ADJUST IF NEEDED
When you get it clean, you want to get it out the front, but in the second picture, Charlie [Raffa] makes an adjustment and gets into my body as I get that pinch. It’d be pretty hard to get it forward, because his hands are underneath my hands.
GOING BACK
I keep the pressure on my hands so I don’t lose the ball. I take almost a drop step backward to the left and I rotate my left hand counterclockwise toward my body before I pinch the ball. That opens a backward exit.
CONSISTENT HABITS
Routine is important. I drop to my hands first and keep my stick flat until I find where I am comfortable in my stance. Then I pick my hands up, and look at a spot on the ball. Wait for the whistle. React.
laxmagazine.com
COMMUNICATE FACEOFF FACTORY
My buddy Blake Burkhart, who played with for me for one year at Rutgers, is from Southern California. His dad originally started Faceoff Factory. We picked it up once we graduated and took things over. Our first class of kids graduated high school this year.
FACING THE BEAST
My biggest focus when I go against Greg Gurenlian is trying to get someone like that off their game plan. Whether that be changing up your moves, or changing up your wing play, you don’t want to let him get comfortable because that’s when he’s dangerous. That’s what I try to teach all my guys: if you’re not going to beat someone clean, you want to at least make his life difficult so you create those 50-50 situations on the ground rather than getting beat clean for fast breaks going forward.
I
»
Communication with your teammates on the wing is critical. You want to be on the same page with those guys all the time whether it be knowing where they are going to be or knowing what they are going to do.
DON’T DO THIS » The core
use video a ton with guys at practice. I think we’ll see a time when teams use video, like quarterbacks in the NFL on the sideline, at the end of quarters or during halftime.
of people’s malfunction at the faceoff X is usually their stance and their feet form the start. To give yourself a fighting chance against someone that is as quick or quicker than you, you need to be balanced and strong on your hands for that initial faceoff and, in case you lose it, to be in a reasonable position to get up and contest the ground ball.
OR THIS » Two other big
mistakes are not punching the right hand down the line into their opponent’s fist, or lifting the left hand up too high off the initial whistle.
July/august 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 57
©LEE WEISSMAN (GG); ©SHUTTERSTOCK
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