I get to toot my own horn a little bit here! I am very excited to report that I am attending a LAREDO (LAcrosse REferee DevelOpment) clinic in Vail, Colorado this summer. US Lacrosse did a short story on the LAREDO program, and I was asked to contribute a few quotes about it. Here is the full article:

Officiating a high school boys’ lacrosse game in Arizona in late April, Ben Vosika and the rest of the crew came upon a call that confused them.

“We were dumbfounded for a second,” Vosika, 26, said.

“But then I was talking with my fellow officials, and I was like, ‘Well, I’ve been in this situation before. I know what to do,’ he said. “We talked about that in Florida, so I knew exactly how to handle the situation. That happens all the time.”

So Vosika made the call, and he made it with conviction. He was referencing his experience at the 2011 US Lacrosse Level 2 Lacrosse Referee Development (LAREDO) program in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., at the US Lacrosse Under-15 National Championships, presented by Champion.

Since the late 1980s, LAREDO clinics have provided training for lacrosse officials across the country. Initially hosted at the Vail Lacrosse Shootout in Vail, Colo., the LAREDO program was designed to teach three-man mechanics to officials on the West Coast.

US Lacrosse in January announced its newly redesigned certification and training program for men’s lacrosse officials. As part of the changes, Vail now is known as a Level 3 LAREDO. It is designed for officials ready to make the jump from two- to three-man mechanics and join the ranks of the US Lacrosse Collegiate Officials Committee.

Vosika was one of eight officials selected from a group of 28 applicants to attend the 2012 Vail Shootout, the premiere Level 3 LAREDO for the “cream of the officiating crop.”

US Lacrosse supports the promotion of amateur lacrosse by providing men’s officials nationwide for games at all levels. Through its men’s officials training program, US Lacrosse gives training, services and representation for those who wear the black-and-white stripes. The LAREDO clinics play a significant role, as more than 250 officials will go through the program in 2012. In turn, the LAREDO program aids in US Lacrosse’s standardization efforts.

“Consistency is huge,” said Charlie Obermayer, officials program manager at US Lacrosse. “As the game gets bigger and bigger and we’re more visible, the pressure is on us to grow the game the right way. The LAREDOs bring everyone together and gets everyone on the same page.”

On an individual level, the LAREDO programs provide instruction on mechanics and game management, but also “nit-pick the little itty-bitty finer details of officiating to make each official the best they can be,” Obermayer said.

Like Vosika, Gordon Corsetti attended a Level 2 LAREDO in Florida and will complete the Level 3 LAREDO in Vail this summer.

“The best thing I gained was confidence,” Corsetti, 24, said. “It was a night-and-day difference. Clinicians with 30-plus years of experience looked at me and said, ‘Hey, you’re doing a solid job. Keep it up.’ That was huge on top of the intricate teaching methods.”

Corsetti and Vosika raved about the relationship-building benefits of their Level 2 LAREDO experiences, and they’re both looking forward to Level 3 at Vail in July, as it will position them for future NCAA assignments.

“I had a blast. It was a rockin’ time. It was a lot of fun,” Corsetti said. “My only thing was I wished it hadn’t ended. I wanted to keep going. Overall, I would give it two thumbs up. And I would give it more if I could.”

For interested officials, space still remains in several of the July LAREDOs, including the Level 2 clinic in Florida that needs 25 members, and several Level 3 events in Ann Arbor, Mich., Springfield, Mass., and Chapel Hill, N.C. More registration information can be found by clicking here.

— Matt Forman

Now onto my true purpose for posting this article. We need more adult and youth officials! Do you want the best seat in the house? Do you find stripes attractive? Then officiating may be for you!

If you are interested in being trained in officiating lacrosse in Georgia head to www.galaxref.com/contact, and fill out the contact form. Please select Adult Officials Training, or Youth Officials Training for the subject line menu.

