ETHS Parents and players, Happy new year! We are going to keep this letter short and sweet with the holidays taking up the majority of the month. Below you will find information on: Housekeeping, Fitness Tests and Preparation, Drill of the Month, Monthly Philosophy, What to Watch for and the parent committee.
Housekeeping
Open Gym Schedule (January and February) is up on the website, but also copied below:
January
- Monday 1/6-7:45-9:30
- Thursday 1/16-6-8
- Thursday 1/23-8-9:30
- Friday 1/24- 6-8
- Tuesday 1/28-6-8
February
- Thursday 2/6-6-8
- Tuesday 2/11-8-9:30
- Monday 2/17-6-8
- Thursday 2/20-6-8
- Monday 2/24-6-8
- Thursday 2/27-8-9:30
Team lake runs with Coach Bill will begin Monday 1/6/25. Optional and open to all levels.
- Where: Entrance 3 (Outside Fieldhouse/next to bike cage)
- When: Mondays after school, we will start running at 2:30
- Who: Open to All Levels
Running if 25º or warmer. Dress appropriately - synthetic or wool layers, hat, gloves, warm socks, etc...
Fitness tests and Preparation:
As a reminder we have implemented 2 fitness tests-
- 2 miles in 12 minutes
- 440 test (PLEASE READ)
440 Times - (based on last year’s average and median times. These are passable with effort!):
- 440 1 - 68 Seconds
- 5 MIN BREAK
- 440 2- 76 Seconds
- 5 MIN BREAK
- 440 3- 85 Seconds
*Goalies will have to complete the tests but will not have to make the times.
We are still undecided on how to implement both of these, so stay tuned. That being said, you should be able to pass either on day one as a varsity lacrosse player. This is a challenge but not unachievable!
We will be taking precautions to make sure hockey players do not injure themselves with the change in conditioning from skating to running. Please do your part to avoid injury by coming into the spring season prepared to run.
Drill of the Month
Like the name says it’s a 2v1 outside of a 10-yard arc, where you can only shoot outside shots. Using a girls 8-meter arc is perfect! The goalie counts down a 7-second shot clock creating real-time pressure in getting off a shot. Limit the size of the arc itself so it’s not too easy for the offense, the shooters need some pressure. Now you can play a 2v1, work on draw and dump, and get realistic time and room shots
We love adding picks to the 2v1. All players need to learn to read and influence the defender while seeing if he’s going under or over the pick. The pick constraint allows players to learn how to shoot screen shots around the defenders and around the pick itself. I highly advise you to use tennis balls when you’re focusing on screen shots so you don’t hit anyone while you’re learning to wrap your shot around bodies
There are so many amazing skills that emerge from this drill! Plus, your goalie will LOVE this drill too, because now shooters can’t just take all day and rip uncontested shots
Philosophy
If you focus on this one offensive principle, you’re guaranteed to win more games! According to Zack Capozzi and laxReference.com, shooting percentage has the second-highest correlation with winning of any other metric. The team with the lower shooting percentage won just 18% of their games in DI last year. Only shooting efficiency, which accounts for whether misses were saved or off-cage) was more impactful at 17%. For comparison, the team with the lower face-off win rate won 39% of their games. In addition, Joe Keegan, a stats analyst and writer for the Premier Lacrosse League, did a study a few years ago of 15k shots from the 2015 and 2016 Major League Lacrosse seasons and found that shots with sticks to the middle scored at a higher percentage than sticks to the outside in every quadrant of the field other than dead center; Assisted shots scored at a higher % than unassisted shots; and 2man game created higher assisted shot rates and higher stick to the middle shot rates.
Shot selection has to do with angle and distance and is different for every player. Shot selection is also an incredibly powerful constraint. An example is if you only allowed your players to shoot with their sticks to the middle, they would figure out how to get shots with their sticks to the middle! Whereas if you allow them to shoot alley shots, they will shoot alley shots.
I guarantee if you emphasize shot selection, your players and team will have a great year!
Parent committee:
This year we plan to implement a “parent committee” to help us in continuing to build a great culture around in and around the lacrosse program. If you have any interest in getting involved or any ideas on how to help, please reach out!
If you have any questions, comments, or updates on Housekeeping, Fitness Tests and Preparation, Drill of the Month, Monthly Philosophy, or the parent committee please feel free to reach out! Your participation in this will only improve the quality of the newsletter and our program’s culture.
Coach Fournie | ETHS Boys Varsity Coach | Fournier@eths202.org
Austin Curtis | Assistant Varsity Coach | acurtis@truelacrosse.com