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FLG Spring Training – Session I Recap

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

FLG Families,

It was exciting to take the fields this past Sunday. The Spring is time for our FLG Select Teams to ramp up our team training, develop team chemistry, review team concepts from the Fall, learn team concepts to prepare for the Summer Tournaments, and continue developing as individual lacrosse players.

As a Program Director, it’s important our families understand why we do what we do at practice. Below is a detailed description of what we worked on this past weekend. As you can see, a lot of time and attention goes into our practice planning. It’s important that you understand everything we do is for a reason. Our reasoning is centered around developing smarter lacrosse players, learning what to do in situations, and understanding team concepts.

At practice, our teams worked on a variety of things. Below are some of the drills we worked on, with a description of the drill and an explanation of why we worked on the drill. Are you a PAL Coach? If yes, feel free to reach out if you see a drill you like. If not, hopefully this recap gives you a better understanding for what we are trying to teach and accomplish at FLG’s Spring Training.

Practice Drills

3 to 6 Person Break-outs: This drill gets our players used to breaking out towards the side-lines. These break-out patterns resemble our clear and gets our players in the habit of throwing lead passes to the side-lines, not the middle of the field. Clearing up the side is a safer, more effective option for our teams so we an successfully clear the ball.

Motion Offense Review: skeleton offense, meaning you have your offense run thru situations without a defense, is a great way to get down different patterns/motions and create organization on the offensive end of the field. Motion Offense teaches players spacing, timing, reads, and ways to create great opportunities to score goals in settled situations.

Ride / Clear Scrimmage: This is a full-field scrimmage drill that doesn’t include face-offs. Instead, it’s controlled by the coaches on the field, whose job is to set-up riding and clearing situations. Athletes play out of these situations to show they know where to go and what to do with the ball during a ride or clear.

Harvard Clearing Drill: This is a 3v3 clearing drill that results in transition offense and defense. 3 short sticks compete against 3 defenders to see who can clear the ball quicker and without dropping the rock. When the offensive players clear the ball up the field, they immediately come back down to their defensive end and try to score a goal. Defensemen do the same, they must clear the ball up the field and immediately get back in the hole and defense once they do so. The defense in handicapped in this drill in that they can only put 2 players (maximum) in the hole to defend. The purpose of this drill is to clear the ball quickly, accurately, and under pressure. Also, it works on transition offense and defense (especially if you botch a clear and have to get back in the hole to defend).

1v1 Buckets – This drill starts with the offensive and defensive players head-to-head and on their backs. The offensive player has a ball in their hand. On the coaches whistles, players get up and go 1v1 against one another. The object for the offense is dunk the ball in the bucket, for the defense, the object is to defend the bucket (which is located in the middle of the hole). The purpose of this drill is to learn how to approach, break-down, drop step, use hands to defend, and understand where to defend. Offensively, it’s about setting up your defender, dragging, attacking, and getting underneath to a dangerous position on the field.

Small Group Training Drills – All Positions

Defensive Drills

ND Three Man Handle – Check out a video of it here!

Umbrella Approach By Number – This drill has 3 cones, which represent dodging locations, set-up behind goal line extended. Coach calls out a number and the defensemen have to approach that numbered cone, break down, and then quickly recover back to their starting position. This drill is great to work on body positioning, knowing where the ball is and where your man is, approaching with a good angle, breaking down, and keeping your stick out when you break down.

1v1 Approach Drill – Similar to approach by number, 3 dodging locations are set-up. Defender start with a ball, throw to who they want to defend, and then they play out of a 1v1 situation. Offense has 5 seconds to score.

Attack Drills

Diamond Break-out Drill – Start in a tight diamond, the adjacent players must be ready in that they are next to break-out and receive a pass. Work the ball around clock-wise or counter clock focusing on different catching and passing varaitions. This drill works on throwing lead passes, catching while breaking away from a defender, catching and throwing with both hands, catching over the shoulder, throwing shovel passes, and throwing pull passes (passes across your body)

Kamikazee Dodging – Set-up like a line drill. Everyone has a ball. On the coaches whistle, players must run full speed at each other and make the same move last minute. This drill is great to work on understanding when to make your move against a defenseman. This past Sunday we worked on split dodges, studder steps, hockey stops, and fake-shot face-dodges.