Featured Image Credit – www.uslacrosse.org

Cheers,
Gordon

]]> http://ayllax.com/rockin-the-usl-laredo-training/feed 0 http://ayllax.com/oldies-but-goodies http://ayllax.com/oldies-but-goodies#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 13:38:11 +0000 Gordon http://ayllax.com/?p=5310
The Last Lecture (I think this ...]]> Below are a compilation of some posts from the early blogging days of your’s truly. While they are dated by about a year or so, they are still quite relevant to the sport. Also, this gives me a little bit of extra time to get my writing schedule in order, and do some research on future content. As always, if anyone has any ideas for future posts, please comment below or email rules@ayllax.com.

• The Last Lecture (I think this video should be required viewing for any coach)
• So You Had A Bad Game
• Yes Sir, No Sir
• Mouthguard. Get A Good One
• AYL TV – Slashing
• True Leadership in Youth Sports
• Off Hand Resolution
• Communication In Youth Sports
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Lacrosse (probably one of my favorite past posts)

I think that makes a pretty good and broad list of some past posts that are still very applicable to the game as we move into the summer. Feel free to comment below, and let me know what kind of topics you want written about!

Featured Image Credit - www.oldies.rad.io

Cheers,
Gordon

1. More Posts! – I’m done with the spring semester, which means I’m not working my studies (1 year to go for my Psychology Major!), which means more posts for our avid readers.
2. More Instructional Videos! – I’ll be doing a few different video series throughout the summer. Each month will have a theme, and there will be roughly two to four videos per month. I have decided that the month of May will be Basics Month, as it is always good to start with the fundamentals! June will be Penalties Month, and July is currently TBD, but if you have any ideas for videos feel free to email me at: rules@ayllax.com.
3. Possible AYL Forum – still need to work some technical issues out, but we may roll out an online forum at the end of the summer where our members will be free to ask questions about the various programs and seasons that AYL offers. This way the information can be shared by all, and questions answered quickly by your favorite WebMaster.
4. Polls, surveys, and discussions! I really want the AYL Blog to become discussion based. Where visitors put in their opinions about each post or topic. I will be adding different user interaction tools over the summer to see where our visitors and members are coming from, what everyone wants to see from AYL, and to get some good discussions going about honoring the game and how best to coach all of our youth players.
5. Posts are back on Facebook and Twitter! – Through some unfortunate technical errors, I blame computer gnomes, we lost our ability to post to Facebook and Twitter. We’ll we are back online and posting to everyone’s favorite social networks. Feel free to friend us, or retweet our posts.
6. Online Donations! – We love that our members love to give back to AYL by providing donations. We are currently streamlining the back-end process for online donations to make it easy and secure to donate to Atlanta Youth Lacrosse to your heart’s content. Remember, all donations are tax-deductible.
7. Any further ideas or improvements to www.ayllax.com can always be emailed to rules@ayllax.com, or submitted using the comment function below this post.

Well, that is what is on the docket for Atlanta Youth Lacrosse from a web development and blogging standpoint. I hope everyone is excited for everything that will be rolled out over the coming months. I hope everyone has a great summer!

Featured Image Credit – www.hot-chocolate-summer.tumblr.com

Cheers,
Gordon

The main menu has been trimmed down to the six most important options that visitors go to regularly:

1. Seasons
2. Schedules
3. Rosters
4. Blog
5. Contact
6. Register

Each of these pages were visited multiple times by repeated visitors so I wanted to keep them front and center for all of our members.

Next up, the top menu. The Atlanta Coyotes, and S.T.A.R. Volunteer websites were added, along with Mary Jo’s Photobucket Account, and the AYL YouTube Page. Also added was the Directions page, which is visited quite frequently.

I am finally pleased with the look and feel of the AYL website. It has taken three years, a few variations, but I am finally at a stopping point. Now I can get back to what I like doing – writing posts about lacrosse.

Hope everyone likes the site.

