June 9, 2016 | By Gordon Corsetti Each season the US Lacrosse Officials Education Program receives emails from coaches, players, parents, and officials on game situations wondering what the correct ruling is. Here are the top 10 questions from the 2016 season. 1. Player A is legally body checked and falls to the ground. While on the ground, he still chops at the other player’s stick with his own. I called this as illegal procedure, but the coach wanted to see it in the rulebook. Was this the right call? I could not find any ruling in the rulebook. My thoughts were it gave him an advantage to be on the ground. A: There is no advantage gained from playing while on the ground. That player is likely more disadvantaged than the opposing players because his movement is significantly limited while on the ground. Remember that NFHS Rule 5.3 states that it is illegal to body check an opponent who is on the ground (stick checks are okay), and the rulebook does allow for the player on the ground to legally participate in play if he is able to. 2. Can a player be flagged twice for going offside once, returning to his half of the field, and then going offside again? A: No. NFHS Rule 4.10 Situation F is clear on this game situation: “The same player going offside twice is one technical foul.” This is why many coaches will tell the player that went offside to go and play defense because the team may then play with 8 defenders (7 + 1 goalie) and increase their chances of putting the ball on the ground during the flag down. 3. Offensive player shoots and scores, the ball enters the goal first and then the player touches the crease due to his normal momentum. Is the goal good or does the player entering the crease wipe out the goal? A: NFHS Rule 4.9.2.n states that a player “may legally score a goal and touch the crease area, provided the ball enters the goal before the contact and with the crease and his feet are grounded prior to, during and after a shot.” As long as the player does not dive (remains grounded) and he touches on or inside the crease line then the goal stands. 4. Assistant coach of Team A is holding a stick while on the sideline during a game. Coach of Team B asks for that stick to be checked. Referee rules it violates pocket depth and issues the penalty per the rules. Does the stick check apply to coaches or just to the players? A: Under NFHS rules a coach-requested equipment check must refer to a specific player on the opposing team. The major reason is because under NFHS rules the officials must also check the required equipment of a player, and that cannot be done on a coach. According to NFHS Rule 4.27.1 these requests must be made during a dead ball and only one …

June 16, 2016 | By T.J. Buchanan What do you do first? Plan your strategy and try to make it work or evaluate your players and determine what your strategy should be? There’s an old saying something along the lines of “You can’t make chicken salad without chicken.” Keeping that in mind consider the following as you begin to plan for your next season: Who are my players? What skills do they possess? Basically, you need to know if you have “the chicken” needed to make the salad you want. Once you have determined who your players are and what skills they bring to the field, it’s time to plan your strategy. This is what great coaches do. At the college level, many coaches go out and look for players with certain skill sets that fit the mold of the program. Most coaches are not lucky enough to be able to recruit kids to their program and as such have to “do the best they can with what they have.” The following is a list of skills you may observe as a coach, and how you can use them within your greater team strategy: Skill — If the player… Ideal Position — Play team at …  Strategy — using this strategy Speed Midfield Play fast in transition and try to capitalize on odd number situations. Feeding Attack Use off-ball movement to create scoring opportunities with passes into high-percentage shooting areas. Dodging/Change of Direction Midfield or Attack Use dodging and change of direction to create defensive rotations and move the ball to open players for high-percentage scoring opportunities. Outside Shooting Midfield Use offensive strategies such as fades and pops away from the defensive rotations to get the ball into the sticks of your outside shooters. Field Awareness Midfield or Attack Use this player as a distributor. Put them into a position where they can read the defense and the ball movement accordingly. By carefully evaluating your players, you can begin to build groups of players that complement each other and put them into systems that will work for them. Ideally, all your players would have all the noted skills, but as we know that’s not always possible. Having a mixture of these skills, organized into a system, will give your team the best chances for success on the offensive side of the field. Full article: http://www.uslacrosse.org/multimedia-center/blog/postid/1215/building-a-team-offense.aspx photo: John Strohsacker Share This:

