A Lacrosse Weekend 11.9.19

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!

College Lacrosse Recruiting

This week I did a Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast with Ty Xanders, Director of Recruiting and HS content for Inside Lacrosse and one of the foremost experts on college lacrosse recruiting.

It was an incredibly interesting conversation about how the pristine, unadulterated class of 2021 has become the most under-evaluated class in the history of college lacrosse recruiting.  Why? There are simply SO man players and SO many events, it was not possible for coaches to know all the talent over the course of June and July.  Unlike in years past, coaches really didn't start paying attention to the 21's until last fall (which is .  

Even more challenging is the fact that many programs actually try to see everyone!  Watching first half on this field, 2nd half on that field and check the boxes to make sure they got a look.  The problem is in one half of play you not only completely miss a goalie but you very likely miss the majority of the talent.  Obviously, coaching staffs will see the best teams multiple times per summer, but it's still tough to get a handle on teams with 5-15 DI prospects watching in small pieces.

Ty describes how certain programs actually use analytics to find out, for example, what states or clubs produce the most DI All Americans by position.

Other programs are more targeted.  For example, when I was Head Coach at Denver, my strategy was to recruit NE Prep Schools, Midwest, West, and Canadians.  I literally followed those programs around so that I could know the talent inside and out.   I didn't spend too much time on NY, NJ, PA, and MD, which at the time that seemed crazy, but I knew what I wanted and I knew the areas where I could actually win recruiting battles.  I recruited three Ranked classes by Inside Lacrosse in my last few years including Pioneer All-Americans, like Mark Matthews, Jeremy Noble, and Cam Flint, Chase Carraro, and Jamie Faus.

Another important topic Ty and I discussed was the topic of re-classing and repeating and whether or not we will see more or less of it?  It's well documented that coaches don't care if you're better because you're older.  The way they see it, if you're the best in your class, they want you.  Plus, coaches would rather have a 20 year old freshman.

One year ago, Ty Xanders and I did a Recruiting Podcast that is an in depth look at the fundamentals of recruiting.  If you haven't listened to this one, I think it will answer a ton of questions you probably have.  

I hope you enjoy both podcasts!

Boys Recruiting Events vs Girls Recruiting Events

You know what's crazy?  The inequality in game play opportunity of girls vs boys at recruiting tournaments!  The standard at boys fall recruiting events is three games per day whereas the standard for girls lacrosse recruiting events is two games per day.  In the summer, the standard for boys is five games on the weekend, and for girls it's four games for the weekend.  

My wife and daughter are flying 2000 miles for a recruiting event this weekend where the format includes 18 minute halves!  That works out to a maximum of 72 minutes per day of lacrosse if you played the whole game.  Luckily our club's roster only has six attackers so the girls will still get a solid 48 minutes each per day of lacrosse!  By the way, how the heck are the coaches going to see kids in depth in their 36 minutes of playing time?  

Coaching Lacrosse

I'm a motion offense guy at heart and I've experimented with just about every version of motion you can think of!  But as a change up, when you've motioned a defense to death, it's awesome to have a set look based off drawing slides and scripted spacing that can get you great shots.  Even though defensive coordinators will have scouted and prepared for such looks, when you run them at the end of games or in O.T. (as opposed to all game long) and your team is well versed in all the "Looks"  and counters you can run this and have a lot of success!

One of my favorite looks is a single invert look that I learned from PLL Chaos Head Coach Andy Towers around 15 years ago.  I got A LOT of mileage out of this look at Denver with big 4th quarter and overtime goals as well as when I coached at Mountain Vista High School.  This is a 9:28 minute video that details this single invert and is indicative of the kind of content and detail in the Coaches Training Program.

Coaches love the CTP!  Check out this tweet from former PLL Atlas Head Coach and Michigan Head Coach John Paul about The JM3 Coaches Training Program!  John actually did an incredible webinar in the CTP teaching his 10 Man Ride!

 Free 7 Day Trial!

For a short time we have made the CTP available with no barriers!  The JM3 Coaches Training Program 7 Day Free Trial will allow you to peruse the content and see for yourself just how deep this program is!  Watch this video and you can see what I mean!

If you sign up for the CTP, you get SO much more than just coaching content

• Men's Coaches Training Program
• Women's Coaches Training Program
• Virtual Lacrosse Summit (around 100 incredible webinars)
• Boys Attack/Midfield Academy and Library
• Boys Defense Academy
• Boys Goalie Academy
• Girls Academy
• Boys and Girls Recruiting webinars and content
• Strength & Conditioning online program

Have a great weekend!