Practice Review

January 4

The girls who attended practice on Sunday morning got to experience our first practice session at the Newtown facility - it is great!!! CRISTA showed up for a surprise visit and we welcomed back from the summer former NewLaxer and current Syracuse star EILEEN FINN!

MIDDLE SCHOOL
Skills worked on:
1. CATCHING & STICKWORK - lots of partner passing
Remember... butt of stick to chin when passing - snap that wrist and follow through. Push with the top hand while pulling with the bottom hand.

2. 1v1s FROM THE TOP 3 POSITIONS
Attack: Attack the cage while protecting your stick!
Defense: Force your player to the outside! Make contact with the hip and force them out and off their desired path.

3. CREASE DEFENSE
Meet the attacker at the endline, make contact (hip & fist) and force them out! Always be one step ahead of the attacker - beat them to the spot.

We did 2 sessions of scrimmaging... the second one looked much better than the first. We worked on organizing ourselves into a singular team effort and spreading out to use the entire field.

Let's work on our intensity level when we come to prax... get focused and pumped up!!!! YAHOOOOO!!!!!

MS PLAYER SHOUT OUTS!
Hannah Koorbusch: Awesome effort and attitude!
Izzy Taben: Great focus and attention!

HIGH SCHOOL
We did TONS of scrimmaging!!! YEA!!! We concentrated on the transition - keep your head up and look to pass rather than run. We worked on starting to put together the pieces and playing at the next level... we are no longer reminding you of basics... we are moving on up to the advanced stuff! Think about the game from different perspectives and experiment with new concepts and ideas. Look to advance your game to the next level by taking risks.

HS PLAYER SHOUT OUTS!
Mettler Growney: Great risks! Tried a sick cross-field pass!
Sydney Mas: Great communication and field vision!
Caroline Wood: Keep up the hard work and fabulous effort girl!

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December 14

PRACTICE RE-CAP
Girls who attended practice on the 14th participated in a fast-paced, competition focused session! We started off with an intense warm-up and moved into some contained possession drills. During the possession drills, the girls worked on catching and throwing with the outside hand! They also worked on moving effectively and creating space. Next up was 1v1s from 4 different spots around the arc... the girls showed their moves on attack and we focused on defensive positioning and footwork. Finally, we did some scrimmaging!!! hooray!! It was great to be able to stop the scrimmage a few times and really illustrate the importance of spacing, working the ride, and keeping our heads up.

HIGH SCHOOL: GREAT PRACTICE!! You were very vocal and we had a ton of fun! Way to keep it upbeat! Let's make sure we're working as hard as we possibly can on the ride!! Let's also start to learn EVERYONE'S name! Get out of your comfort zone!

MIDDLE SCHOOL: You worked really hard and absorbed lots of new information! Let's work on paying CLOSE attention when a coach is talking and not chatting in line. Remember, you can learn tons by watching everyone during practice.

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MID-ATLANTIC WRAP-UP

OUR THANKS: We want to take some time to thank all of the players and parents that attended Mid-Atlantic this past weekend. We understand it was not an easy weekend - for anyone, but we were impressed with the membership’s ability to move quickly and adjust to the situations at hand. Fabulous.

OUR SITUATION: Saturday’s tournament was canceled due to the weather, field conditions and safety concerns of the tournament directors and the facility coordinators of the McDonogh School. Despite the cancelations, we were able to get in over 3 hours of practice at the nearby Soccerdome in Jessup, MD on Saturday afternoon for all grad years.

OUR RESOLUTION: The tournament directors adjusted Sunday’s schedule accordingly and all grad years were able to play in a tournament game. The 2010s even picked up extra games in their division to maximize their playing opportunities. Overall, great job to all players, parents and coaches this weekend!

OUR TEAM: In the biggest expression of teamwork ... Gretchen held down the fort onsite, Crista worked behind the scenes all the way from California and Christy, Ashley, Kari and Hannah helped distribute the word quickly and get the troops moving.

