Lacrosse Coaching Tips For College

By: Jennifer Potts

Break Studios Contributing Writer

Lacrosse coaching tips for college can help you succeed at this very difficult job. Lacrosse can seem like a complicated sport, and when you get into the college level, the athletes are extremely skilled and talented. This means that as a coach, you have to work even harder to foster these skills and talents and create a lacrosse team that can work together and win games.

  1. Learn to play lacrosse. Before you can effectively coach a college lacrosse team, you need to know how to play the game. Ideally, you are an ex-player yourself, but if not, you’re going to have to learn. Some of the basics to know are that there are ten people from each team on the field. The positions are three attackmen, three defensemen, three middies and one goalie for each team. To win, you need to score more points, and to score, a player shoots the ball into the goal using the lacrosse stick.
  2. Talk to other lacrosse coaches. This can give you a better idea of the coaches role during the lacrosse game. Not only will you be motivating your players, but you also need to make decisions about  what strategy your players should use when out on the field. This will involve assessing the competition and really knowing the strength of your players. Other coaches can help you get a feel for how all of this comes together during the actual lacrosse game.
  3. Train your players. To be successful in lacrosse, your players are going to need to be skilled and strong. Endurance exercises are very important during training because lacrosse is a very intense, fast-paced game with lots of running. Strength training is equally important. To be able to shoot the ball across the field, your players must possess upper body strength, which can be achieved through weight lifting. Agility drills are also key to developing a successful lacrosse team.
  4.  Develop the right attitude for your team. College lacrosse is a highly competitive sport. Compared to the number of universities in the country, there are not many sanctioned college lacrosse teams. This means that the teams that do exist are highly skilled. The attitude you should encourage with your players is the importance of doing their best and that winning games is a reward for their hard work, but not the determination of whether or not they are excellent lacrosse players.
Posted on: Feb. 28, 2011