|
Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal
Thursday, November 23, 2006
LACROSSE – FASTEST GAME ON TWO FEET
When I first started playing lacrosse they had bumper stickers going around proclaiming
lacrosse as the "fastest game on two feet". I haven't seen one of those
in a long, long while, but then you don't see that many 70's model cars anymore either.
Perhaps the Hockey Gods made the bumpers cease and desist from making that public proclamation
or whatever.
I will say, however, that the longer I coach the more I still want more speed. I
used to think that what that meant was simply that I always wanted faster players.
Well, sure, who doesn't? Speed kills and all that. I think the definition of speed
within my coaching scenario has evolved, though.
RUN/PASS FOR YOUR LIFE
I realized a while back that it's not just faster players that I want, for my plan, but
it's to see the game played at a fast or faster pace. This does not mean run and gun
like we have no limit to our ammo supplies (number of possessions). It doesn't suggest
even slightly that I want us to play a frantic, go-for-it all, helter-skelter style of lacrosse
just because I want to play a 'speedy' or high level style of game.
It is the cerebral and spiritual side of the playing of the game of lacrosse that makes
it special in my book anyway. I never want to diminish the freedom of players to use
different angles of approach in different real game situations. I guess what I mean
and what I pursue is to see the skills of the game displayed at a higher level and faster
speed more consistently than ever before (on my team). This alone can give you more
time and more options.
Oh yeah, and after all is said and done the ball still does move faster on the slowest
pass than any player ever will be able to run.
SHOOT FOR THE STARS
The theory goes something like this: With all the new fangled equipment players have now
they should simply be able to catch and throw at a higher level, while with greater ease
and more confidence than ever before. Players have more experience at younger ages
now as well. There is no excuse for being 'psycho' about one's pocket anymore either.
They still often are, but it in fact no longer takes rocket pocket science to have a good
one.
What am I really talking about? Well, for example, and I'm sure there are coaches
who would call me stupid for saying these types of things, but I will go up to a kid (college)
after a play in practice once in a while and say something like, "You know, in that
situation a behind-the-back pass might have been quicker and more accurate than the one
you threw." Excuse me, Coach Knucklehead. Never throw behind the back passes,
and for that matter always shoot bounce shots! That's WORD. These are fundamentalist
concepts of the high lacrosse gospel, right? Well, I fall a little short there, too,
or again. I only encourage hitting the net when shooting. That's pretty much
the deal with me.
JUST DUNK THE BALL, BOYS
While we are talking about it, using predetermined shot selection is not part of my coaching
list of do's and don'ts. In fact I have asked players half way through the season,
probably after seeing them getting 'stuffed' high by the goaltender for the umpteenth time
in a row, if they were in fact capable of even shooting a bounce shot. For one thing
many of these mesh pockets used now aren't versatile enough to throw the ball accurately
into the ground in order to achieve a favorable bounce response anyway, but truthfully I
don't yell a lot about shot style. I am rather rigid about the selection of shot to
take, however, as in finding and getting to the place where the particular player needs
to be before he ever even thinks about shooting the ball. That's what I'm talking
about. This takes training and discipline, both for coach and player. It doesn't
just happen. I want them to focus on getting in position to take high percentage attempts.
That's how you begin to get a good goal yield, at least that's what it says in MY coaching
manual.
SHOTS IN THE DARK
Players always complain to me that I don't do enough shooting drills. Yup, they are
more than likely right. I listen, but in my world nothing much changes because so
few of them can call the same shooting place their own. I hate going through motions
and there is a fine line for that. So I search and discover through real situations
how to get shooting practice, not through monotonous line drill type of repetition alone.
That comes later when we know the kind of shots we are looking for.
MARK MY WORDS
You know I am sitting here thinking about it, and Mark Plonkey (CSU LSM 2004) scored a
ton of goals for us (CSU) with his long pole in his 4 years here, and even with being a
defender such as he was (dominating defensive specialist) the (my) offensive scoring rules
still apply. I'll bet almost every one of his goals came from pretty much the same
place on the field. He learned or knew instinctively where that place was. He
never shot unless he got there, either, and his scoring success rate was phenomenal.
By the way, that shoot-the-ball place for him was about 8-10 yards straight up in front
of the goal, where he could stare the goalie down as he did the deed. His goals always looked
like done deals, too, as if the goalie would have no chance after Plonkey had broken down
the defense all by himself.
