In a recent podcast, a famous writer, podcaster, and reporter, Malcolm Gladwell, explains how “…I’m astonished at the way American’s agonize about their college decisions. There’s an assumption that the thing that makes an education good or bad is knowable beforehand. I would have thought that ingredients of a good education are largely unknowable.”

Galdwell goes on to explain that “…the most important thing about his college experience was due to someone he met.” The most important part of his experience wasn’t due to the reputation, history, or price-tag of his school. Gladwell’s millions of interactions, conversations, and research with this friend he met made his experience one to remember. Fascinating to think about. Malcolm became a wiser and more interesting person because of this one friend. Gladwell had no idea he would meet his friend Tom when he was applying to schools or doing his research in High SChool.

I tell this story because it’s so important for families going through the recruiting process to understand what’s knowable about your college experience and what’s not. The type of dorms on campus, the location, the price-tag, those are all facts, those are the knowns. Your children’s college experiences, the people they meet, the connections they make, those are not. Just because you go to a school with name ‘X’ on the sweatshirt, doesn’t mean your son or daughter will experience ‘Y.’

This thought process flips the script. Instead of viewing college based on reputation, history, brand, price, and prestige, view your son or daughter’s college decision based on potential experiences, interactions, and interests. At FLG, we do this, so it’s more likely your son or daughter’s college choice will be the right one.

After moving the FLG HeadQuarters to the heart of Huntington’s Village, we had a vision for how to utilize our new space. Some of our ideas included small group film sessions, seminars, photo-shoots for our lacrosse magazine, and coaches clinics. Being that today is Columbus Day and our studletes were off from school, it was time to break in the new space.

FLG on Main is a series dedicated to bringing in young lacrosse players, families, or coaches into the FLG HQ to hear their stories, teach, learn, connect, and grow. Today, we started with our Middle School FLG Select players. They played a game called SWAT, which is designed to teach different lacrosse terminology that is important to their success on the field. Some of the terms taught include:

• Z-Pick
• Climb the ladder
• Re-dodge
• Exchange
• Follow
• Get through
• Slam
• Rocker step
• Clamp
• High side
• Squeeze
• Shallow Cut
• Duke defense
• Top of the box

All of these terms were written on our massive white board at the HQ. One player from each team were asked to step up with a fly swat, and after the coach read the complete definition of a term on the board, the two players race to swat the correct term. This game gets competitive, can get physical, but it’s tons of fun. Most importantly, our FLG players work in teams to think, learn, and absorb these very important lacrosse terms.

After a game of SWAT, players are asked to compete in a little lacrosse chess. In lacrosse chess, our coaches draw sets on the board. Players are then asked to come up and move the the x’s & o’s to the appropriate spots on the field. This is were we put our lacrosse terminology to the test. Players have to talk through their movements using the correct terms, earning points for doing so successfully.

We concluded our first session of FLG on Main with an awesome and timely nutritional talk on sugar. Being that Halloween is right around the corner, Tara Allen, from Tara Allen Health, played a game of Family Feud with our players. All the questions in the Family Feud game asked how much sugar was in specific food and drinks we consume each and every day. Tara gave examples such as Coca Cola, Peanut Butter, Oreos, Yogurt, and Granola Bars. After our player’s learned about sugar, she worked with our player’s to make the ideal snack for a growing and active athlete. Some of those healthy snacks included fresh fruit: grapes, pineapples, and bananas. Players got to each those snacks to learn that eating healthy can be tasty too.

Overall, today was a huge success. A big thanks to Tara Allen, for her awesome lecture on sugar and eating to get stronger & live lover. Lastly, a big thanks to Coach Dunne, Coach Holman, and Coach Christiansen for making our FLG Select players smarter, more cerebral, and more confident in their knowledge for what we do at FLG.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our next session of FLG on Main!