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Hot Pot Of Lax: Fall Ball Lessons From… ATLANTA?

Best practices in the lacrosse world often come from established areas, where success has already been achieved in a number of ways, but if you limit yourself to “hotbed only” instruction, you just might be missing out on other interesting and educated approaches to the game. This week’ Hot Pot seeks to shed a little light on some great advice from Atlanta of all places! Hey, Grow The Game, right?

In the case of fall ball, the above is especially true; and I recently found an article on the Atlanta Youth Lacrosse website that really delivers some great points about fall ball, and why there is such an over emphasis on some of the less important aspects nowadays.

First, the AYL blogger, Gordon, lays out “what is fall ball?

It’s a time to improve skills you already have, develop new skills, and fall in love with lacrosse through fair play and sportsmanship. I’m with him on that clean and simple definition.

Then, Gordon gets into “what fall ball is NOT“. He points out that the games don’t matter, the idea is to have fun and enjoy the game of lacrosse, and to improve as a person as much as a player. Personally, I think the author may be too big a supporter of the phrase “goofing off”, but his point that fall ball should be FUN certainly stands.

However, my favorite part of the article has to be the portion where the author lays out the responsibilities of players, coaches, parents and even the officials, and goes in-depth as to what this means. (It’s about half way down the article.)

Here’s a little snippet from his advice to coaches:

Chill out. You are not coaching in an NCAA final. You aren’t even coaching in a state playoff game. Win, lose or draw no Fall Ball game has any impact on regular season standings. So try to keep the game in perspective.

Good point! I see way too many parents and coaches screaming on the sidelines. They are yelling for and at their kids, at the coaches, at the refs and sometimes even at the other parents. It’s embarrassing really. So once again, I’m with Gordon here!

Check out the Atlanta Youth Lacrosse page for the full article, it’s well worth the read!

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LACROSSE IN OTHER NEWS:

– Want to play goalie at Cuse? You have a 1 in 7 shot. | Syracuse.com

– George Huguely sentencing is quickly approaching | CBS News

– Massachusetts teen attack another teen with a lacrosse stick for $20 | My Fox Boston

– Should we combine men’s and women’s lacrosse? | The Forecaster

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LACROSSE VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Did you start a club team in the last five years? Do you have a promo video like the one above? NO??? You should. Excellent work here!