My biggest mistake? Cardio. It’s not about being super quick or running midfield the whole game. It’s about how you make mistakes when your mind and body get exhausted.
My son has his stick in his hand every day (often a couple times a day). It's what he does when he's board (his brother plays video games, he grabs his stick and goes out back with his bounce back and net. His club coaches game the team a wall ball routine. He NEVER does the routine his coaches gave him. He just finds it boring - but he still gets out with his sick a couple times a day. Saw an interview with Wayne Gretzky where he was asked about all the time he spent playing hockey on his back yard rink when he was a kid. His friends would invite him to the movies, but he'd stay home and shoot in the yard instead. He said it wasn't "hard work". It wasn't "work" at all. He didn't do that because he wanted to be a great hockey player. He did it because it's what he wanted to do. He would rather shoot for a couple hours in the backyard than go to a movie, That was more fun to him. I think that's what a lot of coaches miss. If you tell kids they need to "work" on something, they probably aren't going to do it.
Love what you say about not pushing yourself hard enough if you do not drop the ball and being willing to make mistakes. If you are afraid to make a mistake, you will never be able to make the play. The best OFFENSIVE players are willing to make mistakes and come back and try it again. Hating mistakes can often be a benefit for DEFFENSIVE players - because when they make a mistake the ball often ends up in their goal. You will never become a great player if you do not push yourself beyond your comfort zone in practice (offense or defense). And that means making mistakes. On game day though, I think the best offensive and best defensive players often have a very different attitude when it comes to mistakes.
I’ve found that if you play wall ball every day then it forces you to try new things and get creative because you eventually get bored with basic passing over and over
I think a huge component to becoming comfortable with uncomfortable techniques is practicing them on the wall, as if you're in a game. The amount of times I've practiced BTB passes or shovel passes off the wall, coming off a pick at game speed, has helped drastically. Yes, gain the fundamentals, but give yourself a little freestyle/game situation imagery time to really be confident.
Along with a wallball video like you mentioned can you go over your footwork routine or footwork drills you do? Also I think a cool idea would be mixing footwork and wallball to push concentration such as if you're playing wallball you can't be thinking about every movement making them become more instinctual and vice versa. Glad to have you back making vids we missed you
Hey Jared! A quick idea too is looking at incredible athletes with great footwork you admire and what drills they may do. Love looking at NFL guys like Tyreek Hill and Saquon Barkley. Just an idea!
Great Video! re: Practicing new things, you do not want the first time you try something to be in a game. You can tell when someone is trying a backhand flip shovel pass for the first time, they usually catch on the shooters more than they're expecting and results in the pass sailing over their target and a fast break the other way. Which is a shame, because there is a time and place for that pass. One of the downsides of the modern youth sports mentality is the continuing drive to keep kids in one sport year-round. I don't think this has reached lacrosse yet, but many of the best athletes credit all the different sports they played.
Tip, don’t think of yourself as a long pole, hold yourself to the same standards as any middie and do the same wallball. Replace some of the around the world stuff with long clearing passes and odd angle GBs, and you’ll be golden
I recently saw a video on why tennis players play worse in matches than practice. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o2yvjPRf5bs.html ; Relating it to lacrosse, you have to gamify practice and make it have stakes. Otherwise, when you play a game you won't perform as well as you think you should. For lacrosse you could say I have to hit this brick x amount of times otherwise I have do 20 pushups. Players should also have a parent or friend film them to see how they really look when playing. Your mental image of how you look while you play is probably different than how you actually look. You can learn about your tendencies and fix mistakes by filming yourself.
There comes a time when what separates you from guys at the next level is being an animal of an athlete. Do not postpone serious weight training til later in life.
I would actually push back a bit on that in the lacrosse world. Certainly amazing athletes will excel within lacrosse, but part of my point was that there is a wide range of athletic types that excel at the pro level of the sport. Part of what makes lacrosse unique!
@@mainelymesh there is no player that wouldn’t benefit from being their most athletic self, and for those very few elite skilled players that dominate without having an athletic body.. they aren’t having any trouble finding colleges to play at or watching videos on how to get recruited. Strength training is not the only thing missing, just the most common one I see. The best athletes are well rounded, quickness, strength, stamina and footwork are the major pillars and a lot of kids are not working on the strength. I played in the Big 10 and that’s my honest opinion about what I wish I did, and what I see missing from a lot of young kids
Was editing this video and KNEW someone would mention that...for what it's worth, I've learned a TON about shooting mechanics from pitching and hitting mechanics. Just didn't quite translate to the footwork segment.
