ITA Learning Project - My Journey from Youth to High School Coach – Post #3

So, at the end of my last post, I had all my mandatory coaching training done, now I just have to wait until the paperwork gets through the school district and the state for my permit comes through. I have to wait until that is all done before contact with the team, so for now I’m focusing honing what I know about the mechanics and adding new drills and game play strategies to my toolbox.

My first go-to for this is the US Lacrosse Coaches Education Program. As I already mentioned before, the Level 1 certification I hold focused on the basic techniques – how to teach a kid to pass, catch, shoot and pick up a ground ball. If you’ve ever watched a youth or developmental middle school game, you see how important it is to focus on the fundamentals of these particular tasks. The level 1 courses also gave me important lessons on how to teach the proper way for kids to hit – making sure we are playing a safe and controlled, yet physical, game of lacrosse without reverting to the old-school “football with sticks” mentality that used to be part of the culture.  This training gave me a huge amount of help in my coaching already, so I decided I will pursue my Level 2 certification.  This course has both an online portion and a practical seminar. The seminars are usually off season, so I can only do the online part so far. The course is, so far, extremely helpful. It’s building upon Level 1 and adding advanced skills to give the kids. It’s also giving some hints as to more advanced substitution strategies, defensive and offensive sets and special teams play.

I’m also looking for specific rides and clears strategies by searching YouTube for instructional videos. I’ve come across several channels where coaches or programs are sharing plays and strategies for other coaches.  BTB Lax, Lax Playbook and ILoveLacrosseTV are a few I’m really finding useful.  I’m compiling a list of these so I can review with Mike what I think will work and see if he’ OK with them. I’m also using YouTube to find some drills to run in practice that will enhance the kids skills in the transition game.

This is the last week I have to prepare before stepping on the field with Mike and the kids. I’m ready for it to start, but nervous at the same time. I’ve still got a lot of things to learn to move to this level, but I’m both looking for and finding more resources that are helping me. I’m also realizing I have to be careful about how much time I spend on this – I’ve had to fight the urge to spend more time on my coaching at the expense of some of my school work. It’s been a few months since I had to deal with competing interests like this. And at that, I was balancing work with the rest of the stuff. That was duty to work versus the stuff of like. Now I’m enjoying the school work and the coaching stuff just as much. I’m finding I can get lost in either task.

My next post will be after I actually start on the field. Stay tuned.