Wednesday, February 4, 2009

RANT AND ROLL

Last night’s practice was indoors and of course short, but it felt really good in a lot of ways.  I had a really not-so-great day all day earlier, but practice kind of fixed all that for a minute.  Why did I like it so much?  I liked it because I liked the way I felt.  Things, or at least offense and defense are coming along pretty well in terms of the overall flow I’m looking for, but the mind set that I had was the thing that was working for me.  I would describe my coaching mind as being in a very basic place.  The thing I kept hollering last night, for example, was simply, “Make the good pass!”  That was my mantra and reminder to them du jour.  Not exactly a constant breakdown of strategy and tactics, but the truth is that my teams have never worked best from the chalkboard.  They work best from simple concepts and heartfelt execution.  That’s what I’m going for.  I’m tired of worrying too much about “what we are in” or whatever.  All that stuff leads to everything happening in reaction.  I want to push the pro-action lifestyle this year and if our improper defensive set hurts us or whatever, then I will deal with it then, and in more than a ‘tactical’ way. Make no mistake, I am going for the ‘impose your will’ approach to team building.  I want to push the “Who are we?” thing much more.  It’s how WE play and not WHO we play, and all that stuff I used to preach much more than I have in the last few years.

INTERNALLY SPEAKING

We might have an actual intern this year to help us with getting out the information about our team and program.  Great, because with all the venue jockeying I don’t hardly know where half of our ‘home’ games will take place.  It is an ever-changing world that we live in and there are people out there who are looking too much at lacrosse as a moneymaker with no limits.  Well, I can assure you that my opinion is that there is indeed a limit and besides that, any tendency towards greed can kill the spirit of something and certainly something as spiritual and rich with history and tradition as the sport/game of lacrosse.  It has never been about money, and my feeling is that ultimately lax can never be about the profit margin.  That must trickle down from love and promotion and not marketing techniques, slick or otherwise.

I AM THE HIPPOCRATE

I will step off my soap box now and go try to figure out how to help my new lacrosse store survive.

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