1v1 Approach Drill – 3 dodging locations are set-up. Defender start with a ball, throw to who they want to defend, and then they play out of a 1v1 situation. Offense has 5 seconds to score. Working on reading the defenders approach, making 1 or two hard moves, attacking the cage to score, protecting our stick, and finishing around the crease.

Midfield Drills

Kick the Can Shooting – Drill focuses on shooting to the far pipe, shooting off the the outside foot, shooting on the run, and finishing with your hips on cage

Three-man skeleton offense – Ball starts on wing and is thrown top center. Player dodges as both wings cut under and follow the motion offense pattern. (Make dodgers go in different directions). Player dodging will throw back using either pull pass or turning to the outside. Ball will then be relayed to the player on the back side who will relay it back to the middle restarting pattern. Great drill to simulate 6v6 team offense, just using your middies.

Goalies

Blind Eye Positioning – Have the goalies close their eyes and start top center. From that position, rapidly call out positions in the net they would have to step to without looking. Great drill to work on knowing where you are in cage, understand positioning and seeing ball, visualizing being in the right spot and making a save.

Explosive Bucket – Have the goalies drop their sticks. Stand close to one pipe and put a bucket placed near the opposite pipe. Toss the ball over the bucket and the goalies take an explosive step towards the opposite pipe. Catch the rock and drop it in the bucket. Slide back to the opposite pipe and go again.

Approach Drill – Goalies then got involved in the 1v1 approach drill with the attack/defense and 3-man shooting drills with the middies. Great time to get reps in live situations.

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FLG Box Training Session 7 RECAP

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

FLG Box Training Participants,

Moving into our final week of box lacrosse training, I couldn’t be happier with the development that I’m seeing within the box lacrosse rinks. From our youngest group to our High School division, the improvement is tremendous.

This past Saturday, our focus was still on development. Despite league play being in full swing, it’s important that our players not lose focus on what’s most important, getter better, getting touches, and getting smarter.

Our youngest groups spent a large portion of the box training on learning how to shoot with time and space vs. shooting in tight. We taught our players the difference between those two types of shots, when to use one shot vs. the other, and developing at both shot types through reps, reps, and more reps.

Time and Space Shooting – this shot type is used when you have time to get your hands set, eyes on cage, and body weight moving 100% towards the goal. This shot requires players to get their hands up and away from the body, hips torqued using a crow hop, and getting the front foot to step towards the target. A time and space shot requires players to snap there top hand on the follow through to ensure power and velocity as the ball releases from the stick.

Between the Shoulders Shooting aka BTS Shooting – this shot type is used when you are in tight proximity to the crease and are surrounded by one or multiple defenders. This shot requires players to get their hands close to the body, choke up on the shaft, and get the head of the stick between the shoulders. This allows players to increase control, finesse, and protection as they shoot on cage. We taught players a few moves around the crease to increase shot angle and shot percentage. The crease roll is a great example of that. It teaches players to get defenders on their back as they gain positioning for a BTS shot.

3v2 Continuous – this game is set-up with a 3v2 at either end of the floor. Players work out of 3v2 to score as many goals as they can in 1 minute. Defenders who steal the ball or earn ground balls are instructed to clear the ball to their 3 offensive players on the opposite end of the floor. Make the game even harder by installing a 10 second shot clock. As soon as a team gains possession of the ball, they must execute a shot on goal within 10 seconds.

Quads – this is FLG’s favorite box training game. We love it because its a composition of all the things we’ve taught in the box rinks. Quads requires players to: work in pairs, execute passes and picks, pick off ball, include pick variations, play in tight spaces, clear, defend the middle, look for give and goes, play with both hands, finish with time and space, finish in tight, work in groups of 4, and more. Overall, this game is a fun, creative, and competitive opportunity for players to show how much they’ve learned over the last 6 sessions in the box.

Finally, each session finished with a scrimmage for points. Next week will be our final box training session for the year. Expect game play to be for more than points. Expect game play to be for the coveted FLG Box Lacrosse Training Winter Cap. This year, they are pretty fresh. My question, who has what it takes to become Box Lacrosse Champ?!

