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!

The National Lacrosse League

The NLL kicks off the 2018-2019 season today! I love box lacrosse. I love NLL Lacrosse. I am mesmerized by the skill, creativity, toughness, and teamwork in this league. I literally never get sick of watching NLL Lacrosse. In honor of NLL "Opening Day" I'm dedicating today's blog to box lacrosse!

I get so many emails from folks with questions about box lacrosse. The topic comes up in my Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast regularly, like it did this past week with John's Hopkins Head Coach, Dave Pietramala, where Petro details what he loves about recruiting Canadian box lacrosse players. Listen here!

In a 2011 study of DI Lacrosse scoring by Mike Mauboussin, Mike found that Canadians shooting percentage was 35% over a six year period while their US counterparts was 28%. (listen to the Podcast I did with Mike where...

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

IMLCA Convention

I write to you today from the Inner Harbor at the Downtown Marriott in Baltimore for the annual Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association Convention. What makes this weekend special is the fact that it was built around the business dealings of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association meetings where coaches from all Divisions I, II, and III convene to discuss rules, league meetings, and other NCAA Lacrosse topics. This means that every program in every Division is in attendance which was a great foundation for the IMLCA to build a coaches education event. I love this weekend personally because of the combination of it being a reunion of great friends in the coaching world and an opportunity to "Sharpen my saw!"

Dave Huntley Pro Night

Last year on the Thursday Night of the...

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

This morning I write to you from Las Vegas as I'm attending US Lacrosse West Regional Conference. I'm presenting on Team Defense and Extra Man Offense today and totally pumped to watch the other speakers. I love nothing more than picking up a little tidbit of knowledge, maybe a different way of saying something or thinking about something. These little tidbits can often times open the door to huge revelations on things that are in plain sight. Plus, not a bad place to have a convention! I wish I would have thought of that!

BJ Grill

I have always made it a point to seek out interesting and knowledgeable lacrosse coaches, players and experts for the sake of learning. One such lacrosse expert I was chatting with a couple months ago was Patrick McEwen aka @LaxFilmRoom on twitter and we were discussing defense. We were talking...

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

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Ever since I was a kid and we had Thanksgiving every year with my four cousins I have loved this holiday. This year was no different. We have two kids in college, a son and daughter, and to have them fly home from opposite coasts is always special. This year one of our son's teammates from the Coquitlam Jr Adanacs, who is also a freshman at Denver, joined us for a few days including Thanksgiving dinner. This year we went to a neighbor's house and spent a day of watching football, playing pool, eating great food, and enjoying a great group of people.... I guess that's why TG is my favorite holiday!

Black Friday Street Lacrosse

Once again this year we played pretty sick game of Street Lacrosse at noon on Black Friday. The kids and wife had already put some serious...

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

November Lacrosse

I write to you from the Towson, MD Sheraton. My daughter and I are here for a weekend of fall lacrosse. You know you've been traveling too much when you try to check-in to your hotel at 1:30am and you're at the wrong hotel. I had the Hunt Valley Delta in my head as where we were staying. Oh well, I'd rather be in Towson anyway! We are right across the street from Pasta Mista and closer to Ocean Pride! It's going to be 42 degrees with 25 mile an hour winds today... If we're lucky and the fields aren't closed as it rained all day yesterday. If you read my blog from last week, you know this November recruiting period is playing out perfectly! Actually though, my buddy A. Hilgy AKA Andrew Hilgartner (Head Coach at McDonough) told me we could use the McDonough turf from 2-3 if everything is cancelled. "So, I...

Welcome to a Lacrosse Weekend, my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, history, stories, myths/truths, about the great game of lacrosse. I hope you find it enjoyable.

Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast

Since I launched my podcasts last May I've had some incredible guests who have described their journey in the sport of lacrosse, told amazing stories, and shared insights on coaching, recruiting, and team building. If you are a coach, this podcast is no-brainer because these guests share incredible info on all aspects of coaching. If you are a parent of an aspiring lacrosse player, you will get in the head of some of the top minds in the game and find out what they value, how they develop players, how they think about recruiting and how they leverage the power of video.

Last week's edition featured Jim Berkman, Head Coach at Salisbury University. If you are a coach, player, or parent this podcast is a MUST listen. You will immediately understand the kind of mindset that allows you to...

Welcome to A Lacrosse Weekend, my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, history, stories, myths/truths, about the great game of lacrosse. I hope you find it enjoyable.

Loyola Practice

One of my favorite things to do is attend college lacrosse practices. I love seeing the team spirit, learn new drills, and see the over all tenor of the practice. Watching Loyola's practice yesterday was no exception. It was a day where they warmed up with basic stick work and played 4 quarters of scrimmages, mixing up the teams to get different personnel groupings. At the end of each quarter, the losing team ran across field down and back sprint for time. One thing that was really refreshing was watching Coach Toomey, Coach Van Arsdale and Coach Dwan coach and not over-coach. Coach Toomey was on the off bench sideline where I was watching and he was communicating with the players in the clearing game a bit, but in general there was not much, if any, coach orchestration going on. I never even heard...