Rosie’s makeover is almost complete

Rosie in tape and hard mesh (pic, J.Hellier)

As far as Lacrosse goes, this week has been pretty slow. A decent stick skills session on Monday, which saw me pick up a short stick for the first time since the eye incident, was followed by the news that our game was cancelled on Saturday due to a lack of numbers – probably just as well considering our two best players would have been missing!

This was followed by a lethargic strength and conditioning class for me in which I couldn’t even finish the shuttle run at the end – pretty pathetic really. However, Wednesday’s training session was a huge confidence boost after the humiliation of Saturday’s game in Swansea. In what everyone agreed was one of the best training sessions we’ve ever had – mainly down to the practice game we had being a big success – I felt more comfortable and, well, in the words of the Lonely Island, “Like a Boss”, more than I had ever felt in my brief spell as a goalie so far. As soon as the first shot came towards me, I felt the urge to really step out, or ‘explode’ to it to make the save, something I have been taught but never really carried out with aggression. From that point on I felt a rush of adrenaline every time I was getting shots fired at me – even feeling the need to bang the rage cage as the attack-man ran round the back of my goal, in the hope of putting them off. It was the first real time I’ve felt in myself that I could actually become a semi-decent Lacrosse goalkeeper – which is a confidence, NOT arrogance, that I have learnt that a goalkeeper really needs.

‘How to LAX’ – Face-offs

This weeks edition of ‘How to LAX’ will be the last for a while as the team embark on another epic editing session to get the next bits finished.

However, this week is Face-offs, Lacrosse’s equivalent of a kick-off in football. You need to be strong and have good core strength to be successful at this and have cat-like reactions to go with it. Winning a face-off can be the difference between starting a quick attack for a goal, or losing it and conceding within seconds. Therefore, it is imperative to a team to win this very important skill in the match.

Visit CrazygoalieLAX on YouTube for all the ‘How to Lax’ videos, plus loads more Lacrosse material.

‘How to LAX’ – Ground Balls

Week 4 of ‘How to LAX’ with Bournemouth University captain Ben Piper, see’s the former Wales under-19’s player take you through ground balls. Without the ability to pick up loose balls from the ground there is really not a lot of chance that your team will gain possession, making it another fundamental basic of the game.

Here’s Ground Balls…

Philly Wings Tweeting their way to glory

Max Seibald's Wings Jersey (pic, google)

The @PhilliWings will become the first American sports team in history to do this with their name plates, which is all to do with raising awareness and engagement with the social networking site.

Each player will be given special training on using Twitter and will be required, if they have not got one already, to set up and maintain a twitter account to help interactions with fans, as well encourage people to ‘Tweet’.

Following the game the special edition shirts will be auctioned off to raise money for @AmericanCancer.

‘How to LAX’ – Cradling

The third installment of the ‘How to LAX’ videos sees Bournemouth Captain Ben Piper teach us how to Cradle a Lacrosse ball in the stick. This is a very unique style of moving with the ball compared with other sports, but has very useful advantages such as being able to move fast with the ball while protecting it in your stick. Ben explains expertly here all the reasons why cradling is yet another fundamental of the game.