Also, when he scored, it was more than a goal, you see, because that added eye contact
humiliation got factored right into the goalie's brain. Plonkey was way more comfortable
being there with his long pole than the opposition was having him in there. I always
liked that. Mark was really quite brilliant as a player.
BE QUICK, BUT DON'T HURRY (John Wooden)
Being able to play quickly without hurrying, to handle and react to pressure without panic,
and to make it all look aesthetically connected and athletically pleasing are more or less
the things I most want. To my way of thinking the rest will take care of itself.
AH, LIFE (who said that anyway?)
This day would be my parents' 61st anniversary. Next year they will have
also been divorced for 50 of those years. Wudda-shudda-cudda. Witnessing family
dysfunction has quite a long history for me.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
So, where am I? How did I get here? Is there a brain train leaving soon for
anyplace else? These do not seem like great questions to be asking myself as part
of my current list of goals-to-set quest. General, vague, and or negatively posed
queries will only get me general, vague, and or ugly answers.
FLUTING MOMENTS
Twenty-two years ago today Doug Flutie threw that Beautiful Boston College miracle pass
to Gerald Phelan, to beat the "U." in Miami at the Orange Bowl and cement Flutie's
place in football history. You know, he had to have thrown a pretty good ball on that
one. It didn't flutter to earth. It came down like a rocket. It isn't
just pure or dumb luck that makes stuff like that completion possible. I could use
one of those game changing bombs right about now.
WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS(?) (Humphrey Bogart)
How lame am I? I feel like everything was going great there for a minute. Fall
was progressing (?) well enough. We were fairly healthy. I got the hall of fame
thing. Then they (school/club sports) honored our team and had me speak to all the
clubs in a public speaking venue. That same night I got a hug from the person who
runs our division of university things. This was a hug that took five years to get
and felt as good as any hug I had ever gotten, and certainly one that came from a "boss"
that I wanted to please. Life was indeed good, Well, that whole euphoria deal
only lasted about 12 hours as some kind of weird Da Vinci style code seemed to break into
the calm, chill the warmth, and lead me to where it is just now, which is, of course, I
don't know where.
CHAIN OF FOOL (me)
Earlier in the week of that infamous hug received that I refer to above I had also been
lobbed this chain letter on email from a "friend", and it was complete with written
threats and promises of ongoing bad fortune if I didn't forward it immediately to ten others
or whatever. Why do people put that crap on you? Anyway I stoutly ignored the
letter, as I have so many times before but this one definitely seems to be leaving some
kind of a 'hit', residue that I couldn't have even imagined. If it was not the letter
that has turned my world, then I don't know what it could have been. I got to have
an answer or some kind of philosophical cast to put on my currently shattered karma so that
it might heal properly.
BLIND MAN'S BLUFF
These new little life "challenges" that have reared up somehow managed to hide
themselves in ways I could not have imagined. Usually I see things, especially 'bad'
ones coming. I almost pride myself in my ability to smell trouble brewing. I
admit that I wasn't ready this time. I have allowed myself to be blindsided in areas
that I thought were safe, well taken care of, carefully defended and then barricaded in
our Fort if you will.
Yeah, I'm not karmically challenged. No superstition for this kid.
IN SEARCH OF ANTHONY ROBBINS – or – Don't let the door hit you in the ass.
Bad answers do not lead to good ideas and so on. So how do I get my spiritual, intellectual,
and emotional tail back to a place where I can begin to ask more positive questions?
Well for one thing a quick answer to the current CSU question would likely help. It
has been long, even, or maybe especially so, after it had been promised to be short.
I believe by court 'law' that the word will have to come by tomorrow or Monday. A
fair and just solution would be uplifting to say the least. What do I expect?
Not that, and truthfully I can hear the squeak of the not-so-well oiled hinge on the back
door.
Next Entry | Previous
Entry
Flip Started Blogging Before it was Cool, Read Over 400 of His Entries Since January 2001
Jump to a Period:
2006: Jan Feb Mar
Apr May June
July Aug Sept
Oct Nov
2005: Jan Feb Mar
Apr May June
July Aug Sept
Oct Nov Dec
2004: Jan Feb Mar
Apr May June
July Aug Sept
Oct Nov Dec
2003: Jan Feb Mar
Apr May June
July Aug Sept
Oct Nov Dec
2002: Jan Feb
Mar Apr May
June July
Aug Sept
Oct Nov Dec
2001: Jan Feb
Mar Apr May
Sept Oct
Nov Dec
|
