LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Soccer? Football? Basketball? Hockey? Other?

Different for different positions or lax variants, i.e. box vs. field?

“Moore said he might have gotten a bit quicker this offseason, putting an emphasis on footwork and doing a lot of running.”

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ion-/57241

My opinion is biased due to having played midfield in the pre-specialization era. Lines played for as many minutes as they could without specialized substitution (except for extra man situations). My pick is soccer with its constant pace and flow. However, given the weird platooning and specialization maybe today’s game favors football.

Hockey

All of the above.

Fogo's - Wrestling
Attack - basketball
Middies - Soccer
Defense - Ballet or any activity to improve footwork
Goalie - any sadomasochistic activity

jersey shore lax wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:17 pm Fogo's - Wrestling
Attack - basketball
Middies - Soccer
Defense - Ballet or any activity to improve footwork
Goalie - any sadomasochistic activity

Amen to the goalie choice. When I began playing got suckered into playing goalie. After a few games I thought, “Hmm, might be better to deliver than receive...”

PizzaSnake wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:46 am Soccer? Football? Basketball? Hockey? Other?

Different for different positions or lax variants, i.e. box vs. field?

“Moore said he might have gotten a bit quicker this offseason, putting an emphasis on footwork and doing a lot of running.”

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ion-/57241

My opinion is biased due to having played midfield in the pre-specialization era. Lines played for as many minutes as they could without specialized substitution (except for extra man situations). My pick is soccer with its constant pace and flow. However, given the weird platooning and specialization maybe today’s game favors football.

I think the challenge these days is what sports can be played that don't interfere, at least too much, with one another. As well as are helpful cross conditioning.

Given the spring/summer emphasis if serious about lax, that does tend to bias away from the winter sports which overlap seasons, though my impression was that many of the best attack men I played with and against back then were basketball players. Shake and bake, give and go, pick and roll... We didn't have good hockey down in Baltimore, but I played with a bunch of hockey guys in college. Better on ice than on land, they nevertheless had great spacing and hands. I was a wrestler and at least at my school, the best athletes wrestled if they didn't have basketball springs. All ranges of size of course, so multiple heavier guys were also defenders in lax. These guys typically played football in those days. A lot of FOGO's cite wrestling as very helpful. All about leverage and explosive quickness.

Seemed to me that soccer was great for midfielders, run all day, spacing...but a very different set of specialized skills to be actually seriously competitive in both. And the pressure to play all year in soccer in pretty extreme...tends to force a choice in high school...but doesn't have to. It's possible to be a lax first soccer player and have fun playing. Football still seems to me to be the easiest to play in conjunction with lax as it requires the least skill specific year round work. My son was a goalie like me and played squash as his second high school sport; he didn't go all-in on the intense training for the top squash players, more of a fall-winter commitment, but managed to be a solid contributor for his perennial championship team...great for hand eye and conditioning. He also did volleyball on that local championship squad, which was for him more about fun and teamwork, but also quite challenging footwork, etc...but no real overlap with lax.

These days a lot of guys will run indoor track over the winter under the notion that they'll stay in shape, but I'm not so sure that's as helpful as one of the other sports. Even playing good intramural basketball can be a great adjunct, IMO.

If you can only pick one, it's tough to beat basketball: defensive footwork, offensive and defensive work through picks, zone and man defense, ball movement, head, body and hand fakes, boxing out, finishing in traffic, heads on swivels and slide/show defensive stances, two man game - I could go on and on. Boy I wish I had more players who played hoops! I'll take them over kids playing box lacrosse any day.

PizzaSnake wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:24 pm

jersey shore lax wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:17 pm Fogo's - Wrestling
Attack - basketball
Middies - Soccer
Defense - Ballet or any activity to improve footwork
Goalie - any sadomasochistic activity

Amen to the goalie choice. When I began playing got suckered into playing goalie. After a few games I thought, “Hmm, might be better to deliver than receive...”

3 generations of goalies in my family...gluttons for punishment. Wrestling was my second sport, definitely the most brutal physical training. I played football, but when I broke a collar bone, I switched to cross country...another grueling training sport...I didn't have a whole lot of athletic talent beyond hand eye and a good first step or two, and a capacity for endurance, so the one thing I could do was accept, even embrace, pain more than the next guy...so the sadomasochism might not be so wrong!