Cheers,
Gordon

On the officials side, I was once again swamped and inundated by the amount of experience in the rooms. I got to attend Al Blau’s presentation on “How to Handle the Difficult Situation,” which was absolutely fantastic. He gave great advice for every official on how to handle difficult coaches, players, fans, and even fellow officials that may prove adversarial. I gained a lot of new techniques that will hopefully make me a better official this year.

Jerry Markbreit

The best part on the official’s side of things was the very first keynote address for officials. The keynote speaker was Jerry Markbreit a long-time NFL referee, who is now in charge of NFL officials training. He related hilarious story after hilarious story, including one where he nearly got into a fight on the field with a player! It was one of those speeches that you could hear 100 times and still be entertained by it. It was a great way to wrap up the day.

While the presentations and speeches ended, that was not the end of the second day. The coaches and I relaxed in the hotel for a bit, and then got together with a few other friends to one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in the United States – Ralph’s. I have never seen veal parmesan as large as a loaf of bread. I got a tremendous ziti with mushrooms and shrimp. Word of the day on the food? Strong! After the truly exceptional meal at Ralph’s we all headed back to the hotel lobby where we hung out with fellow coaches and officials. I went back to the room a little early to study, and prepare for the Level 1 training that I was going to teach on Sunday night.

For Day 3 there was not too much going on. The convention was winding down, and the Philadelphia Convention Center was being turned around to host another event. I did attend the “Train the Trainer” presentation, which detailed everything that US Lacrosse is working on to improve the development of new and experienced lacrosse officials. I gained a few useful bits of information before having to head back to the airport for our one o’clock flight. Only, thanks to Andy, we didn’t have to wait till one o’clock. We got through security so fast that Coach Andy asked the attendant if we could get on the 11:40am flight. They had plenty of room on the flight, and we were stoked that we did not have to wait in the airport lounge at all.

All of us made it back safely on an uneventful flight. Satisfied in a great weekend full of lacrosse and lacrosse knowledge. As I did last year I highly recommend attending the convention for any aspiring coach or official. On top of seeing a lot of cool lacrosse swag, there is an abundance of knowledge for everyone who attends the presentations. I would like to thank Coach Lou for taking Shaun Lux, Andy Halperin, and I to the convention, and I want to thank all three of those guys for making this year’s convention an absolute blast.

Cheers,
Gordon

After spending a little time on the Convention floor, it was time for me to go to a variety of officiating sessions. I will not bore you with the details, but I learned a tremendous amount of new techniques that will make me a better official, and hopefully, make our youth refs better as well.

Herm Edwards

After all of the classes were over it was time for the keynote address by Herm Edwards. I must say I was incredibly excited to listen to this man speak, and I was not disappointed. From my perspective, Mr. Edward’s address focused on three main things:

• How to coach
• How to let the kids play
• How to grow and honor the game

His entire presentation asked every coach and official in the building to ask ourselves – “When I leave this game, will I leave it better than I found it?” That was the center of his speech. What will we leave behind to our children as our legacy in this sport? Will we improve it for the better, or just go through the motions? Will we play and coach passionately, or will we be content to let someone else do that?

I believe Mr. Edwards hit the bullseye with his speech, when he said “it starts with the little ones.” Atlanta Youth Lacrosse is a great youth organization because we do our best to focus on the kids, and their development as stewards of the game. Mr. Edwards spoke about sports reflecting life, and how life will be both good and bad. Just like sports. He said he wants his own children to hear the word no from a coach. He wants his own children to get benched by a coach if necessary. Essentially, he wants his children to experience adversity through sports. So they can deal with adversity when it comes in life.

After his passionate speech came to an end, he opened things up for audience questions. We were very fortunate, as there were some excellent questions. One of the questions went along the lines of “how do you motivate players who feel they are entitled?” Mr. Edwards gave a brief chuckle at the question, but his response was poignant.

