Left Hand Drills/Shuffle Pass

[strazzero016]

Anyone have any good left handed drills. Our team is very strong with the right side (always pushing right, but girls will begin to notice and start pushing to our weak sides) yet we have difficulty with the left handed cradeling,ground balls,passing and catching. Any drills or ideas would be helpful.

Also..any helpful pointers for suffle passes would be excellent! :thumbsup:

Thanks!
-Jamie

[ilaxitup007]

To be honest I think that shuffle passes are the downfall of lacrosse. They are weak and if you are a skilled player and know how to use both hands, I don't see any reason to even use them. I just think they don't work at all.

For left handed drills, start out in shuttles with all right, then catch right throw left (so you can work on your switch too) then eventually to all left. You can do catch left throw right, also. Wall ball always works best too. Try craddling with your left when you're at home, in your living room or anything. any practice helps.

[ques]

The same drills you use your right hand for should be done with your left hand. There is really nothing other than "using" the left hand that will make it stronger. Wall ball lots of left hand, ground balls lots of left hand, star drill lots of left hand. Just use it all the time. It is really simple to improve and if you use it in practice it will soon be natural.Good luck

[ljlax]

Shovel Passes are a NO NO any coach should tell you that!

Wall ball etc obvi!
:)..just use it, it takes some time but eventually you will be comfortable with it

[Kerosene]

May I ask why shovel passes are so bad?

[FallIntoIt]

May I ask why shovel passes are so bad?

I would assume because the nature of them is that they lack power and speed and can easily be intercepted. Or that for a shovel pass to be successful (because they are so slow and have the tendency to get squirrely if thrown the teensiest bit off), it would need to be completed in close range, and due to their slow speed, they could draw a double on the receiver.. or, if you're so close to a teammate that you can perform a shovel pass, why not run the ball up yourself/look for a further out teammate to throw an actual pass to?

[CTLaxer]

I would assume because the nature of them is that they lack power and speed and can easily be intercepted. Or that for a shovel pass to be successful (because they are so slow and have the tendency to get squirrely if thrown the teensiest bit off), it would need to be completed in close range, and due to their slow speed, they could draw a double on the receiver.. or, if you're so close to a teammate that you can perform a shovel pass, why not run the ball up yourself/look for a further out teammate to throw an actual pass to?

Another aspect is that as a coach I think they're trashy and garbage. I think a shovel shot is the cheapest, ugliest, wussiest way to get a goal and I refuse to let anyone on my team take shovel shots. If you can't get a goal shooting on a goalie the real way and instead rely on turning your back and throwing the ball behind you in some effort of luck, you don't deserve a goal as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me.

[ilaxitup007]

Another aspect is that as a coach I think they're trashy and garbage. I think a shovel shot is the cheapest, ugliest, wussiest way to get a goal and I refuse to let anyone on my team take shovel shots. If you can't get a goal shooting on a goalie the real way and instead rely on turning your back and throwing the ball behind you in some effort of luck, you don't deserve a goal as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me.

hah. I couldn't agree more. Everytime my coach sees them from other teams she makes fun of them so much. And it makes me think so much less of people who use them.

[ljlax]

Another aspect is that as a coach I think they're trashy and garbage. I think a shovel shot is the cheapest, ugliest, wussiest way to get a goal and I refuse to let anyone on my team take shovel shots. If you can't get a goal shooting on a goalie the real way and instead rely on turning your back and throwing the ball behind you in some effort of luck, you don't deserve a goal as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me.
I agreeee
They are horrible....and are only used by people when they REFUSE to use their left...etc etc

horrible
horrrrriblee
Some new sophomore did one in practice one day and I had to have a little talk with her..haha but that was a few months ago

[Acedeucelax9]

There was a team we played that had this one "sweet" girl but all she did was shovel shots, adn everyone thought she was amazing, but honestly... i thought it was the worst thing I've ever seen. Back to working on your left: not only should you do all your lacrosse skills left such as passing/catching/shooting/cradeling , and tricks! but also, do everyday things with your left hand, i.e. brushing your teeth or your hair.

