Category " Practice"

I’m torn on this particular topic. Oddly, some of my fondest memories are the endless sprints that I ran with my teammates while our coach yelled at us. It created a great “us” versus “him” mentality, bringing the team together. That being said, I am personally against punishment running at the youth level. For me [...]

Many youth players act like Ben Stiller’s character Derek Zoolander when they first start out because they absolutely cannot go left. They are afraid that they will drop the ball, miss a catch, or take a bad shot with their off-hand. This fear eventually turns into a phobia, and they do not even bother rolling [...]

Ah, the delightfully fun game of Marco-Polo. For those unfamiliar with this favorite game go to your local pool before it closes for the summer. If enough kids are around a game of Marco-Polo will eventually get started in the shallow end. How Marco-Polo went from renowned explorer of Asia to namesake of a children’s [...]

One player drops a pass. Then a second, and a third. Suddenly, every player cannot pick up a ground ball and every shot is wide of the cage. What is going wrong? The answer – your team fell victim to the snowball effect. This effect is “descriptive of an entity or situation where something once small [...]

I hated weighing 145 pounds. I hated not having the size of a traditional defenseman. I hated that my physical appearance did not immediately strike fear into the opposing attackmen. However, I loved my field presence. I loved my agility. I loved that I could throw one check and scare the fight out of most players [...]

Believe it or not, there are lacrosse players who tuck their lacrosse stick into bed every night. These players are inseparable from their lacrosse stick. When they go running they carry it. When they eat it leans against their chair. When they go to the beach it is the first thing packed, and when they sleep [...]

I received the best piece of advice on how to be coached after two years of playing lacrosse: “It does not matter if you like the coach. It does matter if the coach likes you.” This is an interesting lesson to learn at 11 years old. What do you mean I have to make the [...]

There was no greater underdog in sports than Rocky Balboa and Mickey knew it. He knew that turning Rocky from a fourth-rate fighter to heavyweight champion would require the most intense training he could conceive. Mickey gave him the tools but Rocky supplied the desire. The following list of Mickey Principles and Quotes is provided [...]