He said that sports is about inconvenience. I will repeat that. Sports is about inconvenience. He told a story where he got his entire team up at 3:00am, herded them onto the bus for a five hour drive to play the New York Giants in a practice. He had the entire sleepy team dress in a cold gym, and get taped up on a freezing floor. Then he huddled everyone up. He said “are you tired?” Yes, came a weary reply. Mr. Edwards said guess what? In ten minutes you are going outside to play the New York Giants, and they got to sleep in late in their comfortable dorms, eat a full breakfast, and dress in a warm locker room. They are comfortable, and if you go out and play the way you sound right now – you are going to get the bejeezus knocked out of you. Mr. Edwards said that he created some inconvenience because he wanted his players to experience unpleasantness, but play through it. He didn’t want any excuses or rationalizations – no. He wanted his players to deal with inconvenience. Here’s a short clip about excuses that I found while searching for some motivational videos. If this doesn’t make you realize that your inconveniences are not that great I don’t know what will.

Well, I hope you are enjoying the Convention live blogging, as I am having a blast writing about these experiences. Stay tuned later today or early tomorrow for Day 2!

Cheers,
Gordon

Pat's King Of Steaks

Upon arriving in Phillly, Coach Lou made good on his promise and had our cab driver make a beeline to Pat’s King of Steaks. An unbelievably good spot for an authentic Philly cheesesteak. I had a Pepper Cheesesteak. The first, last, and middle bites were all heaven. I’m hoping that we have a few more opportunities for quality cheesesteaks while we’re here.

After our cheesesteak excursion, we checked into our hotel and proceeded towards the Convention registration. Here we all got the goodie bag, which included a myriad of lacrosse publications, a lanyard for our ID tag, gloves, and, for some reason, a frisbee.

With our registration complete we headed towards the hotel lobby to share drinks and hilarious story after hilarious story. As usual, Coach Lou had all of us dying with some clever jokes. Being in the lobby, we ran into a lot of friends and acquaintances. That is by far the best thing about the lacrosse community, it is so close knit. We couldn’t go ten minutes without someone going “Louie!, Shaun!”

Eventually though, your trusty blogger had to call it a night and get some studying done. Make sure to tune in tomorrow night for a write up on the first official day of the convention!

Cheers,
Gordon

As Jimmy V said; if you can laugh, think, and cry – you’ve had a full day. With that, here’s Jimmy V’s speech:

If you would like to donate to the Jimmy V Foundation, you may do so here: http://www.jimmyv.org/index.php. 100% of your donation will go towards cancer research.

“Don’t give up … Don’t ever give up,”
Jim Valvano

Rule #1 – Hustle Everywhere

• Coaches and evaluators are looking for the players who hustle all the time. I don’t care if you are the bomb-diggity player of your lacrosse team. If you do not hustle you will not make a select team. So how do you show hustle everywhere? Simple – do not let a coach see you walking. Jog from your car to the sideline. Move with purpose from drill-to-drill. Run at a million-miles per hour when you need to slide or get open. I kid you not, there will be evaluators who write down: “Great player but does not run anywhere.” Prepare yourself for two hours of exertion – if you are not tired at the end of a tryout something is amiss.

Rule #2 – Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

• This should go without saying, but you need to be prepared for a tryout. That means waking up on time, eating a solid breakfast, drinking water well before the tryout to stay hydrated, and having all of your required gear. Do not be the one player who comes up to a coach without a glove. That tells me two things. One, this player does not care about his equipment. Two, this player wants the coach to bail them out of trouble. Check your lacrosse bag when you pack it at night for all your gear. Then check it again before you leave the house in the afternoon.

Rule #3 – Pay Attention

• The tryout moves with or without you. Coaches are going to explain a drill one time, then they will start the drill. Coaches will not waste time because one player out of fifty was not paying attention and needs them to repeat the instruction. Every time I see a player with wandering eyes while I give out instruction, I make mental note of their number, and it is not a positive mental note. Each player at a tryout should give their supreme effort to pay attention at all times. If you do that, you will not get left behind.

