Three Tips To Help This Female Lacrosse Goalie Improve During Practice

Jessica writes to ask what to do to get more out of practice. It seems that they are doing a lot of in close shots and she feels her game isn't really improving. My answer will be well received by any coach who wants to help out his/her goalies in practice.

Answer: Jessica thank for writing. First off you're definitely going to want to check out my goalie blog. There is a ton of info there and you'll find some things to work on. Here's some quick tips.

1) Get out of the cage and work on moving to all those spots without the actual shots. This will take any thoughts of havign to actually catch the ball and you can focus on the fundamentals of moving to the ball properly.

2) Everyday when you get warmed up have them start to shoot at a different spot first. Today it might be off stick high. Tomorrow stick side low. If you don't make them all a priority at one point during your career then nothing will ever improve. In strength training we say that the thing that is done first in a work out improve the most. That's why you need to switch things up all the time.

3) When you do the close shoots and the undefended roles have your coach ask your shooters to shoot to a particular space. This does two things. 1) You can focus on how the shot is coming out of the players stick regardless of what the rest of their body is doing. When you see the ball leave the stick you can work on moving to the ball. The odd shot will go someplace it's not supposed to but that's ok. 2) The shooters get to work on their accuracy which is something they need anyway.

4) Also, those quick shots and undefended one's don't have to be done so close in practice. Again, ask your coach to have the girls take their shots from further out. This way you have more time to react to the ball. Don't worry, you'll still be ready for the shots in the game that are closer. But by having them move out you will feel safer in the cage, will have time to react to the ball, and will be able to work on things better.

Don't forget that your team wants you to improve too right? After all, you are their goalie. If your coach finds this funny she/he can always write to me and I'll explain my thinking. Many coaches don't give any thought to this so yours is probably no different. I'd be happy to help you out.

Good luck Jessica. Let me know how it goes. And let me know if you need anything else.

Oh...two more things> The biggest things I see with girl goalies that need improvement are 1. Strength. and 2. Stick skills. One of the best "drills" you can do is to fall in love with the gym. This is the biggest factor to improving your game. When you improve your strength everything else improves.

Kick butt and let me know how it goes. You can reach me through my blog.

Jonathan -
www.LacrosseGoaltending.blogspot.com