Best,

Corey, Program Director, FLG Lacrosse

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FLG Box Training – Week 5 RECAP

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

FLG Box Lacrosse Participants,

This weekend was the first round of games for our FLG Box Lacrosse program. We’ve tallied the scores and inserted them into this post below. What gets me most excited about League Play is when our athletes institute the box lacrosse concepts taught during the training portion of our program. For example, when we see a goal scored off a pass-down pick-down during league play or if we see a player execute a shovel pass in the heat of competition.

Figure 8 1v1s – Each week, we will continue to teach new concepts and reinforce the fundamentals of box lacrosse. In our stations this past week we competed in a drill called Figure 8 1v1s to start. This drill is great for both defenders and offensive players. The drill starts with two players standing shoulder to shoulder facing opposite directions. When the coach say go, both players run in a figure 8 motion around the cone in front of them before they initiate a 1v1. Offensive players must catch a pass or pick up a ground ball, square up to the goal, and attack. Offensive players are working on setting up their defender so they can get an advantage. Offensive players have to dodge to the goal without switching hands and keeping two hands on their stick. We teach this so players are always in a position to get a shot off and are always keeping that stick to the inside. Defenders must keep a good approach and make contact throughout the entire 1v1. The goal of defenders isn’t to take the ball, but maintain contact, drive players away from the middle of the field, and force low percentage shots.

4v4 Scramble – In this drill we break the groups into two teams, one team will play offense first until every player has gone and then we will switch. Offensive players will start in the four corners and each player will have the ball in their stick. The defensive players will be in a line behind the goal. The drill starts with a 1v1. As soon as there is a shot or turnover the coach blow the whistle. The coach will then point at another offensive player who will attack immediately. As soon as the coach points, a defensive player enters the drill from X but cannot stop the new offensive player from going to the goal, hence the scramble. The drills is great for our offensive players to compete in a 1v1 situation, as well as, 2v2, 3v3, & 4v4 situations. These are common match-ups in box, as well as field lacrosse. This drill focuses not only on how well you play with the ball, but off ball too. Defensively, this drill is great for teaching communication, improvisation, sliding, and matching up in a scrambled situation. Below are a few wrinkles we add to the drill to make it more challenging for offensive players.

Blue Ball- No Rules

White Ball- Pick/ Shallow cut

Orange/ Yellow- BTB/ Shovel

Here are the Box League scores after our first week of league play:

2022/23 Boys

Matchup

Score

Albany vs Yale

4-5

Loyola vs Towson

1-0

2025/24 Boys

Matchup

Score

Cuse vs Duke

4-10

Denver vs Duke

3-4

2027/28 Boys

Matchup

Score

Ohio St vs Maryland

8-22

2022/23 Girls

Matchup

Score

UMass vs Cuse

4-3

UVA vs Princeton

4-4

2025/24 Girls

Matchup

Score

Florida vs. Carolina

8-3

USC vs Stony Brook

1-1

2026/27 Girls

Matchup

Score

Penn St vs Boston

10-7

Maryland vs Navy

6-4

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Team Oriented

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

means…

Picking up the slack when your teammate just can’t do it.

Offering to help even when your feeling 100%

Admitting when you were wrong.

Recognizing you can make things right and do better next time.

Expressing a willingness to improve your strengths and weaknesses.

Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses.

Demonstrating patience and discipline, not frustration and anger.

Doing your job with enthusiasm and energy.

Committing to working really hard consistently and tirelessly.

Having a definition of winning that stretches beyond having more points than the other team.

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FLG Scoring Academy RECAP

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

Scoring Academy Participants,

It was great getting back on the fields with our Scoring Academy participants last night. I do apologize for missing our session last week, something I don’t normally do! I had a baby girl last week and was busy welcoming her to the world. Soon teaching baby Everley the ins and out of the game!

Anyways, last night was a session focused on reps, reps, and more reps. Being our participants are more advanced and have a deeper understanding for the fundamentals of shooting the right way, we can now focus on get more reps, and do more shooting drills.

After our wall ball warm-up, which reinforced proper shooting mechanics and emphasized correct upper/lower body movement, we took to the cages for a series of shooting drills. These drills not only working on shooting on the run. They worked on footwork, setting up your defender, shooting out of a dodge, scoring in tight, re-dodging your defender, and shooting to score.

For examples of the shooting drills please be sure to check out FLG Lacrosse on Instagram @FLGLAX Our latest post from the Scoring Academy will feature Kerrie Heuser working on the Dodge, Bounce, Re-dodge drill. You will also see our two Studletes of the night, Caroline and Mikey, who did an exception job executing concepts taught consistently at full speed.

