12-year-old Lacrosse beginner?

[Anonymous]

My son has been involved in many other sports, hockey, football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. He has now discovered lacrosse.

Where can I find lessons or clinics for a 12-year-old beginner? Most of the stuff online for this age are for boys who have been playing a while. We are in DC but can travel to close-in MD or VA.

[Anonymous]

Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

There various summer programs for beginner/intermediate players, usually run by club teams. I recommend Next Level (Bethesda) because I'm most familiar with the program, but there are others. I'd recommend contacting the head coach/owner, Dave Mitchell. He can offer suggestions, even if there isn't a fit with what his team offers.
Also, if your son has friends who play, just go out and throw with them. Ballwall, too. Helps immensely!
Good luck and have fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

[Anonymous]

I would suggest looking at the local rec programs in Bethesda and Arlington/McLean. Next Level may also have summer clinics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

Lacrosse parents are, next to tennis and swimming parents, the snobbiest in thinking that you have to start early to play well. The fact is in any sport, inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better can mean that some athletes surpass those who have played since pre-K. For lacrosse, the agility, speed, and lacrosse IQ necessary to excel cross over with some of the skills used in soccer, football, and basketball. Size, strength, and reaction time matter, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

Lacrosse parents are, next to tennis and swimming parents, the snobbiest in thinking that you have to start early to play well. The fact is in any sport, inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better can mean that some athletes surpass those who have played since pre-K. For lacrosse, the agility, speed, and lacrosse IQ necessary to excel cross over with some of the skills used in soccer, football, and basketball. Size, strength, and reaction time matter, too.

Both of these are right in a way. My son is a good athlete. Starts on a higher level club team, probably the best athlete is his grade at school, is a strong player in several different sports. But these types of kids aren’t very rare and he has been helped in lacrosse by starting young. If he started playing now, I doubt he could ever make a higher level club team or ever see the field at one of the stronger high school programs (e.g. IAC). But there are kids in his league that are exceptional athletes. These kids could have never pick a stick until high school and start most anywhere within 6 months. A great athlete will always win out. But those kinds of kids are rare, especially these days where kids stick skills are so much more advanced than even 10 years ago. If you have that kind of kid you probably already know it because they are likely dominating other sports as well. So never playing to D1 is possible but the story there is almost always a dominant athlete. But in terms of just being able to play at a non-IAC or WCAC school. That is definitely doable if you work hard starting at 12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

Lacrosse parents are, next to tennis and swimming parents, the snobbiest in thinking that you have to start early to play well. The fact is in any sport, inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better can mean that some athletes surpass those who have played since pre-K. For lacrosse, the agility, speed, and lacrosse IQ necessary to excel cross over with some of the skills used in soccer, football, and basketball. Size, strength, and reaction time matter, too.

Theoretically, your kid can pick up a sport in 8th grade, pass up other kids in that sport, and become an olympic-level athlete in that sport. Theoretically. You can maybe even cite a single example of some kid somewhere who has done that. But you are deluding yourself if you think your kid is likely to be one of those remarkable, astronomical odds-defying prodigies. Sorry, he's just not. Maybe he can pick up a stick and get on some (lackluster) high school team, and that will be fun for him, but that's probably as far as it's going to go. That's just reality.

There are 121,000 male high school lacrosse players in the US. There are ~17,000 college lacrosse players of which ~3,600 play D1.

Odds of any HS kid playing lacrosse in college, 7:1, odds of playing D1, 33:1.

Even if your kid starting playing in kindergarten, he is probably not going to play lacrosse in college.

If your kid first picked up a stick in 8th grade, he is competing for against all those kids who started uch earlier for that college lacrosse slot. It should be obvious that his chances of playing college lacrosse are thus less than 7:1 and his chances of playing D1 are less than 33:1. That's not "snobbery" that is math and common sense.

So yeah, go ahead, live in this dream world where experience basically doesn't matter so long as you have "inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better". Good luck with that, you'll need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Agree and I live in Baltimore where some kids start lacrosse in diapers. An athletic kid willing to put the time in can catch up. I’ve seen it happen at the middle school level more than once and my oldest is still in high school.

[Anonymous]

We no longer live in the area, so I don’t have a recommendation. However, my 7th grader has been playing since 4th grade. Every year, there are new players. We’ve gotten many the last two years as kids age out (or lose interest in) Little League. I’ve seen some new players with no experience quickly rise to the top. Our goalie this year was a new player and he’s excellent. Don’t let your child be discouraged from jumping in and giving it a try!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

Lacrosse parents are, next to tennis and swimming parents, the snobbiest in thinking that you have to start early to play well. The fact is in any sport, inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better can mean that some athletes surpass those who have played since pre-K. For lacrosse, the agility, speed, and lacrosse IQ necessary to excel cross over with some of the skills used in soccer, football, and basketball. Size, strength, and reaction time matter, too.

