Good player development—what does it look like?

[Anonymous]

Good player development from a club perspective is about providing a framework where all kids can reach their potential.

At a minimum, you need adequate fields, a consistent schedule of team practices throughout most of the year, and a schedule appropriate games/tournaments throughout the year

Coaching: good development coaches teach fundamental concepts of lacrosse as opposed to relying on set plays, they have a practice full of drills with live competition that allow kids to makes reads and decisions as opposed to scripted movements. Good development coaches supports kids so they every kid has fun, enjoys coming to practice, and every kid feels like they are valued part of the team.

Environment: having similarly skilled players that can work well together at the same level. A wide disparity in talent level can make practices difficult and frustrating for everyone.

I don't necessarily agree with taking away playing time from kids who mess up. Kids learn by making mistakes. Sometimes you have to let them play and work through things. Benching a kid can mess with confidence and that's the last thing a good coach should do. Benching kids in games also creates an environment where kids root for other kids to get benched because it means more playing time for themselves - a terrible team culture. All kids should play, the better players play more, the weaker players play less - and let each try their best with their respective playing time. This is how you build a team with supportive teammates where kids enjoy the sport and their experience.

[Anonymous]

The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

I have a minor disagreement with the 2 PP. I agree on individual skill development but as players get older that should happen less in practice and more in separate clinics. Set plays are important and should be a larger portion of practice as players age through teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

I have a minor disagreement with the 2 PP. I agree on individual skill development but as players get older that should happen less in practice and more in separate clinics. Set plays are important and should be a larger portion of practice as players age through teams

I would also add that it is very difficult to develop kids who have minimal interest in the game, no matter what happens in practice. Before parents disparage a coach or club, they should honestly assess their player's interest and "coachability".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

I have a minor disagreement with the 2 PP. I agree on individual skill development but as players get older that should happen less in practice and more in separate clinics. Set plays are important and should be a larger portion of practice as players age through teams

I would also add that it is very difficult to develop kids who have minimal interest in the game, no matter what happens in practice. Before parents disparage a coach or club, they should honestly assess their player's interest and "coachability".

This here. As a coach, I can do all of the drills I want and give you things to work on at home, but if you don't do it then at the end of the day that is not on me. There are times you even have to lay off of the kid and just let them figure it out.

I have a player that drives me crazy because she is so talented but just does not care enough to work outside of practice to become even better no matter how much we coaches tell her about her potential. (Thankfully, her parents see that it is her interest that is lacking not the coaches). We remind her from time to time but at the end of the day, it's their choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

I have a minor disagreement with the 2 PP. I agree on individual skill development but as players get older that should happen less in practice and more in separate clinics. Set plays are important and should be a larger portion of practice as players age through teams

I would also add that it is very difficult to develop kids who have minimal interest in the game, no matter what happens in practice. Before parents disparage a coach or club, they should honestly assess their player's interest and "coachability".

This here. As a coach, I can do all of the drills I want and give you things to work on at home, but if you don't do it then at the end of the day that is not on me. There are times you even have to lay off of the kid and just let them figure it out.

I have a player that drives me crazy because she is so talented but just does not care enough to work outside of practice to become even better no matter how much we coaches tell her about her potential. (Thankfully, her parents see that it is her interest that is lacking not the coaches). We remind her from time to time but at the end of the day, it's their choice.

This is part of the reason travel teams were created - to get like minded, hard working kids together. If not working hard is acceptable on the travel team, it's time to find a new one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The above is very true. Every player needs playing time to learn and adjust. If those that aren’t starters aren’t getting pt, how can they improve. Coaches need to allow that development to happen.

For the kids who constantly get cards, sometimes taking them out for a minute to regroup is not a bad thing. Does not mean they are benched, but to start again fresh.

I have a minor disagreement with the 2 PP. I agree on individual skill development but as players get older that should happen less in practice and more in separate clinics. Set plays are important and should be a larger portion of practice as players age through teams

I would also add that it is very difficult to develop kids who have minimal interest in the game, no matter what happens in practice. Before parents disparage a coach or club, they should honestly assess their player's interest and "coachability".

Yes but many parents refuse to see their kid is lacking interest and don’t want to believe they aren’t coachable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hit the wall and camps

So that makes sense for at-home work, but what about from the club perspective? How do the best clubs go about developing their players?

I'll give it a go. Two kids, one HS, one MS, played in Moco for the big clubs, both A and B teams.

Individual skills development is the responsibility of the player and by extension the parents. As early as 3rd/4th grade the player should be practicing technique on their own (rebounder, GBs, position specific skills, etc.). Past a certain point every player is expected to be able to play with both hands, catch and throw properly, and have sufficient technique to play their specific position. Lots of parents supplement the player's on-their-own work with private coaching and camps. It's expensive and psychotic but that's where we are.

