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ProLax Lacrosse Camp – Golden Goal Tournament Park: Day 3 and 4

After 6 hours of driving I have finally have arrived back home in South Jersey and although my last camp of the summer is over, the work is certainly not done yet. I had such a blast at Golden Goal and I’m anxious to get this story and highlight video out to the masses ASAP. After this post, I definitely think you’re going to want to throw this camp on your list of summer camps for 2012.

Day 3:

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
I do love this place!

Our last full day of lax sessions. Kids were especially tired at this point due to the past two days of intense lax, and our World Cup Soccer Tourney (in between lax sessions), so we decided to start the day off with something fun to get the guys excited about the day. Before stretching and getting into our serious drills we played a quick game of sharks and minnows… lax style. It was simple, everyone had a ball while LSM extraordinaire and coach Brian Karalunas and I played D.  If we stripped the ball from you, you became a shark. We kept playing until there was one man left standing and he was crowned the winner. Video can be found in the highlight!

After that, instead of basic line drills, we decided to do half field weave drills for both GBs, and passing, and then we alternated between the two. For the alternating drill player 1 rolled the ball to player 2 and player 2 threw the ball to player 3, all while following the ball. This required the players to communicate to keep from messing up the drill and all the kids did amazingly despite it being so early in the morning.

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Getting the legs loose! Sticks warm!

Coach noticed something during the drill regarding some dropped passes.  Some players weren’t using “soft hands” while catching passes, and you weren’t gonna get these soft hands from hand lotion. We discussed the proper way to catch while using “soft hands” to try and fix the cause behind those dropped passes. We always practice what we preach, so after we had a passing competition amongst the campers. Their goal was to see how many passes they could compete from a few feet away in a minute. Ideally they would want to do quick sticks, but how they passed the ball was their choice. Turns out quick sticks was the way to go, with Zach and and Trevor winning it all with 76 passes in 1 minute. You heard that right.

To finish the morning session we had a ground ball competition. To make it especially interesting competitors had to lay on their back looking up at the sky and they had to wait for the go call to flip over, track down the ball and bring it back over the line. Each round was 3 on 3 with a few practice rounds and then finally a competition between the two teams.

We grubbed up and all chilled out in the cabin where we finally got Reed to rap for us.  Once again, check it out in the highlight vid.

For the afternoon session: back by popular demand… sharks and minnows. This time I made sure we had coverage and of course I had to rep the sharks team with LaxAllSharks gear.

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Sharks and Minnows!
Jimmy Ciccone
you know my steez.

And check this out guys, you’ll never believe this.

 

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Is this real life?

We broke off into offense and defense to fine tune a few things. Brian Karalunas worked on some positioning issues and a bit on talking/communication and I worked on shooting on the run with the offense.

 

Rip on the run city lacrosse
Rip on the run City.
GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Getting artsy.

These drills would be worth nothing if we did not throw them into game situation drills so we did some 5 on 4’s, critiqued any mistakes and made sure the kids understood everything and have everything locked down until we called it an end for the afternoon session.

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Getting after it.
GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps
Gorgeous scenery. Is this convincing you to attend next summer yet?

Everyone ate dinner and just relaxed and hung out until it was every campers favorite session, night session, where we get to play mini lax to always end the day competitive, but fun.

GOlden goal tournament park ProLax Camps clown car
Pre-minilax clown car.
serious mini lax
serious mini lax

It was the last night night session and our last session with Brian Karalunas so we knew we all wanted to make this night a blast and what better way to start than with mini lax?

Half way through mini lax I had an idea. I quickly hopped into the golf cart and went back to the cabins and got some stick tape. When we returned to the field, while everyone was still playing mini lax I had two of the guys help me tape my camera to my helmet. I mean if I’m going to put a camp recap together I gotta go big for the footage right? At one point it even fell but we were undeterred, we just threw on more layers of tape and kept going and I was able to get some pretty cool footage for our last night.(highlight video will have some helmet cam footage)

Helmet cam homemade
It worked. Seriously.

After mini lax we all went back to the cabins to put our lax gear back and headed down to a camp fire that was awaiting us. There we had to say our goodbyes to Karalunas. Great guy and a great coach to these kids, needless to say everyone was bummed to see him go. The rest of the night me and the other campers just hung out by the fire, swapped life stories, jokes and eventually made a few prank calls. Boys will be boys and I wouldn’t have done any thing differently for the last night. Plenty of laughs and memories that will last, but eventually it was time for bed. One more session.

What was left of the fire.
What was left of the fire.

Who brings a lax shaft to a campfire for protection from woodland creatures? Trevor does.

(Also keep your eyes out in the future for a highlight video of mini lax at Golden Goal. A dad was on hand the first two nights to get some great high quality footage so it deserves a highlight video. It even rained the second night so we had some cool footage of laxin in the rain. Keep an eye out.)

Day 4: Last Session

Final morning and I can’t believe it flew by so quickly. I became so close with counselors and campers alike in these past few days and have had an incredible time. All we got left though is this morning session and then it’s time to pack up and head out.

Last session was all about fun so we started things off with getting our shot speeds clocked in on a radar gun which we did for awhile because none of us like to accept our actual shot speed. We have one more mini lax game and so ends a great week of lacrosse.

Patriot Lacrosse helmet with visor
Dale stole my visor and threw it in his helmet for the last two days.

I gave a few LaxAllStars gear out to some of the guys and then helped kids bring their stuff to their parents’ cars as they came up until they were all gone.

Grow The Game Campers lax lacrosse
GTG! Love it.

The camp was quiet once again as it was on Sunday night. I hung out with coach Dale and his boys for a bit and then we had to say our goodbyes. I took one last look at the camp and began the long drive home back to south jersey. One of the best camps I’ve ever attended.  Everyone made it fun, the staff, the campers, etc. and hopefully I can return next year and hopefully I’ll see you guys there. Be sure to check out Golden Goal Tournament Park and put them on your list of summer camps for 2012. Here’s their website and facebook so be sure to check them out.

Thanks for a fun week guys!
Thanks for a fun week guys!

Also don’t forget to like Upstate Stringing on facebook! Just trying to help these guys grow their stringing business. So please just head over to the page, check them out and like the page!

And as promised here’s the highlight video from the week packed with everything from Katy Perry, to helmet cams and more. Check it out and let me know what you think!

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