Your edge // players
FOUR-STEP FOOTWORK
The key to successful free-
position shots with Team USA’s Alyssa Murray
AS TOLD TO MEGAN SCHNEIDER HASH
Get to the best hash. Depending on where the defense is and what hash I’m on, the angle at which I attack the goal changes.
SETTLE
If you’re rattled, if you get hit hard or if your goggles come off, step off the line and get yourself together, like a basketball player who doesn’t receive the ball from the ref until stepping up to the foul line. They catch their breath behind the 3-point line. I do the same for 8-meters.
54 LACROSSE MAGAZINE »APRIL 2016
One dribble, two dribble, three dribble, spin. If you watch college or NBA basketball, every player has a routine before taking a foul shot. It’s calculated. It’s muscle memory.
U.S. women’s national team attacker Alyssa Murray approaches free-position shots the same way. She played basketball until her senior year of high school. In both her junior and senior years at Syracuse, Murray finished first on her team in free-position goals. She converted 60.7 percent in 2013.
Attackers are awarded free-positions when officials blow the whistle for shooting space, cross checking or any foul within the 8-meter that affects a shot. The defense clears the 8-meter and the attacker is placed on the nearest hash. Murray, a Yale assistant, constantly tells the Bulldogs that they need to “execute and finish” each free-position shot. “They’re great opportunities to score,” she said. “You have to get in that mindset that you have to get that shot off.”
VISUALIZE
Visualize what kind of shot you plan on taking. Your plan can’t change once the ref blows the whistle, because that’s seconds off your reaction time.
STANCE
I step fastest with my right foot, so I want my left foot forward. A lot of girls put all their weight on their front leg, and they have no force coming from their back leg. Make sure you are balanced. Most of my weight is on my front leg with the ball of my right foot ready to push off.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOSH ROTTMAN
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