By Coach Damon on July 23, 2017
While I am a lax rat, I’ve never really been a gear rat. I hardly ever get excited about a new piece of gear.
When they announced the STX Eclipse II – I got excited.
And why shouldn’t I? The original STX Eclipse is my go-to goalie head. But that original was released in 1999!
18 years ago! Making this updated STX Eclipse II well over due.
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By Coach Damon on July 11, 2017
This week’s post is my response to an interesting question I got from a lax goalie rat Dad:
If you could only use 4 lacrosse drills to train a goalie which would you select? Jim R., Baltimore, MD
Great question Jim! There are so many great lacrosse goalie drills that only being able to select from a few is a tough task.
But in this world of Jim’s where a goalie must be trained with no more than 4 drills this is what I’d do.
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By Coach Damon on July 3, 2017
There’s an old Cherokee Native American story that I use for coaching goalies and teaching mental toughness.
I discuss this parable in my goalie book however I wanted to share it here on the blog for those who haven’t yet read the book.
It’s called the Tale of Two Wolves and in this post I’d like to share the story with you and explain how I use it to increase a goalie’s mental toughness.
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By Coach Damon on June 26, 2017
Today’s post is my response to a question I got from a young goalie regarding how to tape a lacrosse goalie stick.
Taping the stick is one of those things I never thought about discussing here on the blog but I’m sure there are plenty of beginners wondering what the purpose of tape on the stick is and how they should go about taping up their shaft.
Like every lacrosse goalie stick setup you’re going to find a lot of variance in how goalies tape up their shaft.
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By Coach Damon on June 19, 2017
My philosophy when it comes to training lacrosse goalies is something I call the Elite Lacrosse Goalie Triad.
I discuss the Elite Lacrosse Goalie Triad my ebook however in this post I want to explain this philosophy to all goalies, coaches, and parents who have not yet read my book.
I think understanding this training philosophy is very important because many goalies are having some part of their training neglected unknowingly by coaches.
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By Coach Damon on June 12, 2017
The 2017 NCAA National Championships ended last week (congrats Maryland men and women!) and that means another lacrosse season is winding down. Perhaps you have a little more remaining in your season, but summer is right around corner.
For some lacrosse players, summer doesn’t mean cat naps in the sun, it means lacrosse camp.
If you’re really dedicated to improving for next year, improving your lax game in the summer is a must.
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By Coach Damon on June 5, 2017
Before getting into this interview with Benny Pugh, I was recently invited to a podcast – Winning Youth Coaching with Craig Haworth. Listen to my interview here – http://www.winningyouthcoaching.com/wyc-118/. It was a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Benny Pugh is the current goalie of the Richmond Spiders who sport a relatively new lacrosse team.
In fact the men’s program was added just 4 years ago meaning Senior Pugh will be a part of the team’s first graduating class this year.
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By Coach Damon on May 29, 2017
Happy Memorial Day everyone! In just a few hours the national championship game between Ohio St. and Maryland is going down but first I wanted to get you this week’s post.
I’ve previously written about how save percentage isn’t a perfect specimen when it comes to judging a lacrosse goalie’s performance.
The reason it’s not ideal is because the same goalie playing with a young, inexperienced defense will have a lower save percentage compared to playing with a dominant defense in front of him/her.
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By Coach Damon on May 26, 2017
And then there were 4! Just 3 games remain to determine the 2017 men’s national champ and it all goes down this Memorial Day weekend.
Other sites have given game previews of Ohio St. vs. Towson and Denver vs. Maryland but here on Lax Goalie Rat we’re going to focus on – you guessed it – the goalies.
Here are my power rankings for the final four remaining goaltenders.
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By Coach Damon on May 22, 2017
Hope everyone enjoyed the 1st round of the Men’s NCAA tourney last week. There were some great games and there were some blowouts.
After watching all the 1st round of games of the men’s tournament I wanted to pull out 3 particular lessons that goalies could learn from. Specifically when it comes to a part of the game that is just as important as making saves – leading the clear.
I’ve discussed these concepts before on the blog but sometimes seeing them in action helps young goalies learn better.
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