Tips for Coaching during Games

Practice is where games are won. Hard work at practice creates muscle memory. That muscle memory should be automatic at game time. If we have done our job at practices, then the players should be able to execute during games without a lot of instruction. They will get in the zone, flow state, whatever you want to call it!

The mental game is just as important as the physical one. When a player makes a mistake, the time to address that is at practice--not during the game. It is distracting to children when they make a mistake during a game. Yelling out criticism only increases the distraction. Now, instead of the player being in the zone or a flow state, the player is THINKING (and we don’t want that). The player is thinking, “I made a mistake, coach is mad, dad/mom is mad, my teammates are mad!” The player will spiral. The player will make another mistake, dwell, and spiral down more. Remember what it was like when you were a child and your coach yelled at you.

During a game, if a mistake is made, the best course of action is to try to move on from the mistake immediately. One way to do this is to say, “Brush it off,” and make a brushing off motion after the mistake.

We need to stress to the players that they need to support their teammates--not criticize each other--especially during games. It is the job of the coaches to teach lacrosse and to give advice.

So what do we do with ourselves during the game now that we have created lacrosse machines that execute perfectly in a state of flow (haha)? Some ideas:

1.      Provide energy and positive messages before games.

2.      Pick the starters.

3.      Communicate with opposing coaches. Only one coach if possible.

4.      Communicate with refs. Only one coach. Respect refs decisions. Pay refs if home game.

5.      Call out commands that have been taught at practice. For example call out "Paint!, Numbers!" to remind the players to sprint back to the paint and mark up an opponent.

6.      Call time outs. To rest the players. To stop the momentum from shifting. To shift the momentum. To set up a play. To change strategy. To fire them up!

7.      Make mid-game adjustments. For example, they have a face-off kid who could do it in the PLL. Have our middies drop back to defense immediately at the whistle.

8.      Tend to injuries.

9.      Tend to equipment.

10. Celebrate wins and save the postmortem on losses until practice.

Focus on the process and the outcome will follow: we cannot control if we win or lose but we can control how we play. We should execute during the game what we have learned during practice. If we are able to do this, then we will be successful, regardless of the score.