Recruiting

[Seacoaster(1)]

Just curious: what constitutes a contributor?

[jff97]

Just curious: what constitutes a contributor?

For me, it's a player who sees time in non-garbage time situations. Obviously a big range and can be hard to define, but generally if a someone played in most of their team's games including non-blowouts they got put in the contributor list. The range is also a reason I added the "starter" category for 2020 and 2021, because the dropoff from "multi-year starter" to the end of "contributor" is very significant.

[wlaxphan20]

Just curious: what constitutes a contributor?

For me, it's a player who sees time in non-garbage time situations. Obviously a big range and can be hard to define, but generally if a someone played in most of their team's games including non-blowouts they got put in the contributor list. The range is also a reason I added the "starter" category for 2020 and 2021, because the dropoff from "multi-year starter" to the end of "contributor" is very significant.

Lacrosse also can have that gray-area “starter” who technically is not in the starting lineup but is running the substitution box with a starter. And (of the two players running the box) the starter is not necessarily the better player or bigger contributor, but the player needed for that game’s specific game plan (for example - an attacker starting if they’re looking to push the pace & take advantage of fast breaks off the draw or the defender if they’re looking to slow an opposing team down). So I like the idea of adding contributors. Thanks again for putting all this data together!

[njbill]

In the high school games I watch, I am more and more seeing teams subbing one or two middies, offense for defense and vice versa. Most teams, say, 60-75%, still use the traditional three two-way middie lineup, but offensive and defensive middies are becoming more prevalent. The high schools have copied this from college, though many still don’t have enough quality players to sub offensive and defensive middies.

Almost all teams start with their defensive middies on the field at the beginning of the game and when each draw is taken. If they win the draw, the one or two defensive middies run to the box and their offensive counterparts enter the game. They do it this way because, if you win the draw, you can control the play and the ball while your offensive middies get onto the field. If the other team wins the draw, you need your defensive middies immediately to defend against your opponent’s attack.

In games in which starters are announced, I am more and more seeing 13 or even 14 starters announced, which includes the one or two offensive middies who start the game in the box.

[Dr. Tact]

Almost all teams start with their defensive middies on the field at the beginning of the game and when each draw is taken. If they win the draw, the one or two defensive middies run to the box and their offensive counterparts enter the game. They do it this way because, if you win the draw, you can control the play and the ball while your offensive middies get onto the field. If the other team wins the draw, you need your defensive middies immediately to defend against your opponent’s attack.

Another trend is the placement of those middies. Overloading on the defensive side restraining line at the draw.

Loyola used a gritty/fast AA defender on the circle as well to begin the ride as soon as possession was lost. This could also be adapted by teams with talent.

[wlaxphan20]

In the high school games I watch, I am more and more seeing teams subbing one or two middies, offense for defense and vice versa. Most teams, say, 60-75%, still use the traditional three two-way middie lineup, but offensive and defensive middies are becoming more prevalent. The high schools have copied this from college, though many still don’t have enough quality players to sub offensive and defensive middies.

Almost all teams start with their defensive middies on the field at the beginning of the game and when each draw is taken. If they win the draw, the one or two defensive middies run to the box and their offensive counterparts enter the game. They do it this way because, if you win the draw, you can control the play and the ball while your offensive middies get onto the field. If the other team wins the draw, you need your defensive middies immediately to defend against your opponent’s attack.

In games in which starters are announced, I am more and more seeing 13 or even 14 starters announced, which includes the one or two offensive middies who start the game in the box.

I agree more often than not it’s the defensive middies that start on the field. That’s nice they’re able to announce the 13 or 14 as starters. I’m not sure if it’s done in college. I was just going by official box scores

[Kleizaster]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... look/21049

blast from the past, very interesting. I wasn't able to find the full list of player rankings for years pre 2013. But really paints the picture of who the under achievers are

[Justalaxdad]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... look/21049

blast from the past, very interesting. I wasn't able to find the full list of player rankings for years pre 2013. But really paints the picture of who the under achievers are

Maybe the biggest underachiever is IL and their rankings…

[Kleizaster]

Watch the American select 2023 championship game between Connecticut and Massachusetts on youtube. just for a little glimpse of how good Chloe Humhrey(#9 white) is. insane talent

[UO22]

Watch the American select 2023 championship game between Connecticut and Massachusetts on youtube. just for a little glimpse of how good Chloe Humhrey(#9 white) is. insane talent

She is a generational talent. IMO the '23 class is a strong class, but she is the best buy far. She is going to be fun to watch at Carolina.

[njbill]

She certainly is the best 2023 I’ve seen. I saw her three times live this year plus I watched four of her games on film. I first saw her last year in the Connecticut post season high school tournament and was very impressed.

I also saw one of her team’s games up at the Connecticut tournament again this year. Later, as I was walking to my car to leave, I went right past the field on which her team was playing. I was directly behind the goal. She was standing just outside the goal circle, unmarked. A teammate threw an off-line pass to her which came in at about shin or ankle level. With her back to the goal, she cleanly caught the pass and, still with her back to the goalie, executed a no look shot which found net. I heard the referee compliment her on the goal, which indeed was pretty nifty. You know you are good when you impress the referees so much that they say something about it.

