Shooting vs. Finishing

Anyone Can Be A Shooter, Great Players Are Finishers

 

See the following information and the shooting videos below to work on your shooting and become the FINISHER you want to be.....

 

"DO NOT Do It Until You Do It Right, Do It Until You DO NOT Do It Wrong!" - Coach P

 

Shooting: How Do You Shoot? Be a FINISHER!!!!!

As a player comes in 1-on-1 on the goalie, he inevitably drops his shoulder and shoots one wide, there is one main problem. He shot sidearm. Many head coaches put a high premium on finishing and shooting sidearm is NOT an effective method of putting the ball in the back of the net.

 

“With more and more young players using whips and offset heads, and trying to bring the heat, college coaches are seeing a definite drop in the ability to put the ball in the back of the net,” as one high profile college coach says. “As players are coming to the college ranks, I’m noticing more and more that the fundamentals of shooting and more importantly, finishing, are not there."

 

HS kids have to understand; "Anyone can be a shooter; All-Americans are finishers.”

 

While there is a time and place for a well-placed sidearm shot, it is frustrating to see even the top players miss when a good overhand shot would have put the ball on cage, and possibly been a goal, or at least forced the goalie to make a difficult save.

 

This said, how do you become a finisher? That’s easy. You have to spend hours shooting and doing it the RIGHT way, and this requires you to find a stick with a pocket that works for you and your game. It's hard to shoot overhand properly with a-lot of whip in the stick. The earlier in your lacrosse career you start shooting properly and with proper form, the better you will become. Once you "MASTER" and become proficient shooting overhand you can then experiment and start working on the other arm/shooting angles!

 

Utilizing the following basic steps will help improve your overhand shot:

 

1) Hands are important. Make sure your hands are 12 inches or so apart. Get in the habit of doing this off a catch so that you can be cocked and loaded as you receive the ball. A common mistake is to have your top hand too high on the stick. One tip is to place some tape about 12 inches from the bottom of the stick so you know where your top hand should be every time you shoot. Once you commit this to muscle memory, you will no longer need the tape.

 

2) Your hands must be up and extended away from your body (if your hands are free you are open), yet keeping the head of your stick at the ear. Get your arms out and away from your body, don't "pin" your arms against your sides and chest. Be sure to have your lead hand (bottom hand on the stick) slightly lower than your back hand (top hand on stick) so the ball does not fall out when you bring the stick back. If you are shooting right handed then your left elbow is your "lead elbow" and should be pointing at your target. One trick is to use the "v" in your elbow as an arrow to help guide your placement.

 

3) Rotate your hips to shoot the ball, and as you shoot, your front foot, hips, shoulder and stick should be pointing at the goal, using the pipes as the guidelines if needed. To increase velocity on your shot, you need to be able to transfer your weight (Everything behind, then everything in front or "Flip your hips"), you want to be sure to have all of your weight on your back foot when you begin your shooting motion and then make sure your entire body comes over your front foot after the shoot (if you do this correctly, your back foot should end up in front after you shoot). This will ensure that you are putting your entire mass into the shot and not just shooting with your arms. In other words, while your hands are up, you want to show your numbers which is probably the most important and overlooked, part of getting velocity on the shot. This will create a "torque effect" and allow you to gain extra velocity on the shot.

 

When you shoot sidearm, more often than not, where your stick finishes dictates where the shot is going. Also, for a midfielder on the run, shooting sidearm greatly reduces your angle and the amount of cage you have to work with.

 

Shooting overhand has some other advantages as well. For one, you don’t tip off whether your shot will be high or low. It’s easier to look one way and shoot another. It’s also easier to move the goalie as you move and cut, and still stay square for the overhand shot (TIP: shoot where the goalie is not; See the white of the net and SHOOT TO NET!!!). Most importantly, it enables you to shoot at the single hardest location for the goalie to make a save: high-to-low opposite, as us coaches like to say, "low and away" (TIP: ALWAYS shoot high-to-low off a feed. Make the goalie work!!!). The key is to not put the ball on the ground, rather, change the plane of the shot so the ball goes by the goalie from the knees to ankle and hits the back of the net. Biggest TIP: See where you are shooting, DO NOT look at the goalie when you are shooting, look at the open area of the goal (the white of the net)!

