Thursday, May 8, 2008

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

I am trying to make these last few practices game planning practices.  As I learn more about Virginia Tech I find more reason to worry.  This team will be very good, no doubt about it.  They have several first team all-stars from their conference’s all-star team.  I already suspected that the Hokies would have a lot of skill on the roster just based on where the school is located (east) and the numbers we are getting on them and their stats confirms that they have a few very special players to go along with the overall high skill level.  The Tech record was 14-2 for the season and they were a very few goals away from not losing at all.  We have the utmost respect for our opponent you can be sure.

SPEED RACERS

It would seem that the Hokies like to push the pace of the game based on the scores from their games, which always has a high number of goals, and especially for their side.  My thought is that we might want to stay out of the penalty box against this team as well.  The face off guy made first team all conference and this says a lot when there are as many teams as there are in the Southeast conference (SELC) and every team has a face off guy.

INTENSITY IS KEY – GOT TO WANT IT MORE

So, what am I doing about preparing?  As much as I can, but in a way I am, as stated earlier, committed to beating our strengths into the ground right now for the most part.  The Counter attack daily drill time is like ritual for us, much more so than stick drills/line drills are. 

LIKE A DOG

We are doing ground ball drills a lot, for example, too, because I want for us to get a lot of them (ground balls) in a game.  I know this is simple in its approach to logic, but as we know the simpler the better for me. 

THE SHOOTING GALLERY

We are shooting in practice far more than I ever have done shooting drills in the past, and that is ever, too, and including times when they used to complain in years gone by about not enough extra shooting being done in practice.  Shooting drills are appropriate for this group for me more than any other I have had, and it is my greatest hope that the ‘shooting will fit’ our purposes next week.  In the past I used to look at shooting more like it was what you did after you did everything else ‘right’ as it were, and the net part was just formality.  I no longer take quite as naïve an approach to the whole shooting thing, although I still prefer to see us make plays that basically take the goalie out of the picture.

THE TEST IS NOW

We (practice times) are being ravaged by final exams now, but we are still having effective practices in spite of that fact.  Onward and upward I say.

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