And to the people looking to shoot down my argument, lacrosse is very expensive but not prohibitive if the equipment can be provided. Hockey and golf do need specific arenas to play that are expensive in and of themselves to maintain and access. |
The larger p[roblem is the parents. Lacrosse has a long history in certain circles and parents are critocal to success in lacrosse. To truly improve stick work and skills takes a lot of extra work - coaching, clinincs, priavtes. Parents who themsleves arent from a background that "get" lacrosse will (and do, I see it in DC area all the time) will not pay for all the extra lessons and time it takes to make a superioir lax player. Lacrosse is not like football or basketball. Advanced stick skills are very specific and not intuitive. |
But a kid who is a very good basketball player can throw against a wall every day with either hand and still be a good enough lacrosse player to beat out a non basketball playing rich white kid on a middle school team or club team tryout and then get the skills needed through coaching to be recruited. There were not special instructional places like Next Level 15 years ago that catered to rich people getting their kids stick skills early. Nor were there those places in Long Island. Kids just played and were coached by knowledgeable people. The industry that has become specialized instruction in this sport is fairly recent and mirrors the businesses of special instruction in other sports. Just becaus your kid does one on one basketball at age 7 doesn't mean he will beat out a kid who does his ball handling drills every day at home in his living room. Sorry, but your argument does not hold water. I understand why you want to make it but there are plenty of lacrosse coaches who will volunteer their time for the underprivileged to play. And there are clinics for those people. Their will be more can assure you. But you are right in that the payoff for coaches or businesses to volunteer their services is not as great as for something like basketball where the money from college trickles down to 7 year olds playing for shoe companies, I mean AAU teams. |
This is completely untrue. The keys to success in lacrosse are stick skills (which can be learned by anyone with a certain amount of coordination and decent athleticism) and, more importantly, speed. It is not a hard sport to learn or play. You have to be mentally tough, but private lessons are absolutely NOT the key to great lacrosse players--only parents who think their kids are great. |
Agree. You cannot coach speed, athleticism or coordination. Those are inherent. Give those kids and their parents access to a stick, wall, ball and you tube and there is no stopping them. |
And the most mentally tough are the kids who play tackle football early. So the previous poster who said alll public school kids were football meat heads so to speak had better get their kid to stop playing soccer for their fall sport and put them in football if they want to stay competitive in lacrosse in 10 years. |
Really? Face off academy is not important to a face off player? |
| Landon finishes #1 in final Laxpower ranking. May be one of the greatest seasons by a DMV team ever. |
An athletic kid with above average speed and coordination who makes it onto a middle school or club team with a coach who recognizes the kids potwntional as a face off specialist will be ok. As was said before, these specialty lacrosse business did not exist 15 to 20 years ago. And the sport has been around, with faceofcs, for a very long time. Sorry but coaches will find the talent and develop it. If the kids want to play and are exposed to the sport somehow. The spread of lacrosse in public schools across the country is happening and there will be consequences for rich private school kids who see it as their hook for college. If your kid plays in high school now you don't have to be concerned but in 10 years you will |
| ^^ sorry for the typos. On my phone using too weak reading glasses! |
What kind of tool even thinks to use this as example? |
A FOGO's dad who has dropped 50 gs over the last 5 years. |
I don't think this area will see a team as dominant as this Landon team for quite some time. |
| Next year's Landon team is going to be very strong and will be favored in every game they play in the DMV. Question is whether Landon 2018 will beat the national powerhouses on their schedule. |
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Landon 2018 should be very strong but I don't expect them to match what the 2017 team just accomplished.
Gonzaga should also be stronger in 2018, so should Saint Stephens. Bullis will drop a little with the departure of Trippi, I suspect they will recruit in a few transfers. |