One of the great things about lax is that all sorts of athletes can find a way to contribute, even excel.

Basketball

Basketball and soccer. Soccer can be a problem if the player wants to be good and play at a high level. Basketball is the most applicable overall. I picked up lacrosse late as a basketball player. The games are basically the same. No better sport for a defender. You learn how to play on ball and off ball. Also good for offensive players. If I had to pick one, it would be basketball.

Typical Lax Dad wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:49 pm Basketball and soccer. Soccer can be a problem if the player wants to be good and play at a high level. Basketball is the most applicable overall. I picked up lacrosse late as a basketball player. The games are basically the same. No better sport for a defender. You learn how to play on ball and off ball. Also good for offensive players. If I had to pick one, it would be basketball.

+1

I have a little different take. If I could only recruit from 2 other sports to fill a roster, what would they be? For me it would be basketball and football but I certainly don't discount the viability of the others mentioned. Seems like basketball is the most similar to lacrosse (and would be my first choice): pace, tempo, offensive schemes, defensive schemes, passing angles.

Point Guards = Middies
Forwards/ Shooting Guards / Forwards = Attack
Forwards/Centers = Defense.

Football, for me, is even more fun to consider though:

RBs/Running QBs/Slot receivers = Offensive midfielders
CBs/FBs = Defensive midfielders
WRs/Slots/TEs = Attack
Safety's, OLBs, DEs, CBs = Defense

Granted a players physical attributes greatly contribute to what position they end up playing but the physical movement patterns of the above are VERY similar in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

Basketball - spacing, picks, teamwork
Hockey - speed of play, spacing, coordination (hands and feet)
Golf - mental, hands
Soccer - spacing, endurance

I remember heading up to Hobart in the early 80's to see Dave Urick and visit the school. During the tour he said that he didn't recruit too many defensemen because he could always find some tall athletic basketball players on campus and give them a stick their freshman year. By the time they were juniors they were making all-american teams because of their understanding of defensive positioning from basketball.

Basketball (old school basketball) has a ton of the same offensive and defensive principles that are prevalent in today's game.

Basketball and lacrosse are essentially the same game, you're just allowed to foul a little more in lacrosse. Growing up with a brother who was a mighty sweet hoopster as well as bigger, taller, and faster, I learned to foul and cheat pretty early on just to have a shot at keeping up. Didn't help me much with hoops but it did when I walked on a lacrosse field, I was fine with the contact and bumping around. Inasmuch as Naismith was a big lacrosse boy long before he ever hung a peach basket on a pole, it's not surprising that the required skills for both games are very similar.

Ice hockey has many parallels to lacrosse for positioning, shot selection and clearing. It's also a great conditioning sport.

I can't argue with the case being made for basketball.

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:18 pm Basketball and lacrosse are essentially the same game, you're just allowed to foul a little more in lacrosse. Growing up with a brother who was a mighty sweet hoopster as well as bigger, taller, and faster, I learned to foul and cheat pretty early on just to have a shot at keeping up. Didn't help me much with hoops but it did when I walked on a lacrosse field, I was fine with the contact and bumping around. Inasmuch as Naismith was a big lacrosse boy long before he ever hung a peach basket on a pole, it's not surprising that the required skills for both games are very similar.

Yep. I picked up the defensive principles right away and had a better understanding than kids that grew up playing. Really the same game.

Carroll81 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:03 pm Basketball - spacing, picks, teamwork
Hockey - speed of play, spacing, coordination (hands and feet)
Golf - mental, hands
Soccer - spacing, endurance

Hockey helps with handling ground balls in traffic. Too much hockey will screw up your running. Many hockey players shuffle their feet when they run.

I thought that coaching basketball (jv, varsity assistant) made me a more effective (varsity) lax coach. Not only are strategies similar, but coaching basketball helped considerably with clock management.

Basketball takes the most athleticism of any sport. The offensive and defensive patterns are the same for hoops as lacrosse. Pressing and beating the press in basketball are like riding and clearing.