Middies, what gets you motivated???

[jtothep213]

Well, my team started this season off great, with a decent win over a top 10 team. I was happy and the team was. Preseason games finished up and it was off to the games that mattered.

Thus far into league play we are 1-3. Our close d is pretty vocal and is calling out slides and the like. However, the issue we are encountering night after night is a lack of communication between middies and the rest of defense. Our downfalls are definately not all to be blamed on our middies. As a close defensemen I too have my bad times. I just want to know what you, as middies, take seriously as motivation to talk it up on D.

What do/can your defensemen do to get you fired up to play hard D?

We consistently yell at our middies to tell us who is their man, with no response. How can we get them to realize how vital this is without taking an offensive and rude tone?

I really appreciate any and all help I get.

And good luck with all of your games in the next few days.

[bubba]

let your coach know this problem. it is a very important thing to call out your check so if they dont get it they may need to get punished.

[lax20]

my team doesnt really have this problem we pretty much call out everything. but as a middie what gets me fired up is when our faceoff man wins the face off right a way drives straight down the center and gets a goal in the first 15 seconds. but what you can do to pump up ur middies is lay some one out that always gets me pumped.

[jtothep213]

our last game our coach became aware of the problem. He talked to them and told them how vital it was. I do get big hits, just not TONS of them, maybe 5-6 a game most days.

In my thinking I realized none of our 1st line middies play any other sport or even lacrosse in summer/fall/winter. I gained my emphasis on teamwork from team bonding stuff in football. Do you think this kind of thing would help our team out? (i.e. go camping and hold team trust activities)

Thanks again.

[lax20]

well with my team we all play lax year around unless some of them are playing HS football and the kids who played football deffinitly trust each other. but we dont go camping we just go and shoot and goof off at our practice field, and its good cuz we have a back stop so we arnt chasing the balls the whole time. but we just won our 5th game in a row last night (we havent lost yet) and basically all the middies and attack went to the wing factory

just go places to celebrate after a big win

[middiesrulz]

We don't yell at our own teammates, that's just weird and telling them that their unreliable. Our team gets motivated by the big checks, the goals, the things in a game that actually help your team. Red Bull Is Your Friend (It gets you pumped but your going to want to drink water frequently I don't know what's in Red Bull that makes you really dry). This is has worked we beat a team in a scrimmage 9-0.

[Sir_Jimmy_Page]

be close

we have 15 sophomores (my class) who i am close friends with, this year we are split Varsity/JV, but we are all friends and its a great time

the problems do arise with those who aren't there to win but who are there to mess around, personally i enjoy it a lot more when we are winning, so thats all the motivation i need to pick up extra on D (plus our offense in our school is generally bad, so D is our key, and i'm a defensive minded person)

when it gets right down to it, those who dont pick it up on defense shouldn't be playing middie, they should switch to attack if they dont wan't to play D, and let someone who wants to play a complete game play mid

[cougarlax20]

i agree with lax 20 just go out and goof of with ur teammates and get to know eachother hang out after practice during offdays and the offseason and build that trust and team atmosphere

[jtothep213]

Well, I took some more time to think about it, and it is tough. Our team consists of a few people who really want to win, and some who just want to play no matter what.

We hang out, eat, talk plenty. I think back to January when we had preseason captains practices, and of the 20 on varsity (small turnout this year) only 4-5 were consistently there. I have come to the conclusion that until the offseason involves work as a team, we will continue to lose in critical situations.

I'll just keep trying, and in the mean time i'll tough it out. If we lose, we lose. Come time for seeding in playoffs, our team will know we could have done better.

[Hirschy44]

ok first off i would say that our team gets pumped up by getting the goal right off the bat.... in all of our 6 games this season we came out with a goal in the first minute..... get your faceoff middie pissed off and get him to get into a mood where he thinks that he needs to win that first faceoff.... it is vital to the game to get ground balls and faceoffs.. other than that i would just take a few kids out.....

[Hirschy44]

middies arent the easiest position to keep pumped up though because of the fact that they run all the time and are tired as hell!