The Future of Lacrosse: A Coach's Perspective

Hello Coaches.

As a parent, school teacher, multisport coach and CoachThem power user, Mike Humble is doing it all. Living in Rosemount, Minnesota- one of America’s top sports states, Mike has been a leader in both the local hockey and lacrosse programs for many years. After using CoachThem to organize himself and create his hockey practice plans, he now finds himself going into a new lacrosse season as the Director of Player Development for Rosemount Youth Lacrosse.

We had the opportunity to speak to Mike about the massive growth in lacrosse and lack of coaching resources that were available for the sport. I also got to pick his brain on how he sees CoachThem as an integral part of the future of coaching, both for himself and in the Rosemount program. Our conversation was eye-opening, to say the least…

 

“I am going to read you a few stats and I’d like to hear your thoughts on them… In 2001, there were 250,000 players in organized US lacrosse. In 2016, that number climbed to over 825,000. Those growth numbers are remarkable”

 

Mike casually responds, “Yeah, sounds about right.”
 

When Mike started coaching lacrosse, it was just beginning to catch stride as a popular youth sport, which meant that coaching resources were scarce. There weren’t massive drill banks, countless threads on coaching forums or even Instagram to spark a new idea for a drill. You had to depend on either a) a former player to pass down their knowledge or b) using your coaching experience from another sport to develop the fundamentals. The latter is the approach Mike and his fellow coach took to teach his kids the game.
 

 

By taking the principles of hockey coaching with small area drills and station games, Mike made the transition and started to grow the sport in his local program. Thankfully, the sport has evolved since that time. With basic drill banks and video tutorials available on YouTube, lacrosse coaches are finally getting access to quality information.
 

The problem? I asked Mike… “the resources are scattered everywhere… there is no way to efficiently organize the information that you find on the internet”.
 

Practice planning consisted of drills on scrap pieces of paper that had to be rewritten every practice and/or chicken scratch drills that were passed on from one coach to another. Since there was no central database to store and build on your own work, planning for a practice would take upwards of 30 minutes, multiple times a week… the time that volunteer coaches rarely have.

“With CoachThem, I name and date every single practice, so I have to record of everything I have created. Whether it is adding in a new drill that I saw online or creating a progression on a drill I already have, it’s just Click, Drag and Boom”.
 

Since Mike has only used CoachThem on the individual level, I also asked him how he thought the program would work in his Association with more coaches…
 

“Everyone wants to share their knowledge and see the sport grow, and coaches know that they can’t just wing it anymore. Our coaches want to see the players develop and move on to the next level. We are lucky to have some great, skilled staff in our group and often have college players coming back for summer coaching. To have their drills drawn up and shared with every coach in our association, especially with those who aren’t as experienced, is game-changing.”

 

 

The Association has a special drive towards the common goal of developing the program. Mike summed up the group’s culture in this quote, “it doesn’t matter what squad you are on, you are Rosemount Lacrosse”.
 

The CoachThem team wishes Mike and Rosemount a successful 2018 Lacrosse season and is extremely excited to be a part of their development program!

 

If you’re looking to advance your own Association’s development program, contact us at info@coachthem.com and get things started today.

 

 

Written by the CoachThem Team

 

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