A Lacrosse Weekend 1.22.22

Welcome to "A Lacrosse Weekend" my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, stories, myths, truths, about the great game of lacrosse. I hope you enjoy it!   

If you are a men's or women's lacrosse player, coach, or parent, I think you will love the weekly content, videos, and analysis

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast

UVA Head Lacrosse Coach Lars Tiffany and I go way back.  We were captains together of the 1989 Brown Lacrosse team, came up through the coaching ranks together, and have been great friends for over 30 years.  This podcast is an outstanding, unscripted lacrosse conversation, just like the lax conversations we've had since the mid 90's when we both committed to coaching.  I'm pumped to share it with you guys because it's an example of how LT and I learn and share lacrosse!  For me over the years, I have learned a lot of lacrosse by having conversations with any and every lacrosse player/coach/expert I can and hearing their take on the game! 

LT and I talked a lot about decision making and soccer coach Raymond Verheijen's philosophy that you cannot separate decision making from technique or it is not really working on game skills, which always include decision making!  We also spend a lot of time discussing 2man game defense which then flows into 2man game offense and how LT teaches his defenders to be able to play picks in four different ways: switch, stay (go under) stay (go over) and double. 

It is a fascinating conversation for coaches who want to learn more about coaching!  Click here to listen!

 Inside the 8 Podcast with Drexel Head Coach Kim Hillier, was a blast!  Colleen Magarity and I interviewed the first time head coach and it was a total breath of fresh air.  Kim is incredibly passionate about the game, about learning and coaching, and about her players!  Kim takes us through her playing and coaching journey and of course we talked a lot about her main mentor, Stony Brook Head Coach Joe Spallina.  She still talks to Joe every day she says and has taken philosophies on player development, offense and defense from her former boss and is applying them in her own way for the Dragons!

This is a fun lacrosse conversation what will make you want to play for Kim Hillier!  Click here to listen!

 

 

The 5 Hole / Leaner Dilemma

There is a very a very difficult situation that goalies have to contend with regularly, yet most of them do not have not even contemplated a solution.

The situation: a low angle shot from a relatively close distances (5-8 yards) where the goalie won't necessarily have time to react , usually  when a dodger goes underneath or an up hashes and there is no slide because of the angle.  The goalie is faced with these choices: keep their stick high and give up the 5 Hole shot or guess a little, cover up the 5 Hole with their stick and give up a leaner.  At lower levels of play, this isn't as much of a problem because shooters don't shoot deceptively, but at the higher levels of High School, College and Pro Lacrosse this happens all the time and it's a big problem.

I've been studying the best goalies in the world and notice guys like Blaze Riordan and Tim Troutner keep their sticks high and cover up their 5 Hole with their legs either through a Butterfly knees forward and together technique or a one knee down technique which looks like the way I play goalie in 3x lol.

I've been discussing this topic and watching film on it with my JM3 Athletes and I've had conversation with some of the top goalies in Division I lacrosse like Mikey Adler from Duke who's been working on this situation for the past few months!

.Here's an example of a goalie reading a low shot and dropping his stick to cover the 5 hole opening up a leaner. 

Here's an example of Blaze keeping his stick high and  taking away the 5 hole with his knees coming forward and together.  It's almost like you can show 5 hole and take it away!

Watch in this clip how Blaze keeps his stick up and drops his right knee to cover up the 5 hole and make the save!

 Great shooters know that if they can hold a goalie up with your various postures, they can snap it 5 hole at will and if they have the poise to stick a near side leaner by putting their chin to their chest they have a great chance of scoring when the goalie collapses.  

This technique allows the goalie to take away both and max out surface area!  

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Great, Not Perfect.