Practice - players without equipment?

[daday]

hey guys,

i know from that in the us, nobody would let a player without a helmet be on the field practicing, unfortunately, in europe it takes forever for orders to come in, and there arent that many shops established yet, one guy on my team i just setting something up - but till we can as a team either can provide helmets (we dont have many sponsors - because lacrosse is unpopular here - A LOT :P)...

well the problem is, when we practice there is always someone new, who wants to try the game, but its hard to include them without any equipment - last practice 2 of our players got hurt, one got his nose broken ...
we did have some "try-out" days where they could just come and borrow our equipment for a testpractice, but of course nobody is willing to spend a lot of money on a game they dont even know yet, so they want to try it a little longer and come to our practices...

now this is not good, the reason beeing, the ones who own stuff cant practice a 100% because we always have to watch for the other ones

So my main question is, if you ever had to deal with this, how did you set it up? or do you just work with each group individually? (which would take away important practice time since there are about 15 guys with equipment and just 2-5 without!

Doing drill lines a lot would make sence for me , also because most cant catch and throw well while running, but that bores them!
and i cant get them to go wall ball in their free time, because most of them are adults who just picked it up this or last year and have family/kids/work ...

I know this went over just the w/out equipment question, but i have noone else to ask...

thanks in advance!
peter

[3rdPersonPlural]

Try having a 'throw around' once a week where people who are new can play catch with more experienced players and get the hang of stickwork. More of a fun/tutorial session than a contact practice.

If someone decides that they want to play, you'll want to suit him up ASAP. It may make sense for the team or to have a few sets of 'loaner' gear that a new player gets when he provides evidence that he's ordered his own stuff from the States.

[daday]

Try having a 'throw around' once a week where people who are new can play catch with more experienced players and get the hang of stickwork. More of a fun/tutorial session than a contact practice.


this is hard, because they barely have time - but i guess i could make that work out as soon as i'M done with school :)


If someone decides that they want to play, you'll want to suit him up ASAP. It may make sense for the team or to have a few sets of 'loaner' gear that a new player gets when he provides evidence that he's ordered his own stuff from the States.

OF course, but we are a pretty new club team, so we dont have the money for it yet, and even if we order it still takes forever.... ;( so i gotta find another way till we have the $$$ :naughty:

[CTLaxer]

Get together some old sticks, or have teammates bring backups they don't use during practice every time and some tennis balls and have the people that are curious about it watch you guys practice as well as learn to catch and throw with a tennis ball. That way no injuries with new guys, no giving up game vital equipment. I'd also suggest you canvas old players, see if they're gonna use their equipment anymore, see if you can buy it real cheap or have them donate it. Another option is ebay. I'm not sure what kind of shipping costs you would incur in Australia, but ebay is a great place to buy used equipment for real cheap.

Ideally as a team, club or school, you want to get to a point where you have a couple of sets of equipment, old or new/good or bad, around for people who can't afford to buy their own or new people looking to try the sport out. The team where I coach at has a few sets of equipment or odds and ends lying around and it's a great way to get people to taste the sport and learn it without dropping the cash on gear only to find they don't like it 2 weeks in. Hope this helps and good luck!

[Bobsch]

I bought a few ice hockey helmets and always have enough gloves on hand.

[stinisonfire]

I would call up Warrior, Brine, STX, DeBeer... tell them your situation. I know STX is generally good with donating older equipment.

Manufacturer Phone Numbers:

STX: (888)-789-7894
BRINE: (800)-227-2722
WARRIOR: (800)-968-7845
DeBeer/GAIT: (800)-833-3535
HARROW: (800)-541-2905

I don't know about calling internationally, but I got those numbers from LacrosseDigest.com

[daday]

Get together some old sticks, or have teammates bring backups they don't use during practice every time and some tennis balls and have the people that are curious about it watch you guys practice as well as learn to catch and throw with a tennis ball. That way no injuries with new guys, no giving up game vital equipment. I'd also suggest you canvas old players, see if they're gonna use their equipment anymore, see if you can buy it real cheap or have them donate it. Another option is ebay. I'm not sure what kind of shipping costs you would incur in Australia, but ebay is a great place to buy used equipment for real cheap.


now, this might be a good idea to try ;) thanks man

oh and its AUSTRIA - as AUSTRIA in Europe - where there are no kangaroos! ;) - the whole thing here is not easy at all with ordering, there is just one online store for all of europe, and if you order from the us, you pay like double the price because of the taxe at the border

[CTLaxer]

My bad dude. Late night post and all, must've misread Austria as Australia. entschuldigung sie bitte.

[jimd619]

Great advice on getting equipment. But I also see something else here. They seem to want to play without rudimentary stick skills. I agree line drills can be dull. We have kids that show up without mouthpieces, and we do not let them participate in any contact play. But there are a number of clearing drills that are just passing and catching, and can be fun. Also, without defenders (or at least have passive defenders), you can still teach the movement of an offense. There can be cutting and shooting drills. I am sure they can get their hands on some hockey helmets if the concern is missing a pass and getting bonked. But dig into some of the drill books they have to find some of the fun practices without contact, they are there.

[ColtsLax]

Have you looked into Hurling. The native sport of ireland uses helmets, but i dont know if they have masks. If you can order those, or get some second-hand hockey helmets, you can work with that. the only thing that NEEDS to be lax specific is gloves. I know a lot of guys who still use ice hockey shoulderpads.

Look into other sports. Rugby, hurling, hockey, soccer all have various peices of equipment that can be used.

[daday]

thanks for all the tips so far guys ;)

we do have a couple of sticks, and gloves - but in the end we still need the money - its the first year we even exist and because its not so popular yet, we dont get so much sponsoring
but we were really lucky, because this past weekend we were in the local newspaper (published about 600,000 times :P) with a huge 2 page article - :clap: - we got good response on it too - so i#m looking forwar on this :clap:

and for now i think that i'll try to do line drills - dodges and shots with them, they need to get better on the basics ;)