Theoretically, your kid can pick up a sport in 8th grade, pass up other kids in that sport, and become an olympic-level athlete in that sport. Theoretically. You can maybe even cite a single example of some kid somewhere who has done that. But you are deluding yourself if you think your kid is likely to be one of those remarkable, astronomical odds-defying prodigies. Sorry, he's just not. Maybe he can pick up a stick and get on some (lackluster) high school team, and that will be fun for him, but that's probably as far as it's going to go. That's just reality.

There are 121,000 male high school lacrosse players in the US. There are ~17,000 college lacrosse players of which ~3,600 play D1.

Odds of any HS kid playing lacrosse in college, 7:1, odds of playing D1, 33:1.

Even if your kid starting playing in kindergarten, he is probably not going to play lacrosse in college.

If your kid first picked up a stick in 8th grade, he is competing for against all those kids who started uch earlier for that college lacrosse slot. It should be obvious that his chances of playing college lacrosse are thus less than 7:1 and his chances of playing D1 are less than 33:1. That's not "snobbery" that is math and common sense.

So yeah, go ahead, live in this dream world where experience basically doesn't matter so long as you have "inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better". Good luck with that, you'll need it.

I didn’t read that OP said her kid wanted to play D1, just that he wants to try a camp or clinic. Most of us want our kids to play sports for the experience, not to make it to a D1 college team. Would you really tell any kid, “you have no chance of making it onto a college team, so don’t bother with sports!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

There ‘a a senior on the Hopkins women’s lacrosse team who did just that. The better question is why this possibly makes you feel so threatened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

There ‘a a senior on the Hopkins women’s lacrosse team who did just that. The better question is why this possibly makes you feel so threatened.

LMAO what a stupid reaction. In fact it sounds like YOU are the one who finds statistical reality threatening.

Keep citing exceptions here and there. Does it change the math of 121,000 high school kids and 3,600 D1 slots? NO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a private coach. Have him start at the outset learning to catch, throw and cradle with the off-hand. Tell him to hit the wall. If he’s athletic enough and works hard enough, he should be able to play and contribute. It also depends on the program he’s playing for in high school. Top private school programs (Prep, GZ, Landon) have players who have been playing since kindergarten and developed a fair amount of lacrosse IQ. The public schools tend to have less developed players so entry bar is lower. Remember that Paul Rabil never touched a stick until 7th grade.

Mine never touched a stick til right before 9th grade. Divison 1 college. HS varsity all four years. Fun stuff.

Ignore the whole must play for ever crowd.

Your kid might be the next Paul Rabil. But probably not.

I'd be inclined to ignore anons on DCUM who have unverifiable stories about how their kid never touched a stick until high school and then went on to play D1.

Lacrosse parents are, next to tennis and swimming parents, the snobbiest in thinking that you have to start early to play well. The fact is in any sport, inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better can mean that some athletes surpass those who have played since pre-K. For lacrosse, the agility, speed, and lacrosse IQ necessary to excel cross over with some of the skills used in soccer, football, and basketball. Size, strength, and reaction time matter, too.

Theoretically, your kid can pick up a sport in 8th grade, pass up other kids in that sport, and become an olympic-level athlete in that sport. Theoretically. You can maybe even cite a single example of some kid somewhere who has done that. But you are deluding yourself if you think your kid is likely to be one of those remarkable, astronomical odds-defying prodigies. Sorry, he's just not. Maybe he can pick up a stick and get on some (lackluster) high school team, and that will be fun for him, but that's probably as far as it's going to go. That's just reality.

There are 121,000 male high school lacrosse players in the US. There are ~17,000 college lacrosse players of which ~3,600 play D1.

Odds of any HS kid playing lacrosse in college, 7:1, odds of playing D1, 33:1.

Even if your kid starting playing in kindergarten, he is probably not going to play lacrosse in college.

If your kid first picked up a stick in 8th grade, he is competing for against all those kids who started uch earlier for that college lacrosse slot. It should be obvious that his chances of playing college lacrosse are thus less than 7:1 and his chances of playing D1 are less than 33:1. That's not "snobbery" that is math and common sense.

So yeah, go ahead, live in this dream world where experience basically doesn't matter so long as you have "inborn athletic talent and a strong desire to get better". Good luck with that, you'll need it.

I didn’t read that OP said her kid wanted to play D1, just that he wants to try a camp or clinic. Most of us want our kids to play sports for the experience, not to make it to a D1 college team. Would you really tell any kid, “you have no chance of making it onto a college team, so don’t bother with sports!”

True but there was another PP who chimed in with the D1 fairy story.

And I didn't say if you can't make a college team don't bother with sports. By all means play sports in high school. Just don't expect this will translate into cash and prizes in college, because most likely it won't.