A Lacrosse Weekend 5/18/19

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!

NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament

2019 has been the year of the attackman.  Today's quarterfinals will highlight several of the greatest college attackmen we have ever seen!

• Penn State's Grant Ament, who set the NCAA single season assist record, has phenomenal speed and vision, but who can physically post up his man even though he's not a big man.
• Loyola's Pat Spencer is a generational talent who's feeding prowess combined with his physical gifts is unparalleled.  This guy has a repertoire of moves and fakes that keeps defenders off balance while he manipulates off ball defenders and sliders.
• Maryland's Jared Bernhart, an insane slasher who can do it all.  This Terp is as fine of an athlete as you'll see at the attack position and is incredibly two handed with great vision and IQ.
• Virginia has a deadly combination of attack with Michael Kraus, a powerful and physical dodger, who for a lefty has a deadly right hand jump shot and Matt Moore who put up 38-39, a do it all athlete who can drop dimes with the best of them!
• Yale's Jackson Morrill is a technician who will force you to beat yourself with his off ball positioning, his hang up game, fakes, and change of speed, pop outs.  He is the perfect example of how elite skill and IQ can overcome a lack of big time athleticism.
• Notre Dame's Ryder Garnsey is like a sorcerer with his creativity, shot making and feeds.  Talk about a repertoire... OMG he does stuff I've never seen on a regular basis!
• Penn's  Sam Handley, is the equivalent of a "Point Forward" in basketball.  He is an attackman who plays out top in the midfield.  As a freshman from Oregon, I believe Handley will be a 1st Team All-American this year.

This list above is what we get to watch this weekend, but let's not forget how many phenoms aren't even playing today: Jeff Teat, Asher Nolting, Michael Sowers, Ethan Walker, Joey Epstein and Dan Bucaro to name a few.

The Art of Feeding

The trait that all of these attackmen have in common is their prowess in feeding the ball.  The ability to read the defense while dodging with a repertoire of fakes, moves and physicality is arguably the hardest trait to teach and the most important trait to recruit.  Historically, the teams that have won championships have had this guy.

Watch the video below I created called "The Art of Feeding."  

If you liked the Art of Feeding, you will love the  The JM3 Academy  which teaches literally every variation of every skill.  Knowledge is power! 

NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament

If you have a chance, watch the Northwestern Wildcats play!  They are revolutionizing women's lacrosse with their use of 2man game, Nations looks, and box lacrosse style offense.  Their commitment to "Cutting Edge" skill development as opposed to "Traditional Skill Development" is obvious as soon as you watch a couple possessions.  Senior Canadian Attacker, Selena Lasota is as talented and exciting of a player as I've ever seen.  There is not a college player in men's or women's lacrosse that has a better or more diverse skill set.  Everyone needs to study this player.  Check out this video.

Coaching Two-Girl Game 

I just finished up my first season of coaching girls lacrosse at ThunderRidge HS in Colorado. This season we attempted to implement the "Wildcat Offense" named after Northwestern with an emphasis on box lacrosse style picks, slips, seals, mirrors, re-picks and nations looks.  If you want your boys or girls teams to be great at 2man game, you must first teach the 2man looks.  Then you must allow enough time for the players work on their chemistry to the extent that they know how to communicate all the different looks.  Below you will see a video of a couple of our players, on their own at practice  going through their repertoire of 2man actions.  How many different looks do you see?

If you coach women's lacrosse and you would like to learn how to teach "Two-Girl Game" or run the "Wildcat Offense" you will love the JM3 Coaches Training Program which has the best content for men's and women's lacrosse you will find anywhere on the web!

 Teaching 1v1 Dodging

To quote the late great Dave Huntley, "Everything that happens outside of about 15 yards from the goal is just noise."  How does this relate to 1v1's you ask?  Players and coaches need to work on the end of the dodge and how you get a shot off.  I had lunch yesterday with my former player and assistant coach and current Denver University Associate Head Coach Matt Brown.  Brownie is a brilliant lacrosse mind and we got on to this very topic: at a certain point, you're just not going to run by your man, but you can still get by your man!  What I mean is, against elite athletes, they will run with you and body you until there is no more room.  If you keep running you will run into the adjacent defender.  All players including midfielders must have a post up game. 

This past January, on my Epic RV Trip where I spent a full day at 12 different Division I schools my crew and I sat in on meetings, practice, and film sessions.  Below is a video from that trip where Ohio State Head Coach Nick Myers describes how he works with his star attackman on post up dodging.  

The JM3 Coaches Training Program is loaded with content: webinars on topics such as the Penn State Offense, the Notre Dame Defense, and the Marquette Pairs Offense, scoter MicroTraining Videos like the "Art of Feeding" as well as content from the RV trip and so much more.  Men's content, women's content, box lacrosse content, and youth lacrosse content.... it will keep you busy and open your eyes to skills drills and concepts that will blow your mind!

College Lacrosse Recruiting

In the video below you can listen to Penn State Head Coach Jeff Tambroni discuss some incredibly important thoughts on recruiting.

• How PSU actually stats your dodging
• Must be able to "Eliminate" a short stick defender
• The importance of balance and angles: Study Rob Pannell
• 45 Degree Angles
• Keeping your defender off balance by creating minor advantages
• How to try and fit your family values into your recruiting process
• Everyone's journey is differnent
• There is not a spot in DI or DIII for everyone. 

Recruiting Advice

If you need help navigating the world of college lacrosse recruiting, a great starting point is to get a JM3 Video Assessment.  Honestly, if you haven't had an expert evaluate your son or daughter's game, you are flying blind.  Do you really know if your kid is good enough?  Does your son leverage his best strength?  Is your daughter stuck in the world "Traditional Women's Lacrosse" coaching?  I see so many defenders who's highlight video actually hurts their chances for recruitment because the take away check that put the ball on the ground would turn coaches off with its recklessness.  Shoot me an email if you have questions!

Have a great weekend!