Posted by: Gordon
Every coach hears the question, “Can we scrimmage today?” Here is your answer: “No, we have a practice plan to follow.” Helpful hint: actually have a practice plan on paper or on your phone that you can refer to during practice.
If I’ve learned one thing coaching lacrosse it is that kids do not like being told no. They also forget that you said no very quickly if you get them moving into some sort of drill. Then they’re more focused ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
Right now all across the country an army of youth lacrosse coaches are gearing up for the regular season. They are putting their practice plans together, memorizing their players names and deciding if their kids are old enough to understand a zone defense. Many are head coaches for the very first time, and many still are looking forward to assisting their team’s head coach. I think I can safely say that all of these coaches are excited for the upcoming ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
Many coaches cite coaching legends as their inspiration for their particular coaching style. While my Dad and John Wooden are my two favorite coaches, I gained many insights into working with young players from the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. If you are unfamiliar with the novel, here is a brief synopsis from amazon.com:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
In this post I WILL MAKE ABUNDANT USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS! In case you don’t know, writing in capital letters online means the writer is screaming or yelling the words. I will be using capital letters often in today’s post because I want to get to what I believe is a poor behavior among new coaches, which happens to be SCREAMING and YELLING at young players.
I’ve found that new coaches, regardless of sport, yell instructions at their players. The more ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
How does the staff at Atlanta Youth Lacrosse judge a successful day of games? Simple – if the kids leave our fields sweating and smiling we’ve had a great day.
I was speaking to my dad, Lou Corsetti, this past evening about how the 2012 Fall Ball season was wrapping up at AYL. We agreed that, from our perspective, each kid we see after a game is sweating, smiling and seems to be loving life because they are playing a sport ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
Too many parents are wrapped up in analyzing their child’s game performance immediately following the final whistle. Before their little tyke even snaps the seatbelt into place they pepper their child with questions:
This is truly counterproductive and, I believe, damaging to your child’s participation in youth sports. Is it fair to question a ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
Youth coaches have a tremendous responsibility to shepherd players. It is not one to be taken lightly, nor one to be cast aside in a moment of anger or exasperation. As a noun, a shepherd is “a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people.” As a verb, to shepherd means, “to watch over carefully.” I chose this word carefully for this letter because it gets to the core of what a youth coach must ...
Continue Reading →Posted by: Gordon
“Planned obsolescence is a business strategy in which the obsolescence (the process of becoming obsolete—that is, unfashionable or no longer usable) of a product is planned and built into it from its conception. This is done so that in future the consumer feels a need to purchase new products and services that the manufacturer brings out as replacements for the old ones” (http://www.economist.com/node/13354332).”
Have you planned obsolescence into your lacrosse game? Are you practicing ...
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