See everybody next week!

-Corey

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Patience v. Urgency

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Corey Winkoff

They say good things comes to those who wait, but only what is left by those who hustle.

This can apply to picking up ground balls on the field or getting that promotion at work. However, not everything good comes through hustle. Some of the best things in life come through patience.

The process of becoming a parent is a shining example of this. A pregnancy can’t be rushed. You can’t pick up the pace through the 10 month process. You can’t race to the finish line. Nearing the end? Not so quick. First the doctors must see ‘this’ before we move towards the goal of ‘that.’

Having relentless hustle can bring what you want, but having the ability to understand what you want and how to get there is paramount. Know when to ‘go go go’ and when to ‘lay low’ and you will continue to ‘grow.’

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The Direction You Choose

Posted on December 26, 2017 by Corey Winkoff

The recruiting process can be your own personal journey or someone else’s.

The process can be fun or frantic.

The process can a learning experience or futile.

The process can clear or confusing.

The process can be lead to the best four years or many tears.

The process can get you one step closer to a successful career or lead you astray from your hopes and dreams.

The process can lead to open doors or knock you down to the floor.

The process can keep a stick in your hand or force you to put it down.

Good grades, hard work, persistence, communication, accountability, respect, and hard work (said that twice on purpose), will give you the right to choose how you want to spend the process.

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FLG Recruiting Night

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Corey Winkoff

FLG Families,

First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who attended our 2017 FLG Recruiting Night. What a wonderful occasion! The night consisted of laughs, cheers, applause, Panera Bread, drinks, and some valuable insight on the lacrosse recruiting process. It was so rewarding to witness transparency, authenticity, and maturity amongst our male and female alums. They did an unbelievable job vocalizing their path to finding the right fit at the next level.

All our Alumni had a different path. Some roads windier than others. At the end of the day, these journey’s were shared in a way that has better educated our current FLG studletes and families. To learn from other peoples stories is invaluable advice that should be used in a positive way. We want every boy and girl in our program to find the right fit at the collegiate level, have the best four years ahead of them and set themselves up for a career beyond the lacrosse field.

Special thanks to our alumni panel (listed below) and to all the families who attended. For those of you who couldn’t make it last night, below are some questions that were answered by our Alumni panel. We look forward to meeting with our are 19’s & 20’s towards the end of this year and next. Happy Holidays, be safe, and always remember: we love this game, love what we do, and love getting a chance to meet so amazing people through our FLG Program.

Best,

The FLG Family

FLG Alumni Panel & Questions Asked

Tom Whelan – Wesleyan University

*Tommy tore his ACL going into his Junior year of High School

-What advice would you give to athletes who experience a major injury during the recruiting process?

-How does your experience at a NESCAC school differ from other DIII programs?

Chandler Kirby – Cornell University

-What is biggest challenge you see freshmen facing as they adjust to college both academically and athletically?

-Do you think you were proactive enough during the recruiting process? If not, why not? If so, what did you do?

Christian Kuhn – Air Force

-What factors made a service academy appealing to you?

-What are the positives and negatives of being so far from home?

Eric Gennari – Union College

*Eric went from Providence to Nassau Community College to Union College

-Can you describe your journey through transferring schools?

-What is one piece of advice you would give young studletes going through the recruiting process?

Tyler Warner- Yale University

-Can you describe the commitment level during the fall and spring seasons?

*Tyler is a pre-med student at Yale who has been a 4-year starter in one of the best lacrosse programs in the country

-In what ways has the college lacrosse experience exceeded your expectations? What are some of the hidden obstacles you didn’t expect going in?

Jared Warner- University of Pennsylvania

*Jared committed in his senior year of High School and stopped playing his sophomore year of college.

-When did you commit to UPenn, talk about your recruiting process?

-What made you want to go back to playing lacrosse after taking some time off?

Giana Kapoosuzian – Bryant University

-When did the recruiting process begin for you?

-What events or showcases did you feel gave you the best exposure?

Kristen Decicco – Le Moyne College

-What made Lemoyne the right decision for you?

-Can you describe how your experience at Lemoyne compares with that of a DI or DIII student-athlete?