 

4) Shooting on the Run: This may be the hardest skill to learn in lacrosse and will require tons of practice. Learn to do it with both hands. This description is for a right handed shot, a left handed shot will be reversed. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GOAL (where you want to shoot). Start by moving across the face of the goal from the right side to the left and have your shoulders parallel with the sidelines but as you begin to plant your left foot "show your numbers" to the goal. Begin the shooting motion by planting your left foot so it will face at about the 10/11 o'clock position, bring your right foot around slightly after so it will end up pointing at the goal. Be sure to have your right foot come around slightly before the stick, this will force you to "coil" your body so you will have more torque in your body which translates to more velocity in your shot. YOU MUST TAKE A WIDE STEP WITH YOUR RIGHT FOOT SO YOU CAN GET ALL OF THE VELOCITY FROM THE TORQUE IN YOUR BODY INTO THE SHOT.  Remember, you are moving through the entire process, do not stop to shoot. If you bring your right foot around properly with all of your body power behind the shot, the follow through should almost spin you completely around. Keep the stick behind your body so the goalie cannot see it, be careful not to "hang the stick". You can release the shot either over hand, 3/4 or sidearm. YOU SHOULD HAVE A SORE LOWER BACK AFTER WORKING ON THIS OR YOU ARE NOT DOING IT RIGHT. You can practice shooting on the run from any angle on the field. It does not have to be across the face of the goal only. Work shooting on the run from the various dodging areas we utilize within the offense.

Now, the question is, how should you practice? Here are some tips:

 

1) Work on the stick skills. If you can’t throw and catch, then you won’t be able to shoot (use the wall ball drills daily)

 

2) Put the time in on the wall, by working on your right-hand, left-hand, quick-sticks, etc. One good drill is the bad pass drill. As you are hitting the wall, throw your pass in such a way that, when it bounces back to you, you have to reach out and grab it. Bad passes will occur in games, and in order to shoot, you have to have the ball in your stick

 

3) Speaking of games, make all of your at-home shooting drills game-like. Put yourself in situations you would be in during games practicing the 3 types of shots; 1) Set (time/room) 2) On the run and 3) Off a cut

 

Midfielders especially should do drills on the run (long dodging), and attack players should do their drills on the move as well (short dodging). Again, practice off a dodge, off a cut, off a groundball, etc. Make sure to have as many balls as you can, say 25 to start. Do 25 shots off a right-handed dodge, 25 off a lefty dodge and etc.

 

4) Remember all drills should be done with both hands. After a good shooting practice, you should have taken between 400-500 shots. While it is great if you have a goal-net in your yard, there are lots of ways to get better without one. First, go to the park or your school and find a tennis court or a softball-baseball backstop (my favorite). Mark off four corners (6’ x 6’), using bandanas, t-shirts, or hats as targets

 

If you are fortunate to have a wall and a goal or a bounce back and a goal, here are some good drills to do by yourself:

• If the goal is next to a wall, face the wall, pass, catch and shoot
• If the goal is behind you, face the wall, pass to wall & work on turning & finishing, or shooting with your back to the net
• If the back of the goal is pointed at the wall, pass off the wall, catch and finish

If you don't have a goalie or a "rejecter" to help with practice, be inventive. Stack trash cans in the middle of the goal to resemble a goalie, tie old milk cartons in the corners or use the ball bucket in the lower corners.

 

If you work on your shooting and you get the ball in the cage every time, you are more than likely doing something wrong. Most important, don't shoot the ball in the middle of the cage, that is not a realistic shot. Find the Pipe and Find the Spot to Shoot For; Look at the pipe of the goal and find the spot of the goal where the goalie is most vulnerable, usually off-hip. Never look at the goalie or most likely you will hit him in the chest with your shot; look to net/pipes and shoot to net. Always focus on the open spots in the net but do that from the pipe in, not the goalie out. The goalie may be moving in the cage, especially if you have just received a quick feed, so start at the pipe, it will never move and will be a consistent starting point. Remember, changing planes overhand, shooting high to low is the way to go; SHOOT TO NET and never just SHOOT TO SHOOT, you must SHOOT TO SCORE!

 

In closing, these are some things that will make you a finisher, and not just a shooter. Overhand is the way to go...ENJOY!

 

 

Warm-Up Shooting: Paul Rabil

 

 

 

 

 

Set Shot: Time and Room or Step Down Shooting: Max Seibald

 

 

 

Shooting Routines: set one up for yourself, write it down and stick with it...see the following example by Brendan Mundorf

 

 

 

 

Can't get enough shooting information: Click HERE for 5 Ways to Become a Great Shooter

 

 

Shooting on the Run from the Attack Position: Mark Millon, Highlights

 

 

 

 

15 Drills for a Successful Shooting Program: WHS players please contact Coach Polizzotti via email for this video