CHRISTY on BOUNCE 2:
Regardless of a cancelled Saturday, Mid-Atlantic was a TON of fun! The 3 hour practice on Saturday was amazing because the girls in attendance worked extremely hard and got lots of touches on the ball. Sunday was a busy (COOOOOOLD) day of laxin' and improving! it was fun to see the concepts that we worked on in practice demonstrated during the games!! All the teams worked really hard and we're starting to see it all come together! Get on the wall and we will see you in Palm Springs! Hopefully, better weather (cough, cough).

HANNAH on BOUNCE 3:
My favorite part about coaching BOUNCE 3 throughout the whole day was to watch you really come together as a team. You started out as a bunch of random players who were still trying to learn each other's names and you ended up as a team that was dedicated to picking each other up and working together. Your individual and team dedication to improvement really impressed me, as each of you made a commitment to putting our coaching into action and getting better every play. The intensity never flagged, even when you were tired, and your hustle really set us apart.

As for improvement: we focused on a few things during the day that I want to remind you of.
(1) Transition! Both offensive & defensive transition need a lot of work. On offensive transition, we're getting caught in double teams, which means SOMEBODY is open, but that person is not making it known, and the person with the ball in the double is freaking out and delivering a bad pass. We need better cuts up from our attackers--use the down time when the ball is on defense to make a plan about cutting to the ball. On defensive transition, we need to get down and in on the weak side (the side opposite the ball), and we need to see the doubles and the slides better. Also, remember, NEVER slide low to high EXCEPT when the girl is entering a space she can shoot from.
(2) Communication. Enough said.
(3) Settled attack. Have patience & look for the second or third cutters, not the first. Cut through when you are adjacent to the ball. And take the ball hard to goal while looking for a pass OR a shot off the drive.

Overall, great job on Sunday (and Saturday!). I'm excited to see you guys and coach you again soon.

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November 9

HS @ BROWN: Girls who attended the The New England Cup at Brown University participated in some fun fast-paced lax! We had 3 Newlax teams there and they all competed in at least five 7-minute games followed by a playoff round. The girls played great and 2 of our teams made it to the semi-finals! The 5v5 was a great opportunity for lots of touches on the ball, plenty of risk taking, and experimenting with creative offensive chances. It was so fun to watch the girls just lax it up for the day!

Congrats to Newlax Orange: OFFENSIVE TEAM OF THE DAY!
They scored the most goals during the regularly scheduled games.
Shout out to Sarah Kramer who played great and looked awesome on her first day back from injury!

MS PRACTICE: STICK SKILLS & DEFENSE:
You were great! Way to stay the course and get a lot accomplished in one practice! After SKYSCRAPER, we knew we needed to go over the basics of defense and YOU GIRLS GOT IT! Woot! Woot!

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October 12: DEFENSE

Sunday’s practice consisted of 2 hours of detailed defensive concepts. We focused on defensive specifics at 3 levels: midfield, the arc, and the crease.

1) MIDFIELD DEFENSE
The girls worked to “zig-zig” their player through the midfield in an effort to SLOW HER DOWN! We started the focus on the importance of the bottom in hand in playing solid defense. The more you can get your girl to change direction, the more time your defenders will have to get back and get situated. Remember to get your feet going in the same direction as your player – you are must faster this way.
Note: If your player is streaking up a sideline…make use of “Sally Sideline” and get her pinned up!

2) MIDFIELD DEFENSE
We shifted down to the arc to practice forcing the attacker out and away. In the middle – choose a side and funnel her there! Remember, at a higher level of lacrosse players are equally skilled with BOTH hands so the old “force her left” strategy goes right out the window! On the wings – get big and force her OUT! Be a dam – not a rock.

3) CREASE DEFENSE
Get to the goal line extended – make contact with the attacker (hip and fist D!) – power her out! Remember…power/strength comes from your legs! Keep your personal space with your arms – “hug a tree and power out!”