Paige Lewis/Megan Keener – Adelphi University

-What are some of the positives and negatives of attending school close to home?

–If there was one thing you could change about your college experience, what would it be?

Emily Sandford – Manhattan College

–What are some of the advantages of being so close to a major city?

–If you could give young studletes one piece of advice, what would it be?

Rory Sadoff – UMass-Amherst

*Rory coaches in the FLG Program

–What made you decide you wanted to stop playing your last season at UMass?

-Did you second guess yourself or have any regrets about your decision?

Diana Schmitt – Meryhurst University

*Diana coaches in the FLG Program

-Diana, recruited by one coach, freshmen year another, new coach late summer going into sophomore year, what was it like as a student athlete going through so many changes?

Sam DiSalvo – Stony Brook University

*Sam coaches in the FLG Program. Sam is a senior captain for one of the best lacrosse programs in the country.

-What have you found to be the positives and negatives in regards to being coached by a male?

-What advice would you give prospective student-athletes about to go on their unofficial/official visits?

For each member of the panel:

If you had one piece of advice for a studlete going through the recruiting process today, what would it by?

FLG Staff who helped make last night happen:

Facilitator: Corey Winkoff

Contributors: Robyn Pastuch, Eric Dunne, Bob Schmitt, Devin Votta, Rory Sadoff

President & CEO: Mike Winkoff

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FLG Box Training Session II RECAP

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Corey Winkoff

FLG Box Lax Participants & Parents,

Week 2 of our Box Lacrosse Training program was all about development. We spent most of each session focusing on the fundmantels of playing the box game. Some of these fundamentals included: scoring in tight, picking away from the ball, getting an advantage in a 1v1 scenario in tight, competing for ground balls in tight spaces, as well as picking and slipping the dodger.

We decided to push back our league play one more session so we could focus on teaching our players the basics of playing within the rinks. Over the holiday break, FLG Lacrosse will be hosting a draft at the FLG HQ (345 Main Street, Huntington’s Village) and will be posting it to our Instagram page. The top players will be drafted and the remaining athletes will be evenly broken up into teams for the remainder of box training. In the meantime, read into what we taught this past weekend at Box Lacrosse.

Hungry Hippos – A competitive ground ball game that focuses on scooping ground balls with urgency in tight spaces. As the balls dwindle down, players have to contest ground balls against opposing players to earn more food for their hippo.

Canadian 1v1s – Defender should start making contact and shade half a step towards the middle, offensive player starts in a ready position with their stick to the inside using body to protect, dodger can not switch hands when attacking the goal, dodger can attack goal to the high side or underneath, dodger must get shot off before crossing the Rhino line (imaginary line cutting the floor in half)

2v1 Pass-down Pick-downs – Top right passes down, immediately picks down, soon to be dodger drags her girl toward GLE and the cage, picker sets FEET with 75% weight on inside leg 25% outside leg, dodger tries to run defender into pick, attack the cage for a hard shot to the far pipe.

3v2 Pass-down Pick-aways – Offense sets up in a triangle, defense sets up covering the top players closest to the crease. Point of the triangle passes down to a side and must pick away from that side. Feeder needs to read who is open off-ball. Play to a shot and then players switch positions.

Salisbury Box Shooting – Players move in figure 8 motion switching hands while working on finishing in tight. Athletes can score using a quick stick, hitch & go, step down, shovel shot, BTB, or around the world.

3v3 Decision Maker – Playing 3v3 in a small area field, players must score using different rules. Rules include scoring with your stick to the inside, scoring using an off-ball or on-ball pick, and scoring using a shallow cut. These rules teach players to incorporate specific skills and techniques while competing in a game like setting.

We are really excited to move into Session III after the New Year. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to see our draft and see videos of the drills we’ve been doing in the box rinks. We hope everyone has a nice Holiday break and Happy New Year!

Best!

FLG Team

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Sleep

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Corey Winkoff

Sleep is big.

Especially for those who want to grow big.

It recharges your batteries.

Gives you a deeper appreciation for Saturday’s.

Sleep restores.

Can take away the sore.

Give you the energy to do one more.

After knock-downs, helps you get off the floor.

Sleep is underrated.

It should be stated.

It’s for the educated.

Dont lose Sleep, gain it.

Embrace it.

Make time for it.

Sleep.

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