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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.  :roll: [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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