Comments on: Coaching Lacrosse With 20 Players Or Less, Part 2

By: tmccartn

tmccartn — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:51:00 +0000

This might be a little off, but I am a part of a very small college team that recently went from MCLA DII to Independent. The main reason we had to go independent was the size of our team. Our team consists of about 13 people, and that is if everyone shows up. We currently have no real goalie, and most of our guys, like myself, have never touched a lacrosse stick before attending college. On top of all this, and I know you are thinking “how can this get any worse?”, we only get at most 7 people at a practice. Do you have any recommendations for a team this small?

By: D. Willson

D. Willson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:47:00 +0000

So you find yourself teaching stick skills to first-year players on a varsity high-school team. Folks, this happens in the non-hotbeds like here in Alabama (or in Northern Virginia twenty years ago when I was in HS). I remembered this article mentioning former MLL/NLL player Josh Sims learning to catch with a shovel ( http://laxallstars.com/tier-lacrosse-modern-sticks-and-player-development/ ), so now I take a women’s stick to practice. We’ve instituted a new rule in practice where two catches that snap at the ball get your stick replaced with my fiancée’s crosse. There’s no snapping at the ball when you have zero pocket, right? Soft hands for the win.

By: jsobey2

jsobey2 — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:34:00 +0000

I coach U13 in a league league that has gone from a total of 58 kids in 2010 to 160 kids this year. I feel very ‘full’ with 24 on my team this year I suppose just because I am used to coaching 15-18. Your #1 point above is what I worry about the most, and hopefully next year we will grow enough to split off a third team at this level because your second point I feel is invaluable at this age, and something I preach hard. I feel my job is to help most players get to the point that when they are a freshman in HS they show up with the ability to fill about any position the coach needs. Then they can look to specialize. Of course there are exceptions, but at the level I coach I adhere to this as much as possible.