The newest Nike Lacrosse commercial promotes their mini-sticks, but more than anything, it serves up an important message to lacrosse players:
PLAY SMALL BALL!
Small ball in the video above means 2-on-2, with mini sticks, a soft foam ball, and two small cages. While this definition is nice, the real point here is to shrink down the game of lacrosse, and just play. You can use small or regular sticks. You can use a soft ball of any size. You can use goals, or buckets, or hats, or pipes, or anything you want, for goals. Wear gloves and helmets or don’t wear any pads and play an honor game where defense with your feet is the way to go.
However you go about small ball, the main driver remains the same: Smaller lacrosse games give you more touches, and more chances to improve.
Far too often I hear kids complain that a team doesn’t practice enough, or that they can’t get enough kids together, or find a free field, to work on their own. The fact is, there are places to play all around us, no matter where we live.
In rural or suburban areas, backyards abound. Use them! You don’t need a 100 yard long piece of turf. 20-30 yards of open grass is just as good! Don’t have a goal? Make one, or make a target out of something else, like an old trash barrel, or some scrap wood. Want to play up and down, make two goals or targets. I’ve done it, and it’s not hard!
On top of forcing you to be creative with your goals and fields, AND forcing you to be creative on the field, small ball is just straight up fun, and also happens to be great for conditioning. A FINAL benefit is that it allows kids to come up with their own rules, and forces them to settle their differences amongst themselves. It grows kids as people, and it makes them better players.
There MANY versions of small ball. 3X Lacrosse, Casey Powell’s Speed Lacrosse, Small Ball, etc, etc. I don’t really which one you play, as long as you play. Play all of them! Just do it.
I’ve seen small ball played on fields, backyards, apartment hallways (seriously), parks, concrete patches, wall ball courts, basketball courts, and every other surface imaginable. If you love lacrosse, as so many say they do, you’ll find a way to play small ball.
