FLG Scoring Academy Participants,
Thank you for joining us at Session 1 of FLG’s Winter Scoring Academy. For the families who couldn’t make-it, this recap will tell you exactly what we focused on last night.
In lacrosse, over 80 to 90% of the shots taken are on the run. Meaning, you are releasing the ball from your stick towards the goal while you are moving your feet. That being said, we feel it’s very important to work on this part of the game.
Before we did any shooting on goal last night, we worked on the fundamentals of shooting on the run around the out-skirts of the indoor facility. We discussed 4 BIG things that must be done in order to correctly shoot on the run:
- Get the head of your stick above your helmet or head. This allows you to get more control on your shot, get more speed behind your shot, and hide the ball from the goalie.
- Arms out and up! Keeping your hands close to your body might help you control your shot in the short-run, but will significantly diminish your speed and accuracy in the long run. Remember! Extend your arms and get those hands up towards the sky.
- Now, we start thinking about the lower half of our body. Establish a “Pivot Foot” and “Kick the Kan” foot. Your inside leg should be established as your pivot foot, remaining on the ground, and your outside leg should be established as your kick the kan foot. The outside leg should swing around, coming off the ground, and allowing your hips to square up on cage. Your momentum to bring your body into a 180 degree turn, eventually finishing your shot with a back peddle.
- Lastly, the release. We teach our shooters to release the ball as soon as their kick the kan foot (outside foot) hits the turf. Reason being, once our foot hits the turf, we know that our hips are now on cage, a crucial step for getting an accurate shot on net.
We spent a solid 30 minutes focusing on the fundamentals for how to shoot on the run. Instead of warming up on a cage, we warmed up on the netting around the indoor complex. We do this so players don’t focus on where the ball goes. They should be focusing on everything else. Hand positioning, where their eyes should be, foot work, body language, release point, etc. Being able to synchronize all of these ideas takes time to master and lots of repetitions.
Once our players started shooting on net, they looked great. Our athletes did a really nice job applying the fundamentals of how to shoot on the run. It allowed for more accurate and consistent shots on goal.
Moving forward, we plan on focusing on the fundamentals at the beginning of each session, and incorporating more advanced shooting drills towards the middle and end of each session. We want to get lots of reps. But, more importantly, we want to get lots of QUALITY REPS. Consistency is the goal of the scoring academy. We want to answer the very important question of “How can we become more efficient, consistent, and effective goal scorers?” To help find answers to that question and for video footage on how your son or daughter is progressing, be sure to follow us on Instagram & Facebook.
#LoveTheGame
Sincerely,
Coach Corey & Coach Bob
