A Lacrosse Weekend 1.14.23

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.

Lars Tiffany Podcast

LT and I go way back!  Lars was one year behind me at Brown and we were captains of the 1989 Brown Lacrosse team together.  Our paths have continued to cross throughout our careers as we are both complete lacrosse nerds who can literally talk lacrosse all day!

Podcasts with Lars are a treat for me because he is open to new ideas and is always has interesting stuff to share!  Since I'm always up for learning something new and he's always up for learning something new, our lacrosse conversations are fun!  Another cool thing about LT is that he doesn't hold anything back.  While some coaches are very guarded and careful about what they reveal, Lars seems to tell you everything! Lars is both very consistent in his approach to life, his diet, his principles, the way he coaches defense, but also wide open for reinvention and not afraid to pivot if something makes sense!

Eight Books

Our opening topic on the podcast was about the book Legacy which the team is reading this semester as part of a team and culture building exercise.  LT assigns the team one book per semester for their four years totaling 8 books.  I got a text yesterday from a parent of my JM3 Athletes asking if I had the list of books, and since I didn't I emailed LT and he sent me the list and a couple words on each book.

1.  Legacy by James Kerr, Good textbook in a sense, 15 one-word titled chapters.

2.  Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, Most older boys/men cannot resist the story of Spartan culture / battlefield techniques.

3.  The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, Probably my favorite book of all time.

4.  The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Easily digestible bite size chapters (5 – 6 pages).  

5.  I Hope You Will be Very Happy by Dom Starsia, Ideal for a team, especially a Virginia program!

6.  How Champions Think by Bob Rotella, Local but internationally known Sports Psychologist, Bob spoke to our team as well.

7.  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Attention-grabbing exposure of why things are.

8.  Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson, Transforming individuals into championship teams with curiosity and eastern/ancient teachings/meditation.

Listen to more of the Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast with Jamie Munro >>> www.PHILACROSSEOPHY.com <<<

Teaching 1v1 Defense 

LT and i chatted a lot about how he's teaching his defenders to move laterally with cross checks, "getting a chunk" , rather than always backpedaling and poking.  The reason for this is moving laterally similar to have the best defensive short stick midfielders play defense allows a player to attack, apply ball pressure, bump a dodger off track, and if you're athletic enough, a great way to play defense.  The technique difference is "Hip Turns" vs "Drop Steps."  The explosive ness of "Hip Turns" literally hopping in the air and putting force back in ground is superior to the classic pivot of a drop step where there is no ability to put force into the ground.  Watch the video below of PLL Whipsnakes and Maryland Assistant Coach, Jake Bernhadt and you will see a lot of "Hip Turns."

Teaching Dodgers To Attack Poles

This led straight into a discussion I've been having with JM3 Athletes about why running right at your close defender who's sticks are out and are backpedaling.  Defenders do this to force the dodger to make and early break, in which case the defender can drop step and run with the dodger.  We are

Here is the premise: if a defender is going to initiate contact with a poke while the dodger is going hard right at him, the defender will be unable to to cross check or body the dodger.  The defender will be trying to gather his stick from the glancing blow of the poke check on while the dodger will be running by him.

I teach JM3 Athletes to think about running by their defender as close to them as possible, almost like running off a pick shoulder to shoulder.  You will be amazed at the fact when you do this the defenders often times don't touch the dodger at all!  Watch this video compilation of dodgers over the past 25 years from Mark Millon to Brendan Mundorf to present day PLL and college players!

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 Teaching Deception on Defense

One very interesting topic we discussed was the concept of using deception defensively.  LT dove into wanting to be able to change coverages and not be predictable in the way UVA plays certain scenarios like invert defense.  I then asked him about being deceptive with in coverages, such as during two man game.  Since good pickers will adjust a pick when he sees a defender going under or over a pick, I have noticed it's possible for the on ball defender to fake that he's pushing out on his man, causing the picker to adjust farther out, giving ample space to get under or vice versa.  I noticed this being possible in one of my favorite drills, 1v1 + Picker.  Check out the breakdown below of this drill from the Backyard Curriculum! 

In 2022 we hosted two Virtual lacrosse Summits with over 30 webinars in men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse and more! 

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Mikey Thompson, Head coach Christopher Newport on Mindfulness

"Circle of Control "