Ground Balls

[youthathletics]

Question and understanding.

I would love to hear your thoughts on ground ball instruction at the HS and college level AND do you incorporate these drills because it needs to take place or its just the way its always been?

I ask because I feel like it is such a rudimentary part of the game, that it really boils down to individual effort. For most of us, it is still incorporated in practices each and every day and yet when you watch a game, you can watch players shortcut it, be standoffish, back rack it, no power cradle off scoop, raise stick into the sky....and yet they clearly know they are doing it wrong. Maybe what it really says is they just don't care?

[Farfromgeneva]

All my kids back rake like their slick. I’m begging them and of course two of the smallest kids are the only ones throwing their body in a scrum, usually end up on the ground but get after it. 4th/5th grade (9/10).

We got whooped today, sort of, lost by a few and should’ve won, but at least with my son who had a mediocre game for where he’s at I pointed out in the way home how he got low, choked up and drove through the the GB with momentum to carry into open field off instead of a battle. He realized how the odds are really better by getting your shoulder down in and forward movement.

Of course same game I have one kid who likes to play bodies more than balls that I tried at attack today and taught him to run picks when we are hot with my more skilled and “Forrest Gump runner” ball carrier kids* running across the top or behind the cage and at one point where I called out to Jack that we’re hot and he races across/through our crease, in front of our goalie and basically shoulder middle tackles the defender in front of his ball career teammate. He comes over later and I’m like “Jack, keep that intensity and team oriented focus up, but what did I tell you about the picks?” to which he replied that his feet are supposed to be stopped and hands down on stick but that he wanted “to make sure that reyn got open for an easy shot since we were hot…”

*I have three of those who can do everything with intensity I can throw at A,M or D and I know I’m good there but hate having them at D because we constantly lose clears where my other kids aren’t getting open and said D kid is stuck at the midfield line until he gets gang jumped by the defense. But we are constantly undersized and less developed as the in town program than the suburban ones where they’ve been “Rumolestillskin-ing” their future children to LB3 since they were 5 and they also seem to have a lot of 12 and even some 13yr olds playing my 9/10yr olds. So I have to use these kids judiciously with the other new to lacrosse kids plus the slower to develop second year kids.

[Farfromgeneva]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

[youthathletics]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

[Farfromgeneva]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

I’m not messing around w #3, just don’t have enough time to get it right but I like the first two

[Farfromgeneva]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

First one worked fairly well, eventually the kids were providing too much resistance and even some slashing vs holding the sticks but it’s still 8-10yr olds

[youthathletics]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

First one worked fairly well, eventually the kids were providing too much resistance and even some slashing vs holding the sticks but it’s still 8-10yr olds

Progress

[Farfromgeneva]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

First one worked fairly well, eventually the kids were providing too much resistance and even some slashing vs holding the sticks but it’s still 8-10yr olds

Progress

Bigger challenge now is I've got a dad assistant who put his kid in a pay for play winter club program and while he's as unathletic and competitively inexperienced as the Chicken Pot Pie guy in the attic in Men in Black, he will actively take kids in practices and run other drills without saying anything to me. He starts screaming at one or two of them like the Drill Seargant in Full Metal Jacket before I can speak to the team about how running drills in practice is to make the kid/player running it better so you show him an "as if" full look without impeding the player doing what he's supposed to and just thinking to myself "I bet half these fourth graders could kick your a**". I thought the kids were a challenge until this dude with no concept of teamwork (hes an independent video game designer) got a taste of the club life for his son...

[youthathletics]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

First one worked fairly well, eventually the kids were providing too much resistance and even some slashing vs holding the sticks but it’s still 8-10yr olds

Progress

Bigger challenge now is I've got a dad assistant who put his kid in a pay for play winter club program and while he's as unathletic and competitively inexperienced as the Chicken Pot Pie guy in the attic in Men in Black, he will actively take kids in practices and run other drills without saying anything to me. He starts screaming at one or two of them like the Drill Seargant in Full Metal Jacket before I can speak to the team about how running drills in practice is to make the kid/player running it better so you show him an "as if" full look without impeding the player doing what he's supposed to and just thinking to myself "I bet half these fourth graders could kick your a**". I thought the kids were a challenge until this dude with no concept of teamwork (hes an independent video game designer) got a taste of the club life for his son...

There is 'always' at least one. Have had plenty of those 'types', use them to your advantage.

If you want to flex, just send out a daily/weekly email to the team with the practice plan. You can assign this guy the remedial stuff OR just enforce everything is team related and when we do break out session, both breakouts will do doing the same thing in order to get the payers more touches, and disguised conditioning.

[realitychecks]

Anyone able to suggest any drills that invite appropriate contact and driving through gbs while getting low? Struggling with that.

a few ideas:

- Put the line team in two lines, about a stick length apart, facing each other with the sticks making an X between the the two players in opposing lines. Like a gauntlet. Put a ball in the middle of that gauntlet line, have a player scoop a GB at the entry of the gauntlet and cradle it straight through the loose sticks. It will begin to build confidence with stick contact….which is what they often avoid. Or just a bunch of kids in a small circle with all their stick cross crossed over a loose ball….gb guy has to scoop under their sticks and exit out the backside of the circle where he entered.

- take their sticks away and have them pick of GBs with their hands while on the move, it forces them to have to actually be overtop of the ball, get low, and puts a mental Rolodex that their hand needs to be close tp the ball (in the throat of the plastic) when they do it with a stick.

- make an inexpensive stand out of PVC fitting, like a limbo stand, and have the scoop the ball just before the limbo stand and exit under the top cross car. 2 pvc tees, 2 elbows and about 10’ of pvc pipe….depending how low you want them to go.

Some great ideas

[thatsmell]

Really focus on getting their "top foot next to the ball." (Right foot for right-handed kids, left foot for left-handed kids.)

Make sure they step their top foot immediately to the side of the ball.

This makes them do the correct technique- With their foot immediately next to the ball they MUST get their back hand down. They also aren't "reaching" for the ball. It also ensures their butt is down, and head is over the ball, and will prevent them from getting slashed across the arms or knee. If someone slashes, it will be to the back of the helmet, and be a penalty.

[youthathletics]

Really focus on getting their "top foot next to the ball." (Right foot for right-handed kids, left foot for left-handed kids.)

Make sure they step their top foot immediately to the side of the ball.

This makes them do the correct technique- With their foot immediately next to the ball they MUST get their back hand down. They also aren't "reaching" for the ball. It also ensures their butt is down, and head is over the ball, and will prevent them from getting slashed across the arms or knee. If someone slashes, it will be to the back of the helmet, and be a penalty.

+1