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!

The Coquitlam Jr Adanacs

Last Sunday night was the end of an era as the Coquitlam Jr Adanacs were bounced from the Minto Cup with a loss to the Victoria Shamrocks and my son Colin played his last Jr A game for one of the great organizations in the history of box lacrosse.  Becoming the first US player ever to win a Minto in 2016 and following it up with another national championship last year against the Brampton Excelsiors highlights a five year run in Coquitlam that has been so special.  The friends and families,, the teammates, "Wings and Rings" at the "B", the Shack, the Rookie Parties, the shoot arounds, hanging out at outdoor boxes on summer evenings, and living in a true box lacrosse culture has been so special to our son.  For my wife and me, we are just so thankful that Colin was able to follow his...

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!

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast with Arizona State Head Coach, Tim McCormack

I've gotten to know Tim McCormack over the past few years really well in my time consulting with Northwestern Women's Lacrosse.  Tim is simply one of the best people you will ever meet!  Tim is caring, hard working, always curious and interested, and makes you feel like family.  This podcast talks about how he went from a Long Island kid at UMASS to being the Head Coach At ASU!   Tim discusses his mentors, his philosophies, and talks a lot of 2man game!  Click here to enjoy the Tim McCormack Podcast.

Lake Placid Tourney

I hadn't been up to Lake Placid since 2010!  It was SO great to get up to the north country, to see so many great friends, and to play lacrosse!  I played with the Brown State team in the 45+ Gold Division and...

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!

 Podcast with Colgate's Matt Karweck

Check out my latest Phi-Lacrosse-ophy podcast with Head Coach of Colgate Lacrosse, Matt Karweck.  The 2nd year head coach has an exciting and refreshing vision for the Red Raiders centered on the student athlete experience, helping his players and staff become "Their best selves" and  an up tempo / push transition style of play combined with pressure defense.  I would love to play for this guy!  Click here to enjoy the Matt Karweck Podcast.

Podcast with Arizona State University Head Coach, Tim McCormack

This podcast will drop next week!  Tim is a former 3 year starter for Greg Canella and the UMass Minutemen, who was ready to take the assistant men's position at Holy Cross when UMass legend Scott Hiller called to see if he would have interest in working at...

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!

Summer Recruiting Sanity

Like many parents around the country this weekend, I'm at a summer recruiting tournament with my aspiring college lacrosse player!  It's early in the summer recruiting and with the heightened excitement to play travel lacrosse with friends and against new competition, staying in team hotels and fun Friday night dinners also comes stress.  Stress can hit even the best of us who are trying to keep everything in perspective and can ruin the weekend for everyone involved!  The key to enjoying the weekend is to set proper expectations.  Here are a few:

• When your son or daughter was born, you weren't thinking about college lacrosse.  You hoped they would grow up happy and healthy, to learn life lessons through successes and failures and someday go to college.  Our kids are...

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!

Memorial Day Weekend might be my favorite weekend of the year!  Graduation parties, barbecues, family and of course, Championship Weekend!  I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am!

Summer Recruiting

As spring high school lacrosse transitions to summer recruiting, please remember this: If you are not good enough, there is nothing to talk about!  Ask yourself, "How is my son or daughter going to get better this summer?"  If your answer is, "he/she is playing a ton of tourneys," you are hitting the nail right on the side!   

I encourage all parents to actually count how many touches your kid gets in a game.  How many dodges, how many shots, how many times was he/she dodged against.  You will be shocked, dismayed, and depressed over how few touches players actually get in...

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!

College Lacrosse Recruiting

The topic this week is "getting looks" versus "getting better."  From my experience, most families get caught up in getting looks at the expense of getting better.  The summer is no exception to this constant improvement paradigm, in fact it is a huge opportunity.  College coaches will watch a prospect play live multiple times in order to make a decision on their ability.  If a coach notices improvement over the course of the summer it is impactful.

The best Division I Lacrosse programs employ the same model of consistent individual skill development during the season with the thought the best way to make your team better is to make your players better.  Duke, Denver, Yale are great examples programs where the players seem to add to their repertoire of moves, shots,...

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!

How To Be A Great Shooter

If you want to learn how to be a great shooter, listen to the Darris Kilgour Podcast from a few months back.  Darris is hands down one of the smartest lacrosse minds I've ever met.  A Native American who grew up on the Tuscarora Reservation just outside of Buffalo, Darris grew up playing backyard lacrosse at home and box lacrosse just over the boarder in Ontario.  

One of Darris's most brilliant concepts is the idea of learning how to be a deceptive shooter by shooting on a goalie with no ball.  Does this sound crazy?  I've tried it and found this method of teaching deceptive shooting extremely effective because scoring as your measure for a good shot is removed from the equation.  The entire goal is to score the "Air Ball" by moving the goalie or...

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

It's coming Monday!  20+ hours of FREE educational lacrosse content!  The schedule will be coming out shortly, but check out the speakers, it's going to be an awesome week!  Click here for more info on the Virtual Lacrosse Summit.

• Tom Schreiber - How Box Helps Field and How Field Helps Box
• Darris Kilgour - NLL Game Breakdown Bandits/Swarm
• Deemer Class - Duke / Notre Dame Game Breakdown
• Joe Spallina - The Backer Zone Defense
• Jim Berkman - Seagull Drills
• Casey Cittadino - "Mentalytics"
• Marty O'Neil - Box Lacrosse Goaltending
• Marie McCool - Dodging and Shooting
• Spencer Ford - The Art of the Hangup
• Kaillie Briscoe - A New Era in WLax
• Bill Olin - Women's Lacrosse Goaltending
• Drew Wardlow - Redefining Success: Winning on and off the Field
• Greg "Beast" Gurenlian - Dominating the 50/50 Face-off, a...

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!

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast with Brodie Merrill

This was a great interview with a guy who is known as the G.O.A.T. for Long Stick Midfielders, even though he never picked up a pole until he was 16 or 17 years old.  Six years in a row he was MLL Defensive Player of the year while also garnering Defensive Player of the year, Transition Player of the year, and Rookie of the year awards in the NLL.  The '05 Georgetown graduate grew up playing box lacrosse in Orangeville, Ontario and has worn the "C" with most teams he's ever played on.  Brodie is one of the most down to earth, humble people you will ever meet.  We discuss the creation of The Hill Academy, a prep school in Ontario which has become a lacrosse powerhouse, founded by Merrill, his brother, and his parents in 20.  Brodie...

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!

Spring Break San Diego

I write to you from beautiful San Diego where ThunderRidge HS, the girls team I'm helping out with, held spring break training.  It was my first trip to SD for spring break and it was awesome!  The weather, the beaches, the training, the activities were all a great experience!  We got better at lacrosse, got closer as a team, and are primed for the rest of the season!  The girls worked hard for 3 hours per day at practice and then had the rest of the day for activities.  Since we didn't have any games, we were able to work hard and get a lot in!  A barometer I like to use to measure quality practice time is how much shooting do you have time for?  We hammered out 30 minutes per day!  Keeping it fresh made the practices more fun as we introduced and...