Should I Stop Being a Lacrosse Goalie?

In todays episode Coach Edwards answers a very interesting question from a lacrosse goalie who wonders if he should quit being a lacrosse goalie and play another position to reach his college dreams.

[00:00:08] Hey there it’s Coach Edwards from LacrosseGoalieTips.com and LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com. Welcome to another weekly blog post.

Welcome to New Lacrosse Goalies From:

[00:00:17] Great question this week. But first before we start with shout outs to new goalie’s who have subscribed to the free newsletter at lacrossegoalieuniversity.com. And who got the free audio as well. Welcome to goalies from Richfield, Connecticut. Aurora, Ontario Canada. West Islip, New York. Barrington, Rhode Island. Beautiful Corning, New York and Summit, New Jersey.

This Weeks Lacrosse Goalie Tip

[00:00:40] OK the question this week is: Dear Coach. I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t be playing lacrosse goalie any more. I like the position and I’m pretty good at it. Actually I’m the best on my team so I’m the starter. I’d like to play lacrosse in college but don’t think I should be a goalie. The reason I think this is because I’m really good at running and have good stick’s skills. I feel explosive but my endurance is better than my explosiveness. Should I make the switch to middie. Thanks for advice Trevor.

My Advice For This Smart Lacrosse Goalie

[00:01:11] This is a great question and you know it’s one that as an athletic development coach which I have been for a long time kind of outside of the sphere that you know me and lacrossegoalieuniversity.com. That’s my background. And one of the things we have in in athletic development is when you have a sport and you know the needs of the athletes within that sport so whether it’s basketball or hockey or rowing or archery or weightlifting, every one of these sports we know has like an ideal body type.

The Mistake Most North American Athletes Make

[00:01:49] And so what countries do is they will have recruiting events to find athletes. And basically keyhole them into the correct sports based on their abilities, their parents, you know. And what we do in North America is a lot of times we fall into a sport that we like and then we try to be the best we can at it and hopefully that leads to whatever the goal is. In lacrosse. You know the goal might is to play Division 1 lacrosse. That’s maybe that’s like the pinnacle is to be a Division 1 lacrosse goalie but you may not have the necessary parts or abilities to make it at that level. So this is a phenomenal question. So the first thing I tell my goalies to do, it it’s kind of been a theme the last couple of weeks here, is take an inventory of your game. What Trevor did here is he’s done that. He’s kind of gone, you know hey listen, I’m on the starting goalie, you know I’m the best kid on the team, and I’m and I’m good. But to reach this goal that I have in the future maybe I shouldn’t be a goalie? Because what he’s done is he said you know his endurance is better than his explosiveness and that’s pretty interesting because they’re really on opposite ends of a spectrum. Right. You have long slow steady you’re on one end and you have explosive on the other. So now as a as a midfielder You can run up and down the field. No problem. And you know you can do that quarter after quarter after quarter.

The Lacrosse Goalie Is The Most Explosive Athlete On The Field

[00:03:30] Whereas what a goalie needs is that goalie needs to be the most explosive athlete on the team. So why tell coaches not to have their goalies do long endurance work with the team. They should be doing sprints instead. So this is a great question. So Trevor you know like any goalie needs to take an inventory of his abilities which he’s done. OK?

Trust Your Gut

[00:03:50] Now the other question I throw out there is, what feels good to you? Trevor. This is really interesting inside Trevor knows that. You know maybe lacrosse goaltending isn’t really his thing. Ultimately, he’s good at it but maybe taking a different step and making the switch to midfield is going to get him further than where he would be being a lacrosse goalie and that’s a really interesting point. You know what I talk about in my [00:04:17] lacrosse recruiting e-book [2.0] is this concept of you know what are you what do you want the dream of playing Division 1 lacrosse or do you want to play. Have a great lacrosse experience in college? Which can happen at you know any number of schools: Division one, two, three. MCLA Division 1, Division Two, and a NAIA schools, you name it it’s pretty amazing. So what feels good to you is in your gut is usually a really good answer for you, so don’t dismiss that. It’s really powerful.

What Does Your Lacrosse Coach Tell You?

[00:04:54] What does your coach say? What your coach says is also you know interesting and this can be tough because, if you’re the only goalie and let’s say, your high school team and the other goalie is like really bad. It’s going to be hard for your coach to say, You know Trevor listen, I think you should yeah I think you should play middie.” Especially if he’s got a lot of middies you know your coach is trying to put together a team with the best possible athletes at each position to have the best possible result as a team. So you might not get the best answer there. So you know keep that in mind but if you have a good relationship with your coach and he can say, “hey you know, maybe yeah maybe you should play middie.

My Advice For A Lacrosse Goalie University Member

[00:05:42] I did that once for a member of Lacrosse Goalie University who we did a goalie critique for them. It was a goalie I believe it was in New Hampshire and he had aspirations to play Division 1 lacrosse. But it was also phenomenal at, he had great hands. Like really great hands and really move, you know really agile. So he was the goalie on his team but he could be an attack man and ultimately he made the switch which was really good. And I think he ended up at a Division 3 school. A really good school somewhere offhand but that’s an interesting thing. So you know if lacrosse to university and getting a free critique is something you’re interested check out LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com, and I’d be happy to have a look and let you know my opinion. OK.

A great athlete can pretty much play any position.

[00:06:35] And I know this for a fact because I know college coaches who recruit athletes over recruiting position player. Dom Starsia at UVA has a history of recruiting basketball players or football players off their basketball tape and their football tape and then with the knowledge that he could turn them into a lacrosse player because that’s what he did as a as a player when he attended Brown University, ages ago.

Make Your Decisions Based On Athleticism

[00:07:01] So if you focus on your athleticism and you find it you will find out as an athlete which direction you really should go in if your endurance is easy for you, that may be a direction to go in. OK so this is a great question not an easy answer. Trevor so I appreciate that. I hope you do too. But. But you know if your gut is telling you that you should be a middie, then go ahead. You may feel bad about it if you’re the team’s only goalie but the coach will find a way to fill that spot. You’ve got to be true to you, and the other option to throw out there, is that maybe you’re a middy in a club team if that’s an option for you. And you play goalie on your high school team. Right. Because they need you and there’s value in that too Trevor. Don’t forget that there is there is value in being part of the team and helping a team and all things that goes along with that we tend to lose that nowadays. But only you can really answer Trevor so I wish you luck and thanks for the question.

[00:08:08] So if you like this video do me a favor share. Like it. Google Plus it. Post on Facebook any that’s us. Just send it to somebody who needs to hear it. And if you’ve got a question for me e-mail me Coach Edwards lacrossegoalieuniversity.com and we’ll talk to you next week. Cheers.