Today’s lacrosse goalie tip is all about confidence. We got a great question from an eighth grade lacrosse goalie who has been asked to play varsity next year. This is a big “ask” for a young lacrosse goalie, but Coach Edwards lays out just how this can be a successful experience.
Building Confidence In A Young/New Lacrosse Goalie
[00:00:00] All right . Coach Edwards here with www.lacrossegoalietips.com and lacrossegoalieuniversity.com. Got a great question on our YouTube channel this week from Jackson. He said, “I’ve been watching your videos since I started playing and you’ve helped me so much, but I’m in eighth grade and I’m going to be in high school in the next couple of months. The varsity coach has been watching me play since I was 12. He really wants me to play varsity freshman year but I don’t have the confidence of playing with seniors and I’m trying out for 9 and 10 grade prep team. How can I improve my confidence?
I’ve Been Through This Same Goalie Situation
[00:00:38] OK well, Jackson listen, this is a great question and something that’s kind of near and dear to my heart because this is basically what I went through when I was in 8th grade. I started high school to Thayer Academy in Braintree, Massachusetts and they didn’t have lacrosse progra. My first year, the high school had a J.V. team that played against other teams that played like the kind of sub-varsity, so Grade 11 and down. And so I was in eighth grade. It was a big jump. That was four years playing up against kids who were four years older. And for me, in that school, I was actually in the middle school, playing with kids in the high school. So I totally understand what it’s like to be playing with kids who are a lot older than you.
[00:01:26] I want to cover a couple of things. You may or may not be in the situation if you’re watching this video. You may or may not be in this situation specifically but you’re going to learn a lot f rom what I have to have say, about confidence and how to keep it and how to build it. And so when I talk about a couple of things, you can apply them to your game. Take what you want leave what you don’t. And hopefully this helps.
Having Confidence In Your Ability To Save The Ball
[00:01:47] Jackson. Listen I really appreciate the question. And so first and foremost I want to talk about confidence from the lacrosse “saving” type of situation. Like you, just you on the field, playing the sport lacrosse, against a shooter. It doesn’t matter who that shooter is. It doesn’t matter if the ball gets shot out of a cannon. Really, the person who’s on the other side of that stick doesn’t really matter. So the first part of this video we’re in to focus on just that.
Your Three Key Abilities Will Dictate Your Success
[00:02:16] So when it comes to saving a ball and having confidence and saving a ball, basically, there’s three, three abilities that you need to have one is a physical ability like your ability to stand there and move and make a save. You also have a technical ability which is like understanding technique and how to move the ball, and if you’ve been playing for a while it sounds like you’ve probably got a lot of that handled. You also have a tactical ability like you know after you make a sale like what where are you going to make that outlet pass? And understanding, like what are the, what does the offense do? What happens on a fast break? How are you going to handle fast break. How are you going to tell the D to move?
Do You Believe In Your Abilities?
[00:02:56] So those three key abilities are kind of where we start and then we wrap that all in your belief in ...
