Your Stickwork Will Save You!
Girls (Women’s) Lacrosse, much more so than boys (men’s), is a game of finesse. Catching the ball in a stick with a very shallow pocket is much more difficult than it looks. Keeping the ball in the stick is all fun and games in junior lacrosse. But it becomes more challenging when real checking is allowed- as in high school/college. The slightest tap on the stick can break its cradle motion, and jostle it just enough to knock the ball from the sweet spot. This can make it difficult to throw on target. Or worse, it can make a player drop the ball. This causes turnovers, lost opportunities, and frustration for the player.
Ball Control!
The better your stick work, the more control you have over the ball. The more control you have, the more opportunities you will have to dodge, pass, and shoot. The problem as I see it is, youth lacrosse players are taught to cradle loose, high and in front of their face. This works at the youth level because the rules prohibit checking at first, then checking above the shoulder. This leads to cradles that are far too checkable by high school rules, and a need to a complete re-working of stick work upon entering high school.
What's the Solution?
The solution is to develop a strong, more check-proof cradle. This cradle needs to be strong, tight, and well controlled; all within 12 inches of the head of the handler. It needs to be strong in every plane conceivable and quickly moveable in order that the stick head be hidden from any defender within a stick’s length. Left and Right!
How to Develop Such a Cradle...Left and Right!
The Cerebellum (base of the brain) is the area at the back, bottom of the skull. It is the area that controls coordination and balance. Great coordination and balance go hand in hand with agility and an increased awareness of where the body is space. All of these together, developed properly, plus a lot of hard work and dedication, make a worthwhile end product: great stick work and an amazing lacrosse player.
The way to develop coordination at any repetitive task is first to break it down to the very basics, perfect the technique, then build slowly in difficulty. Each exercise must be practiced on the left and the right hand equally as coordination builds. This slow, directed increase of challenge to the Cerebellum increases its function over time. The results are amazing!
Click on our products page, then see “Your Stickwork Will Save you- DVD and workbook” for more information about this amazing program.
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Sports Specific Training
Performance enhancement and injury prevention are goal of any serious coach. Enhancement simply allows us to be better. We can become bigger, stronger, faster and more resistant to injury through effective cross training and a variety of other means. Improved performance can be attained through nutrition, agility training, psychological training, weight training, and specific drills/tasks aimed at challenging the brain’s coordination center- the Cerebellum.
Sports Specificity in Women's Lacrosse
I choose to use proprioceptive training for the development of stickwork improvement in lacrosse players. Proprioception is the knowledge of where your body is in space. The increase in the subconscious awareness leads to an increase in the brain’s ability to take in other information about your surroundings. In Women’s Lacrosse, this knowledge is extremely important. It helps us know where exactly our stick is in space in relation to our head, shoulder, and another players stick or body. Equally important in Women’s Lacrosse is the development of a sense of light touch. The shallow pocket and resultant undetected dropping of the ball is something that can be prevented with the proper training. Further, this training can prove to make your stickwork and cradle more resistant to other players’ checks so you can keep possession when you wouldn’t have otherwise.
I have worked with athletes since 1985: treatment, rehab, prevention and performance enhancement. That’s 22 years. I have been a team doctor for many area sports teams, and worked with everything from agility training to taping, bracing, and acute on the field injuries. I have worked with almost every musculo-skeletal injury you could imagine. What I like the best is preventing them by training the athletes to make movements that lend themselves to success at well as physical integrity.
Over the years, I have studied a ton of information. It’s in my brain. I can’t pretend to remember where I learned some things, or where I learned others. My brain stops at what’s important, I guess, not the year, volume, and page of the medical journal or periodical I read the information in. I just know some things to be true at this point. You’d have to know me to know why I say: take the leap of faith, and trust me on this one. This is my life, and I know I can help you get where you want to be… if you are willing to do what it takes. I have spent my life learning this stuff so I could get creative and help you be the very best you can be.
Take a look at this workbook. Watch the DVD in its entirety. Start working day by day through these pages. Suggested numbers are written in grey. Write down what you accomplish. It will give us answers should you have problem with the program! You won’t believe the difference!
Take a look at these schematics. If they make look familiar to you, then you have learned this from me or someone I have taught it to:
If they don’t make look familiar, then click here for more information on how to maximize your stickwork.
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Dr. Jen Milus, DC
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