We believe that if you take a few team concepts and wrap them around a program of creating self-motivation within each individual, you will have a formula for team growth and accomplishment, otherwise known as success.

If you are looking for someone who believes in one on one, trash-talking, kill the opponent, winning at all cost lacrosse philosophy, then you may not believe in most of what you are about to read. Lacrosse has become very much about one on one matchups. It has developed some of the traits of the major sports in America, where taunting, screaming at refs and worrying about personal accomplishments have become more important than being part of a team, backing each other up and acting with sportsmanship and grace. We believe that how you play is who you are and how we act as a team is who we are. If you are looking for someone who believes that the benefits come when a group decides that they want to do something, accomplish a goal, or go somewhere as a TEAM, then you have come home.

A coach is someone who cares, challenges, gives and motivates. If he is lucky, he will be able to teach every individual something good; something that player can take with him when he leaves. It is your duty to help him learn how to help a team. A coach needs to be a friend, a mentor, sometimes a brother, sometimes a father, sometimes a babysitter. One advantage that a coach has is that everyone on the team wants the same thing: to win. Other kinds of educators and organizers do not have this built in advantage.

It is important to believe in what you are coaching: if you believe, they believe. Don't put complicated thoughts in your head that you don't understand or believe in, because they won't either. Keep it simple for them and it keeps it simple for you. As you grow as a team, the more you add. Do what you know. Know what you do. You can and should accelerate past the simple concepts. That is what you want . . . but the basic concepts remain, no matter how high the level of play is.

Build your team from humble beginnings, not just great expectations. Every team practices and every team wants to win. When you build desire and character within a group of individuals, winning and losing will take care of itself. Give them simple things and let them explore for themselves. That way when you need to push, you can, and they don't hear things they don't understand. If you continue working on a few basic concepts as your main discipline, they will clearly understand what you expect of them, and what they need to think about as their highest priorities. It will ground your team.

Define goals that you have for them right away, especially with individuals. Let each player know what things you expect of him, what roles you would like to see him fill. A leader needs to use his system of beliefs to create the kind of character on the team that expresses who you are. This is how you, the coach will be happiest. You will naturally reinforce the things that they do that display the signature you put on the team.

Give your team a few rules about their behavior or what you expect of them. Make it gospel and build your team from there. If you don't give them a few rules, then it is just recess. Don't give them too many rules or they will lose focus. Sit down and decide what three rules you want. This will put a stamp of your character on this group. It might be anything...Here are some ideas:

1) Whenever you pick up a stick, wear gloves

2) If you don't practice the day before a game because of an injury, can't play.

3) 50 sit-ups, 50 push-ups after practice on their own every day.

4) Never will we be off-sides.

5) Always move to the ball.

6) When you want the ball, always call the passer by his name ONLY.

7) No trash-talking.

It doesn't matter exactly what your rules are, as long as they are simple to understand, and are important enough to you to enforce them. Make sure your rules are empowering and work on a team level.

If you motivate and challenge them individually, they will know what to do. For example, if you see a player who just will never use his left hand, then tease him about it, "Aren't you ever going to put that thing in your left hand?" He will become determined to show you that he can use his left. Or, if you want to see a player work harder on his ability to run just call him slow, and see how he responds. You would probably not want to say this to a player who really is slow, because it might discourage him, but for a player who just needs a little more fire, something like this can be the spark.

Give them little goals as individuals and then put them all together. If a player can get excited about growing a little seed that you planted, then aren't you coaching him all the time? They have to know what you expect from them. Sometimes when a marginal player improves a lot in a certain skill or makes a big play, it can have a big effect on the whole team.

When you have a player who is maybe less talented than some of your other players, offer him a simple goal like, "I'll be happy if you just get us a tough groundball sometime when we need it.” In practice, and on his own, he'll work on it. When you see him improving, you have to reward him by giving him playing time in a game, and not just when you are ahead by ten goals. I used to always say that it only can ever cost your team one goal to put someone in the game, until I put someone in one time and it cost us a goal and a penalty which ended up costing us another goal, but I still believe that when a player gets playing time in the flow of the game, the more he can grow and improve.

The more players feel like they are part of the team, the more they will care about it, and put effort in towards its success. You will also find that when you give an individual a focus, something you want him to improve on, that you will naturally and easily tend to reinforce and encourage him. You are already building the character of the team, as well as yourself as a coach. In many ways, I believe the key to coaching is not just what you get out of your best players, but also what you can get from the rest. Create an atmosphere where everyone feels that he is an important part of the team.