REMEMBER: Dictate your attackers movement with hip/fist contact! Her momentum and directions originates in her hips…engage her…make contact…and maintain it. If she rolls back, slide that fist across her back to other hip and beat her to the spot with quick feet.

CHRISTY on PRACTICE:
We started out a little shaky…but we had it goin’ on by the end of practice! It was great to see some leadership and direction coming from the older girls and the younger ones held their own and played some tough D! The defense really shined in the 7v7 scrimmage at the end. Some practice standouts ...
LIL' MUSCLE: Mettler Growney (way to get in there and muscle it out on the crease D)
BUSINESS WOMAN: KC McAuliffe (you were all business yesterday ... yes to hard work!)
TRU LEADER: Ellie Bullitt (keep up the vocal leadership)

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September 28: STICKWORK PRACTICE

Girls in attendance did 2.5 hours of stickwork to help build a strong ball-handling foundation. We started with stickwork basics - DODGE PODGE - and introduces two ways to practice stickwork:

1) CONCRETE FEET
players work on building forearm and wrist strength/flexibility for a higher quality pass, developing comfort (muscle memory) with the moves, momentum with their partner, trust that placement with the pass is on and eventually speed while doing the move
NOTE: the less time the controlled ball is in your stick AND/OR in the air, the more skilled the player is

2) MOVEABLE FEET
players work on individual moves every time the ball is in the stick, using each repetition to try things out and work on feeling how these movement live in the body; this is great specific work for 1v1 moves on offense, in transition, cutting and right before a shot

We also worked on ways to improve shooting and things to look for in developing accuracy. Every player now has multiple options that she can resource if she wants to improve. In addition, she has tons of ideas to miz and match - whether she is practicing by herself or friends!

We capped the entire day off by introducing the 5 passing options for the offensive transition:
1. OUT
2. UP
3. CROSS
4. IN
5. BACK (if we have to)

Of course, we did The Best Drill Ever to build the foundation of this team skill set.

CRISTA on PRACTICE:
You all worked hard and got through the grueling (and sometimes monotonous) skill development practice. Overall, we need to improve INCREDIBLY here as there is no excuse to NOT have a great set of stick skills. Why? It takes practice. Your coaches, your parents, your credit cards, your friends, your closet - NOTHING can get you better stickwork other than YOU. JUST. PRACTICING. Get to it - there is a lot of work to be done. A few superlatives for the attending girls ...
MOST IMPROVED: GiGi Lang
BEST STICKWORK: Katie Hammer
BEST WORK ETHIC: Marisa Noto

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September 21: TRYOUT #2

OVERVIEW: The practice was two glorious hours of scrimmaging - first small-sided 7v7, then full field play. We mixed up the D and the A, giving the girls the opportunity to try it all. We saw a TON of improvement on the defensive end. Offensively, we focused on pulling together a basic motion - working on not going behind the girl with the ball, working on the weak side to create space and options, and, most importantly, cutting through as an adjacent. On defense, we focused on a basic team defense - communicating ball-help-slide, talking through doubles, collapsing when the ball goes in, and getting sticks up on the cutters.

The improvement - just on 1 day - was awesome. This is not to say that there isn't a ton of work left to do - as a group, we need to work on patience and stick skills on attack, and communication and collapsing and doubles on defense, but we wer really impressed by the girls' intensity and their willingness to take coaching and apply advice to their games right away.

Coach CHRISTY SMALLMAN on PRACTICE:
Hey ladies! Practice last Sunday was a sunny good day ... everyone came to play and picked up the pep throughout practice. Remember our two very important lax rules that we talked about- two very important fundamentals!
1. CHANGE OF SPEED
2. CHANGE OF DIRECTION

The best part of practice . . . tons of laxin'!!

Coach HANNAH FOSTER on PRACTICE:
I refuse to BS my players - I'll tell them when they made a mistake and I'll tell them when they did it right. This approach can be tough to take in the beginning, but what I was most impressed with was how the players were totally motivated by the straight talk. The intensity remained high for two full hours of scrimmaging, and they girls were so excited to improve. Awesome.