Rule #4 – Caution, Fast Objects

• Coaches want players who can play fast. That means running hard, passing the ball quickly, and sliding with speed. They want Attack players who will V-cut as quickly as they can. They want midfielders to fly off the wing lines on a face-off. They want defenders to slide aggressively, and they want Goalies to get the ball upfield quickly. However, above all of this, coaches want the ball passed fast. I guarantee you they will not care if you drop the ball occasionally, so long as you are firing that ball out of your stick like a clown out of a circus cannon.

Rule #5 – Talk!

• I hate silence at a tryout. As a coach, I am going to be completely hoarse by the end of the day, and players should be tired from moving their mouths throughout the practice. Coaches want to hear players talk constantly. That means saying “I’ve got your help,” “One more,” I’ve got your left,” “Fire, Fire, Fire!” The only time you should not be talking is when the coach is talking. When you are in a drill, make it your mission to be the best communicator out there.

Rule #6 – Don’t Wallow In Your Mistakes

• You are going to make mistakes at the tryout. No one has ever had a perfect tryout, and no one ever will. Tryouts are meant to challenge a player, and challenge means adversity. You will drop a pass, miss a shot, or get beat on a dodge. Do not make a big deal out of it. The coaches are looking for a player who makes a mistake on one play, and then comes roaring back with a vengeance. They want a player who cares enough about a mistake to change their game to fix it, but does not concern themselves with a past mistake. Coaches want forward-thinking players. If you screw up, accept your mistake, and then fix it. Players who can do that prove to coaches that they deserve a shot.

Rule #7 – Do You Want It? (Also known as “fire in the belly”)

• Some players try out, but they don’t really want to try out. Maybe their friends were on last year’s team. Perhaps their parents want them to play on a travel team. You need to have the fire to be on an elite team. I’ve been doing this for so long I can look at a player for five minutes in a scrimmage and tell if they have the fire in the belly to be on the team. These are the players who follow Rules 1-6. They hustle, they talk, they move fast, but above all they want to be at that tryout, and they show that through their actions.

Rule #8 – Leave Everything On The Field

• While I do not guarantee that following Rules 1-7 will earn you a spot on a travel team. I do guarantee that if you leave everything on the field, you will have a successful tryout. Remember, if you put your heart into your game a coach will notice you. They may decide to wait a year, but you will be on their minds as a player who puts all the effort they have into the game of lacrosse.

I hope all of the players reading this are as excited about tryouts as I am. The other coaches and I will give you our very best, will you give us yours?

Cheers,
Gordon

P.S. – I will be resuming a regular blogging schedule next week. Every Tuesday and Friday you may expect a post. As always, topic suggestions may be emailed to: rules@ayllax.com 

The September Beginner Clinics will focus on building basic skills that each player needs to be successful at lacrosse. We will teach: cradling, ground balls, catching, passing, dodging, and shooting. These skills will build on one another each clinic and each week. The goal is to make each player who shows up feel confident in the fundamental skills of lacrosse.

The SBCs are free-of-charge and will be taught to any beginner player that wants to show up at the appointed times below. We recommend players show up 10-15 minutes early for introductions and to get their gear on. Any questions about the SBCs may be sent to info@ayllax.com.

NOTE - These clinics are only open to 3rd-6th graders. We have limited weekly field space, and players under third grade will learn a basic skill during group warm-ups each weekend.

Clinics will run on the following Tuesdays and Thursdays:

• 9/13 and 9/15
• 9/20 and 9/22
• 9/27 and 9/29

The times and groups are as follows:

• 3rd & 4th grade: 4:30-5:25pm
• 5th & 6th grade: 5:30-6:25pm

Players will need to bring:

• All gear required for a game (equipment page)
• Personal water bottle (we will have a cooler at the field just in case)
• Enthusiasm (nothing beats a player who is willing to learn)

Once the September Beginner Clinics conclude on the 29th, Atlanta Youth Lacrosse will offer position-specific clinics in October. Information on those clinics including price and how to register will come out in later posts and newsletter communications. Again, all questions may be sent to info@ayllax.com.

Cheers,
Gordon