Try a Random Drill at Practice Today!
For many of us all over the country, youth, high school and college playoffs are right around the corner. Your players are starting to feel the wear and tear of so many games each week. Try something new at practice today to keep it fun and interesting at this point in the season!
By late April and headed into May, you may be halfway through your season or more. Your players probably have a handful of games in their pockets by now, maybe two. The time for fitness and conditioning is long gone. They are probably feeling the midseason fatigue of so many days on their feet at practice- sprained ankles, blisters, shin splints. The bumps and bruises from games are stacking up. Even though you want them to go 100% on game day, they may need some easy days at practice to rest in between.
Maybe you already had some tough losses this season. Maybe your team isn't playing as well as they could be, and they've been hearing about that a lot at practice and after games, from coaches and parents.
RELATED: The ride home after the game is often a child's least favorite moment of Youth Sports.
This is a good time for you to bring in something new to work on, to keep things positive, fresh and interesting for your players.
You want playing for your team to be fun! Try our Random Post button in your Right Sidebar for some new games and drills to bring your players at practice this week. Hopefully we can help you fix some mistakes your players are making. Or find a piece of the puzzle you didn't even know was missing from your team!
Teach them "How to Play" instead of teaching them "plays".
Most of our practice "drills" are really "games" you can play with your players to imitate game situations. We are big, BIG proponents of teaching our players "how to play the game" more than just teaching them to run "plays". As a youth or even high school lacrosse coach, developing athleticism and "Lax IQ" is really your main goal as a coach. Keep as many of your players active and phsyically and mentally engaged for as much practice time as possible.
We like to actually Keep Time for our players' age and attention span and Keep Score to Keep It Competitive in almost all our games and drills.
You aren't programming Robots.
The best players are Intelligent and Creative. Teach your young players to recognize, understand and respond to the specific game situations in front of them. Then let them make the plays!
Put your players in those same situations in practice and let them play. Some of these are simple 1-on-1 scenarios, while others are more complex numbers advantage situations, like 3-on-2's, 4-on-3 Fast Breaks, and 7-on-6 Clears.
Your emphasis on Player Development instead of how many games you win will translate to success in other youth team sports. Your players will go different places, interact with different children, different coaches and officials, and use different motor skills and movements to help them become successful well-rounded athletes. Help give them a broad background of experiences to draw from. This is what College Football and Lacrosse coaches say they are really looking for in their players.
Of course our newest drill each day is free to all our readers. All of our plays and drills are available to our monthly members. Join today and have something new and exciting to work on in with your players!
