From The Editor:
In our last edition of The Scoop, I laid out how we want to give a better look into what we do and why we do it with Team 91 Charlotte. Part of how we will do that is through our newsletter readings this Fall. Everything we do revolves around training and practice. If you play in our program, you generally can play lacrosse a minimum of 4-5 days per week throughout the year. Please note that it is the opportunity, and not the obligation, for guys to play more if they want it. You aren’t required to be at anything and it’s generally okay to miss if you play another sport but if you want more lacrosse, you have plenty of opportunities between our different travel team training sessions, our specialist trainings, our academy programs and our 7v7 leagues.
You’ll also notice that we generally play in fewer tournaments than some other club lacrosse programs. There are a few layers to that:
The First Layer: The Research Says Practice
USA Hockey and US Soccer have done a ton of research around what the appropriate level of practice to game play is. The suggested ratio they have landed on is somewhere between 3-to-1 and 2-to-1, practice-to-games with younger players practicing more than teenagers. Said another way, according to their research, athletes 12 years old and younger should practice 3 times for each game they play. If a player is going to play in a tournament with 5 games, they should practice 15 times with that 1 tournament. The more tournaments you play, the more you should be practicing. Now there is obviously room to argue a ~40-minute tournament style game versus a 1.5hr regulation game but the larger point is that young players should practice a lot more than they play.
Here is a scenario:
In a 40-minute tournament game, let’s assume that possession time is 50/50 meaning that I am either going to be on offense or defense for 20 minutes of that game. If I am an attackman on a team with 4 attackmen, I am probably only on the field for 75% of that time, assuming each player sits 1 quarter. My team has 15 minutes (75% of 20 minutes) of possession time while I am on the field each game. If all 6 players on offense touch the ball for the same amount of time, I am only touching the ball for 2.5 minutes per game. Over a 5-game tournament, that’s 12.5 minutes of time that an attackman has the ball in his stick at a tournament. If you are playing with a ball-dominant player that has the ball in his stick for an outsized portion of the game, that means the other 5 players are touching the ball for less than 12.5 minutes over the course of a tournament. You may touch the ball for 12.5 minutes over an entire weekend!
At Team 91, we generally start every practice with ~16 minutes of stick work. It could be tight line drills, Mimico passing, Meatloaf or a number of the different stickwork drills we run (you can find some of them here). Each drill is a high-rep, high-energy passing drill that optimizes touches and communication. If we start our practice with 16-minutes of stickwork, our players are getting more touches and have the ball in their stick for more time in that one drill than they may over the course of an entire tournament. Additionally, since it is practice, we can provide constant feedback on where their stick should be, where their hands should be, how they are receiving the ball, etc. In a tournament, while a coach can yell from the sideline, he really can’t work directly with a player until that player is on the sideline or between games.
So why is it most important in young players to practice more than they play? A young player is going to fall back on what he has learned and the habits he developed in practice during game play. A player that has had more opportunities to learn and develop good habits will fall back on those while a player that has not been in that same practice environment will revert to whatever he does have…which will be limited. As it compounds over time, a player begins to plateau with deeply ingrained bad habits. If you just keep loading up tournaments with minimal practices, you could also just be loading up bad habits in a young lacrosse player.
The Second Layer: The Multi-Sport Athlete
Similar to practice and play ratios, there is plenty of research around the importance of young athletes playing multiple sports. The best defensemen in lacrosse have generally spent some time playing basketball and learned the footwork needed to cover a point guard. Faceoff Middies often spend time on the mat wrestling. Goalies may have some type of background in tennis, racquetball or even goalie in another sport. Midfielders have spent time playing football or soccer. The best shooters? Some have spent hours developing their arms and shoulders in the pool! I could provide a ton of positive examples.
However, when an athlete’s schedule is full of tournaments, he needs to decide if he is going to “specialize” in one sport to play in each of those events or if he can play another sport in the fall and supplement that sport with a handful of lacrosse opportunities in the Fall. We have generally tried to keep our lacrosse tournaments to the first 2-3 weekends of November with some optional or additional events earlier. The hope that a lot of our athletes have finished their Fall sports season by that point or do not have any conflicts if we play in an event earlier.
The Third Layer: The Tournament or Event Premium
As someone who technically runs a youth sports business, it is probably pretty taboo of me to comment on the business of youth sports. However, the business of youth sports has exploded over the last 10 years, and it has factored into the question that is often posed to me on “why didn’t we see your team at more events this Fall?”.
In everything that we do with Team 91 Charlotte, we try to be mindful of the family budget. As an example, our Fall and Winter Intro Academy program is $125. That is cheaper than the alternative option in almost any other sport in the area and usually cheaper than hiring a babysitter.
Youth sports are getting very expensive! There is a premium charged in youth sports for tournaments and games. To keep it as simple as possible, we charge around $225/player for our 6-week Advanced Academy program. A player gets 9 hours of instruction and repetition over the 6-week program. However, there is a premium charged by the host when attending events or tournaments. To attend a single one weekend tournament, it will cost anywhere from $150-$500 (depending on the tournament) for about 3.5hrs worth of lacrosse games, where players get fewer touches, fewer reps and less instruction. That $150-$500/player is also usually before travel, uniforms, practices, etc. That can just cover the event entry fee!
While every family has a different budget for youth sports, when we consider how many tournaments we play and what tournaments we play, it’s a balancing act that is getting harder and harder each year. We must make sure players have an enjoyable opportunity to play competitive games without putting an excessive financial burden on families between fees and travel.
The Fourth Layer: Less events "equals" Less Lacrosse
While our teams may be at fewer tournaments, our players often have the opportunity to play more lacrosse than anyone else. Instead of traveling every weekend, our guys can participate in the Charlotte Fall Lacrosse League and/or several our Training Academy programs. They have team practices and skill training sessions on Sunday or one weeknight most weeks. Players can play lacrosse 4-5 days per week in the offseason and even more during the season while sleeping in their own bed each week rather than traveling to play five, 40 minutes games where they may only touch the ball for 12.5 minutes.
While our approach may be different than some of what you are seeing or experiencing elsewhere, the emphasis on development is unmatched and it always focuses on what is best for our players and their families.
Next issue, we will talk about how our Academy programs are structured and how it allows our players to progress and develop throughout their lacrosse career.
Ryan Flanagan
