Alleged Lacrosse Cheating Caught on Tape

*                       *                       *                       *                       *                      *

     From grade school on into high school, you often here an abundance of “Good job”, “Nice try”, and “That’s okay”, at the expense of “You can do better”, “That’s not good enough”, and “Your effort is poor”.   Consequently, too many young athletes of today don’t develop the necessary tools in handling adversity or how to take and use criticism to better themselves in their selected sports.  Instead, when adversity or confrontation does appear, they will tend to feel personally attacked or they become unable to thrive when they find themselves in a difficult situation.   A vast perspective and philosophy among many parents and coaches today goes something like this:  “Okay, Billy, you’ve missed on twelve shot attempts, but when you see that next one, don’t hesitate, you go ahead and shoot it.”  I’ve personally always preferred this approach: “Now Billy, you’ve taken two bad shots already.  If you take one more, I’m going to strangle you first, and then I’m going to bench you.”

      Lacrosse is not a game of great plays or great acrobatic moves.  It’s a game of mistakes and errors.  The team that makes the most mistakes will invariably be the team that gets beat—almost without exception.  No team, in any sport, will ever play a perfect, mistake-free game.  But minimizing mistakes will always allow a less talented team a chance to beat a more talented team.

     In general terms, there are two types of mistakes in lacrosse and any other sport: physical mistakes and mental mistakes.  Taking an open shot at the cage and missing is a physical mistake.  Taking a shot from 15 yards out instead of passing to an open teammate five yards away from the goal is a mental mistake.  The former will happen from time to time.  Skill can be a variable from moment to moment, player to player, game to game.  This happens to even the best of players from time to time.  Even Michael Jordan had a few nights when he couldn’t hit the ocean from a boat.  The latter is unacceptable, however, and should be looked upon as so.  A mental mistake has absolutely nothing to do with physical skill.  It has everything to do with playing smart, playing within your capabilities, and playing unselfishly.  Lacrosse skill, like in many other sports, can be improved upon.  However, a plateau is usually reached at some point in a player’s career, and then any improvement in individual play depends mostly on the mental part of that player’s game.  The mental part of sport never plateaus, thus improvement in play is always possible.  This component is what separates the very best players from the rest--those that excel at using both their physical and their mental skill.  It is also where players and teams can compete against a more talented opponent, one who relies solely or mostly on athletic talent.

     There’s nobody better than Brady at maintaining concentration during a long drive, or from becoming frazzled in a hurry-up offense.  Bird’s anticipation of passes, cuts, and rebounding position was second to no one.  Williams’ recognition of pitches and what was being thrown to him allowed him to almost never swing at a bad pitch.  All three, with their fully-fueled CAR, helped drive their respective teams toward that all-important end all: execution (CARE).  Moreover, the best players, like these three, are not the ones who just only put up big numbers, but are those who also have the capability to make all the other players around them better.  That is where the mental game can make a player better, or no better at all.