tourney with Vermont Head Coach Chris Feifs

Yale-Albany 2018 Tourney game with Utah Head Coach Brian Holman

Boston College-James Madison NCAA Women’s Final with Northwestern Assistant Coach Scott Hiller

I have done a half dozen game breakdowns since mid May and they have been very well received and fun to do. Watching a game with experts gives you a real appreciation for the depth of their knowledge as well as their passion for the game.

Game breakdowns share with the viewers the “What” and the “Why.” Learning the nuances of skill and concept begins with understanding exactly WHAT is happening. Next is learning WHY something works, or doesn’t work or WHY would players or coaches do that.

Understanding the “What” and the “Why” are important and exceedingly interesting, but the real key to coaching is understanding the “How” and the “When.”

• How do I teach this skill?
• When does this skill apply or not apply?
• How do I integrate this into our repertoire?
• When do I introduce this to the team?
• How do I run a drill that creates the environment that teaches this concept?
• How do I coach this skill if I can’t actually do it myself?
• When in my practice can I integrate these skills/concepts?
• How much time should I spend on this?

If you are finding the game breakdowns with the “What” and the “Why” interesting, you will love the JM3 Coaches Training Program www.JM3Coaches.combecause it will teach you the “How” and the “When.”

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast

My latest podcast was with Joe Keegan from moneyballlacrosse.com. If you don’t already know Joe’s work, check out his site. You will find his videos, analysis and stats fascinating. I’ve been on a little bit of an analytics kick lately, which is incredibly important for everyone (Players/Parents/Coaches) to understand.

Joe sent me the stats below. The shooting percentages from Major League lacrosse generated from certain actions. Does it make you re-think your offensive philosophy a little bit? Does it make you re-think what you’re practicing in the backyard?

The most common actions by far are also by far the least productive. Two-man games are significantly and consistently more efficient than isolation and dodging from the wing is “Where it’s at!”

Two-man games and Player Development

Maybe the biggest benefit of 2man games is the developmental factor. Learning to play with another player, to read the defense, to read the screen, to set up your man, and to see the field while operating in the pick and roll are absolutely critical to the development of IQ.

Two-man games and College Recruiting

College coaches are looking for the biggest, fastest, most skilled players they can find, but the fact is the smartest players are the ones you win with. The single biggest indicator of IQ and “Processing” ability happens on both sides of the ball in two-man games.

If you are an aspiring college lacrosse player for women’s or men’s lacrosse, make sure you are learning and mastering the two-man game and find a club team that runs it.

Two-man games in Men’s DI Lacrosse

Between Big-Little situations behind the goal and all the Pairs offenses, two-man games are already a staple of every DI offense. Every team is running a healthy diet of two-man all over the field and are facing it with every opponent. You can’t win with out being great at two-man games offensively and defensively.

Two-man games in Women’s DI Lacrosse

In the next 3-5 years I predict that this will be as prevalent in women’s lacrosse as it has become in men’s lacrosse. Two-man is even better in women’s lacrosse than men’s lacrosse because there are no long poles! According to Joe Keegan’s moneyballlacrosse.com stats, Short stick to Short stick two-man games (as opposed to Big-Little or Big-Big) produced a whopping 35% shooting percentage in the MLL. In women’s lacrosse, every two-man game is short to short. Further, by bringing a defender to the ball it reduces the number of help defenders. If you slide to a 1v1 dodge, the defense will have two on the ball while five off ball defensive players guard six offensive players. If a defense has to slide to a two-man game it leaves four players to guard five. This is a significant difference!

The Atlanta Blaze and Dave Huntley

Good luck to the Blaze tonight as they are one win away from making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Led by two of my favorite players I’ve ever coached, Scott Ratliff and Adam Ghittleman, I’m hoping they can get it done!

If the Blaze can do it, we will all be thinking about the late Dave Huntley who along with current GM Spencer Ford put the pieces together to build a winner. As Hunts once said to me, “My greatest strength is also my greatest weakness, and that is letting my players play.” Hunts inspired confidence with his trust in his players and I hope he can smile down on them tonight. Good luck Atlanta!