Unfortunately for her team, they didn’t make the playoffs at this tournament. They played four of the six teams in their bracket. They went undefeated, but so did another team in the bracket they hadn’t played. The other team went to the playoffs due to a tiebreaker. No doubt in my mind that Humphrey’s team would’ve beaten the other team had they played.

[DMac]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

[@inthe8m]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

How much shooting have you done with a wlax stick?

[hmmm]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

Because it wasn't possible with a wlax stick until recently with the addition of mesh and other pocket/head technology.

[nomofogo]

I would think that a sidearm shot would limit shooting space and dangerous propel calls as well.

[njbill]

Shooting space is not based on where the attacker is holding her stick. Rather it is based on the positioning of the shooter and the defender.

A side arm shot can avoid a dangerous propelling call, but of course you can still hit a player with a side arm shot.

If I may be allowed to go on one of my pet rants. I’ll try to make it a mini-rant. Under the rules, a defender does not need to be hit with a ball in order for a dangerous propel call. You hardly ever see that call, however, unless a defender is hit. The only exception I can think of is that back when BTBs were new, some refs would make a dangerous propel call even if nobody got hit with a ball. That has seemed to have gone by the boards now. Don’t see that call anymore.

In my view, and I acknowledge I am close to a sole voice on this, lots and lots of these newfangled hard shots players take these days could qualify for dangerous propelling calls. When you see defenders scatter and hit the deck, that seems to me to evidence a pretty dangerous situation. Under the rules, a defender is not obligated to get out of the way of a shot, although the self preservation instinct certainly takes over.

End of rant.

[DMac]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

How much shooting have you done with a wlax stick?

A couple of years back while looking for the men's room at my gson's hockey game I stumbled into the wrong room which turned out to be a practice lacrosse "field". In there were two young gals, one of whom was gathering up a boatload of balls that were down at the end where I had walked in. Being me, I told the young gal gathering the balls there that she really had no choice in this matter (when you're old you can get away with this kind of thing which isn't to say I wouldn't have done the same thirty years ago) and I wanted to use her stick to toss a few balls down to the other end where the other gal was in front of the cage as I've been dying to toss a ball around with a wlax stick for many years and wanted to see what it felt like. On the third or fourth toss I went BTB with the throw, you had to see the look on the young gal's face, she said, "You can do that??" Of course I then had to tell her I had been tossing a lacrosse ball around for decades before she was ever born. In case anyone is wondering I was getting nothing but smiles and friendliness from these two. The whole point is, I confirmed what I had long thought in that the wlax sticks of today, and for quite some time now, are pretty much the equivalent of the 80s mlax sticks. The ability to shoot the ball the way we're seeing today has been around since long before just the last couple of years. Girls just weren't doing it, or very few were, for whatever reason. I don't believe that my thinking was/is wrong in that the girls just haven't been taught to shoot this way.
To answer the question directly, I have never shot at the goal with a wlax stick, but I played the game in the dark ages when everyone played with a wooden stick which was much heavier, didn't have the balance, or a pocket nearly as good, (pretty much perfect), as the wlax sticks of today and the recent past and I could shoot the ball pretty darn hard from many different angles with that stick. It's about wrists, torque, leverage, and quickness, not strength. Oh, throw in a little innovation and creativity too...you're seeing much more of that in the wlax game today.
JFTR, I watched the young gal who let me use her stick to toss the ball around a bit when I was done and she was really good with it. Those two girls were a couple of sweeties, they found me to be quite entertaining...was fun.

[wlaxphan20]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

Because it wasn't possible with a wlax stick until recently with the addition of mesh and other pocket/head technology.

I'd argue it was a little before that. Mesh isn't necessary to be able to do that, and it can be done with a traditional leather ladder pocket. I'd say the sticks coming out in the early 2010s made shooting like this easier

[VAMomGlax2019]

Watch the American select 2023 championship game between Connecticut and Massachusetts on youtube. just for a little glimpse of how good Chloe Humhrey(#9 white) is. insane talent

She is a generational talent. IMO the '23 class is a strong class, but she is the best buy far. She is going to be fun to watch at Carolina.

Daughters team played Chloe Humphrey’s CT Grizzlies team several times. What stood out to me was her quickness attacking the goal. She seemed to have a different gear than others. The games were entertaining and she was fun to watch play.

[Lax101]

Watched a little of the game suggested, saw her shoot from the hip North style, reaching past her defender waist high and putting a ton of mustard on the shot...yes, it went in. My question is, why has it taken so long for girls to realize they can shoot like this? This is about leverage and torque, not strength. This has driven me nuts since I first started watching wlax, that shot has always been there but rarely taken and the torque and leverage thing has always been there too but realized by few. I've said the girls weren't taught to shoot right which, of course, I took a lot of heat for but it might turn out I wasn't so wrong.

To be honest shooting sidearm for most players is not the best option. North is a clear exception to the rule and there are other players as well. Less contrôl ând often an easier save for the goalie. Few girls can pull it off consistently. Better to teach girls to shoot over the top, change levéls and mostly shoot offside low. Sidearm for most players will do nothing more than lower their shooting percentage. Looks great and will make the highlight réel but that is about it. I always revert back to Taylor Cummings. Have you ever see her shoot sidearm or even à BTB? Nope. There are often better, less flashy options.