July 13, 2016 | By Brian Logue SPARKS, Md. — The US Lacrosse #WallBallChallenge has already raised more than $20,000 for the US Lacrosse First Stick Program in its first month. The challenge encourages lacrosse players to use the US Lacrosse Wall Ball app, powered by SNYPR and sponsored by LaxWorld, and secure sponsors for donations to the First Stick Program. “We are extremely pleased with the first half results of the Wall Ball Challenge,” said Doug Appleton, SNYPR’s CEO and co-founder. “In the first 5 weeks we have recorded nearly 2 million wall ball reps, 18,000 wall ball sessions from 6,000 Challenge participants, while pledging over $20,000 to the First Stick program to provide equipment for new players. It’s been very rewarding to have created innovative technology that inspires players of all ages and abilities to play more, have fun and give back to a great cause.” “We are thrilled by how the national lacrosse community has taken hold of the Wallball Challenge,” said Susie Chase, vice president of philanthropy and partnerships for US Lacrosse. “US Lacrosse understands the passion lacrosse players have for their sport; for their own improvement and for their desire to help pass the game on. The SNYPR app gave us the chance to connect US Lacrosse’s mission to grow the game with the most basic way to improve your skills. We are really proud of each one of our participants and grateful for every dollar that has been pledged to the challenge. 2 million reps is right around the corner!!” Brayden Stroh (pictured above) was the first player to hit 10,000 reps and received a prize from SNYPR, but decided it pay it forward, donating a collection of sticks that SNYPR distributed to a First Stick program. The U.S. women’s national team even took the challenge to England on its recent foreign tour. And young players at tournaments around the country have been diving into the challenge. The US Lacrosse First Stick program, which provides comprehensive assistance, including protective equipment and sticks, to benefit new and developing youth and high school lacrosse programs across the nation. Anyone can participate in the Wall Ball Challenge, although players under the age of 13 are required to provide parental consent and further information for validation. Participants can download an iOS or Android mobile app that uses algorithms and sensors in the phone to count wall ball reps. Players must use a sleeve or sock to attach their phone to their upper right arm in order for the app to count their reps. The sleeve can be a sock with the toe cut off, a soccer shin guard compression sleeve, or a SNYPR sleeve, as long as it holds the phone tight to the upper arm. More information and links to purchase SNYPR sleeves can be found www.uslacrosse.org/wallball. The sleeves are also available atwww.LaxWorld.com, which is helping to promote the challenge at events around the country this summer. About SNYPR: SNYPR is a Silicon Valley start up company …

July 21, 2016 | By T.J. Buchanan I’ve spent approximately 30 of the last 40 days in June and July on the sidelines of lacrosse tournaments and have watched nearly 200 high school level games. Here’s what I’ve learned from watching teams of varying talent levels, some loaded with Division I commits, and some without a single athlete being recruited. 1. Sportsmanship trumps winning to true competitors, who honor the game. I witnessed a coach telling the officials to take a go-ahead goal for his team off of the scoreboard in a closely contested semi-final game, because his player (carrying the ball) stepped out of bounds during the clear and the official missed it. I’ve also seen some of the worst, such as the coach threatening the young men working the clock and scoreboard because of his displeasure with the officials calls. For what it’s worth, the team who had the goal removed ended up winning by two goals. 2. The teams with the most recruits are those with coaches that teach the kids how to play. One team ran exclusively a zone defense in every game for an entire tournament, leading them to the semi-finals of the event they were participating in. Interestingly enough, not a single defender from that team was committed to play college lacrosse, and not a single college coach on the sidelines was interested in any of the defenders. Why? They couldn’t see if the kids were actually able to play defense. Sure the kids were really good at taking three to four steps towards the ball carrier and forcing a pass, but could they defend a dodger? Could they play in broken situations? Do they know how to slide and recover when forced into a defensive rotation? Your guess is as good as mine… 3. Positive attitudes generate exceptional play. Team A, with a 15-player roster, was up against a nationally-recognized “powerhouse.” Team A’s coach was genuinely excited for the team to even be on the same field. The coach praised every effort the team made to play hard and smart. At the end of the first half, the score was tied at 6 goals apiece. Yes…tied. Mistakes were rewarded with praise for the effort in trying something different, and a correction about technique or tactic was delivered. As a result the kids played free of fear and with unmatched vigor. 4. Negative attitudes generate poor play. Team A fell behind two goals early in the second half. The coach started to lose his cool and it got worse as the team fell further behind. Mistakes led to yelling, not coaching. Players who made mistakes were taken off the field and berated for their mistake. Guess what happened? Yep, Team A ended up losing by seven goals. The kids were tentative and afraid to play, to the point where two of them went to the trainer for ice to treat “injuries.” I use “injuries” loosely, because they played in the next game without any …