Now on to the club perspective--if I were starting over and doing this again, what I would want from the club is a coherent playing philosophy, i.e, coaches that have a plan for specific, common game situations. Does the team work on a clearing play? Does it repeat that play enough in practices such that clearing isn't an issue in games? Do players in the clear know exactly where they're supposed to be and what their roles are? Repeat this for other situations--riding, man-up offense and defense, fast breaks/unsettled, etc. Essentially, is the team prepared to play an actual game?

The other thing I'd look for at club level would be player accountability...when players screw up one of those situations I mentioned above, are there consequences? I don't mean screaming/yelling, or benching a guy who makes one mistake--I mean, when a player, regardless of skill level, is consistently in the wrong place at the wrong time for any given situation, are they pulled from the game and replaced by another player, maybe less skillful, who knows what his job is and how to do it? Are attackers who consistently dodge into double and triple teams and lose ball pulled from the game? Are players who consistently take penalties and cause their team go a man down pulled from the game? Are poles who miss slides and cause a crease dunk goal pulled from the game?

All of this basically adds up what's loosely called "lax IQ" and to me that's the job of the coaches, and the responsibility of the players to execute a plan. There's waaaayyyyy too many teams where players play hero ball on offense, and make dumb mistakes on defense, and they stay on the field because they're the team's "studs" and the coach is afraid of antagonizing their parents.

Don't want to name names but there's a few prominent coaches out there who are great recruiters and are adept at poaching other clubs' players, but really aren't getting much out their various age groups because they don't care about actually coaching, they just want to list D1 recruits on their website. The real test of a good coach IMO is one that wins at a high school team--with a few exceptions you have to deal with the players you have on grade 10-12 and cannot just wholesale steal another, better team's squad. Some of these coaches simultaneously coach a HS team and club team and you can tell the difference because the HS performance is terrible.

"the coach is afraid of antagonizing their parents" - this is 100% ruining lacrosse for kids. More and more, parents are dictating what they want to see in terms of player development and they want to define it their way. Parents think player development is defined solely by winning. I would say that a substantial part of player development rests on the shoulders of the individual player, and not the coach. Ask any standout college player what made them better than their peers and they will talk about hours spent practicing on their own, walking around with a stick in their hand, playing wall ball, etc.. Player development encompasses a lot of things but you need to have a player who is really committed to getting better in order to get the best out of the coaching they are given and to develop. Every player has their own benchmarks. But when they come together, can your kid play as a great teammate? Because that's how you win and that's how you develop. And at the end of the day, that's what college coaches want to see. There are plenty of kids that get recruited to play in college that aren't the top players but they are team players and contribute in quiet and substantial ways. Don't get caught up in defining what player development looks like. It's different for everyone....

This is one of the best entries I’ve ever seen on this site. All of it is spot on. Especially the “me ball” and the same players making the same mistakes - especially yellow cards. I can’t understand why coaches don’t pull kids aside after they take them out of the game and explain what they did wrong and what to do instead??? I see very little “coaching” on the sidelines??

As far as development, unfortunately, you’re not going to get much of that from the clubs. They are more about getting the better players together and playing in tournaments. You have to find someone to really teach them individual skills, dodging, shooting techniques, etc. It’s ridiculous because you end up paying once for the club then again for actual quality training. Lacrosse is a racket in these parts.

This is all great. I do think some clubs are better at developing specialists (e.g., goalie). Quality positional coaching as well as proper use of the goalie in practice (i.e., not as a crease crank target) makes a difference.

I also think that clubs are sometimes afraid to focus too much on the development side because that doesn't always equate to winning. It takes time for players to develop and parents in this area are almost excusively focused on winning and tying winning to development. In other words, if my DD's team isn't winning then she isn't developing. Around here, girls jump clubs and teams too much for any one team to really get to that amazing stage where they gel together. If a club team has a winning season then everyone wants to migrate to that team next year. Then they have a losing season and everyone wants to jump ship. Every year those teams have to rebuild, year after year. That rests on the shoulders of parents who really want to be able to tell their friends about how many games their DD's team has won this year. Here's the big difference - in Baltimore, those girls start playing together before Middle School and they stay together. Many of them also play together in HS so double time together. Those girls aren't hopping from one team to another and following the wins. Those girls are also serious about developing and work as hard outside of practice as they do at practice. Frankly, most of the teams my daughter has been on in the Moco area has girls who think that simply showing up to practice is enough to make them good and that the coach should be able to turn every girl onto the team into a phenom or else they say the coach stinks. Development is almost totally absent in our area. Bethesda runs a mediocre rec program that doesn't really prepare the girls for club play like it should, and their MS Club teams don't produce girls who are ready to get onto A teams at the club level in HS and they aren't starting on their HS teams. I know there are exceptions but those girls are the standout athletes who will excel everywhere. What we desperately need if for someone to focus on TRUE development - basic skills, use of non-dominant hand, shooting IQ, etc beginning in 3rd and 4th grade and run a continuous program like that all the way through HS, AND have strong recruiting. The influx of MoCo players going to Skywalkers has actually brought them down and their teams are nowhere as competitive as they used to be. True player development starts with fundamentals and those are sadly lacking.

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