I love lacrosse for many reasons and I’ve dedicated my life to teaching it because the many variables and dichotomous skills necessary to find solutions in real-time is a thrilling puzzle to decipher. It’s strategic and adaptable. It’s powerful and delicate. It’s thinking and reacting. It’s technique and timing. These are just some of the dichotomies in this great game and it leads to the question I wrestle with everyday - what is the best way to teach groups? Before we dive in, age and commitment level are variables that affect your planning but this journal entry will be focused on the group setting of elementary school aged kids.
I’ve experimented with many teaching methodologies over the years like exploring the design of the practice plan, specific drills and situational concepts and have found that a combination of linear and non-linear approaches are necessary for groups of different ages and skill levels.
Youth lacrosse groups benefit greatly from game-based activities (Lemov 40). According to Doug Lemov, author of The Coach’s Guide to Teaching, he covers two major benefits of the constraints led model - First, small-sided games multiply “mental touches”: occurrences where the athletes have to read and adapt to movements and actions around them. Everyone is constantly reading the foundational interactions of the game - space, movement, body position over and over (Lemov 41). Second, they are most powerful at building deep and sustained intuition for foundational concepts…angles, distance and timing (Lemov 41). Athletes are missing out on critical opportunities to learn the longer they stand around or in line waiting for their turn (Lemov 41).
Elementary aged lacrosse players’ skills are enhanced by this method due to its dynamic environment and bias toward creativity and fluency. The more this age group reps. this style their physical, mental and emotional skills improve greatly and naturally shine a light on their strengths and weaknesses. With this awareness, their time can be spent on more static, nuanced, skill acquiring sessions when they decide it’s time to level-up.
All in all, the constraints led model serves athletes well long term because it tests the athlete against an objective standard and in my sessions, we praise the attempts!
Doug Lemov. 2020, The Coach’s Guide to Teaching, Melton, Woodbridge, UK. John Catt Educational Ltd.