[MegLaxSHS27]

I do left handed drills with my girls everyday. They are incorporated into our practice. We do shuttle, Right handed, left handed (regular throwing), Ground balls to right handed, ground balls to left handed, ground balls away right handed, ground ball away left handed, V cuts right handed, V cuts left handed, Double cuts Right handed, double cuts left handed. Then we move into quicksticks 50 right handed then 50 left handed. It really works well they look like they have been playing with there left hands all there life and a lot of my girls are first year players. I think that it is really easy to teach them when they first start, but when they are at a higher level say varsity it is harder because they already have a lot of there skills down really well. But it would still be a really good thing to start doing.

[lclax06]

wow i am so glad to hear everyone's negative reaction to the shovel pass. it's horrible, and i honestly hate seeing some girls on my team do it. It just lacks and skill and there's probably 10+ other different moves someone could do instead of using that pass...my coach's philosophy on it is "if it works just let them use it" which i really can't disagree with anymore.
as with left handed drills..i played so much wall ball trying to build up my left hand. also left hand quick sticks really built up my skill. in practice a lot of girls hardly use their left in drills but i try to force myself to try as much left as possible when i really want to work with it. just using it more and more and incorporating it in more drills just helps so much.

[ev00rams]

Uumm...I think it's okay. A shovel shot can be an effective change of levels (low to high) and deceive the goalie. If the goalie stays high it can be a low to low shot or skimmer. It is possible to hide the ball before releasing it making it a hard save. It also gets the head of your stick below the level most defenders hold theirs and can avoid their attempt to check or block it.

The key to giving it some zip is the push pull motion with hands working in opposite and a wrist snap. Of course, this is the key when shooting a regular overhand shot or a reverse stick shot. It is used in men's lacrosse, sometimes, and if you can get your hands on a USA men's world games highlight tape (championship game vs. Canada when Bill Tierney was coaching USA) you'll see a U.S. men's player burn the goalie with it. Since the U.S. won that game by one goal in OT you'd be hard pressed to find anyone involved in that win who'd say it wasn't a good shot.

Now the loopy 30 yard skyball shovel pass should go by the wayside. If there's no time to switch hands then use a the reverse stick pass. A good player should be able to make a good pass up to 20 yards or so with that technique.

Bottom line, though, if it's not against the rules and it works who can argue against it?

[FallIntoIt]

Pfft. As a goalie, I think it's a cheap shot. I think it shows a lack of skill, that you have to resort to a high fake and then shovel shot to get a goal in.

Sure, it's not against the rules, but neither is a weak cradle, and you don't take a player who can't cradle seriously, do you?

[CTLaxer]

Uumm...I think it's okay. A shovel shot can be an effective change of levels (low to high) and deceive the goalie. If the goalie stays high it can be a low to low shot or skimmer. It is possible to hide the ball before releasing it making it a hard save. It also gets the head of your stick below the level most defenders hold theirs and can avoid their attempt to check or block it.

...

Since the U.S. won that game by one goal in OT you'd be hard pressed to find anyone involved in that win who'd say it wasn't a good shot.

...

Bottom line, though, if it's not against the rules and it works who can argue against it?

I can argue against it. Refer to my previous statements above.

Also, as a coach, I teach my defenders to stay close to the attackers during a crease roll. One of the reasons is if a shovel shot is tried, hopefully the stick and/or ball will hit one of my defenders drawing a foul. Also, my goalie has been taught to come off the pipes and close to the crease, mirroring the shooters stick if someone is close enough or rolling the crease in order to block shovel shots.

The difference between the shot in the men's and women's game is the men's sticks. They can cradle and literally hold the ball in their stick when it's upside down. It is an effective technique to get around a defender or to deke a goalie out with a low to high or low to low shot. In the women's game, the same is not possible.

It's a desperation shot that takes NO skill. All you have to do is run past the goal from behind and drop your stick down. As I stated before, if you can't score a goal the honest way of intentionally throwing the ball to a spot past the goalie, you don't deserve a goal. I can't tell you how many high school players I've seen who can't catch or cradle, or throw, but they all know how to do a shovel shot. Why...because you don't need to know the fundamentals and key elements of the game to do it!

[bwickgoalie7]

what my coach did to us was tape our left hands to our stick and that helps you with catching and throwing with your left!