BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Long Island Yellow Jackets Lacrosse

What's your experience with YJ second teams? Kinda funny but 2/3 YJ team girls can walk on any other LI club A team without a tryout. Does that mean the likes of TG, Elevate now Igloo are that far behind? Maybe the competitive landscape has really dropped off!

My experience is with YJ 1st team, but have many friends who were on 2nd teams, many of which have left 2nd YJ team for other programs 1st teams, true. As a result some current YJ 2nd teams have filled these spots with girls that made 3rd team last year or did not make other programs 1st teams; some whose spot was taken by a YJ 2nd team player. So yes, in the past a 2nd YJ team player could very well walk onto another programs 1st team, many did. However, now that is not the case.

This is true, I heard it happened this past winter. YJ 2nd walked on to Elevate A. Not good if your a elevate b kid.

I agree. YJ rule. Don't eat the yellow snow

Yes, and in turn a girl who got bumped from Elevate A went to...wait for it...YJ 2nd team! So what does that say about current YJ 2nd teams?

Seems that YJ top teams have made the gap between them and the other LI clubs greater than in recent years. Not sure any other LI club has a top team that could be even considered an A level team. YJ B teams are about equal to other LI clubs B A teams. You are all now attacking YJ B teams when years ago the mantra was they have caught up to or even surpassed YJ A teams, then CR decided to put an end to that. Not sure why so many hate the fact that CR has a spot for everyone.

Be interesting to get that persons perspective after the season. I also think people realize it's extremely tough to break into a YJ top team from the tryout alone unless you have a hook and are willing to take the second team in the hope of moving up. I would also imagine if the kid is a stud they could pull them up mid season.

Only helpful comments please.

Have first grade daughter. No idea what I am doing with girls lax. At this age is it the same as boys lax? wall ball, cradling, Gbs, etc. anything else I should be doing? practice tips? would rather spend time myself then spending money at this age. Thanks in advance.

Take any $ you would pay for travel lax the next 4 years and put it into a 529. Hit the wall, watch college games , and treat every ground ball like its a $20 bill. She will be ready for travel lax, if you choose in 5th or 6th grade. Any sooner is a waste of $ , have fun.

Great advice!!!

That's all good stuff and right on target. Dodges are somewhat good too but don't really come in to play later as girls can't check until 5th in PAL. Still I'd start early with them because in my experience it takes time for kids to learn to use them in actual games.

Travel you need to judge by your kids interest level. A 529c it's a much better investment for college. That can't be argued. My older daughter is a Lax junkie and started in travel in 2nd with YJ. My younger may never take the leap. Just see how it goes.

Another poster mentioned college games - most are free and a lot of fun! We go to the Stony Brook games and they rock. But depending on your location you could hit Hofstra or Adelphi and not be disappointed. It's a good time and has almost zero cost except gas, time and maybe a hot dog :-))

Hope that helps!

People new to lacrosse think travel lax does a lot to develop your daughters lax skills. This is not correct. The best players are the ones who work the most at home or in their private time and who have natural athletic ability. Work with your daughter at home with some friends. Make it fun. Don't consider travel lax until at least 6th grade.

Consider some of the clinics that are offered, they are not terribly expensive and a good way to introduce her to the game and gauge her interest level as well.

Here is my advice for a first grader. Buy a couple of Swax Lax soft lacrosse training balls.

1. Underhand toss balls to her over and over again. Emphasize that she catch the ball with the stick perpendicular to the ground, NOT like the pizza man putting the pie into the oven. (both hands - even better, start her as a lefty.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hlil0hb9l4

2. Ground balls - Put a bunch of balls on the ground and using great fundamentals pick up the ball drop pick up next one. (Teach both hands)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj5grjunuCc

3. Cradle. - Buy or make a cradle baby (saves time when dropping the ball and having to pick up the ball.). and have your daughter cradle a certain number with both hands everyday. 20x than 30x, than 40x etc. (Both Hands)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAWLE6OYp7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyp4JuTefLM

From experience, if you do those things a little bit every week for a year, she will be more than ready to start PAL lacrosse clinics or team. The trick to do a little every day, make it fun, make it part of a daily routine, 10 minutes before bed, after dinner, etc... These can all be done inside.

This was very good of you.. Thank you!

Yeah, the only thing I agree with here is the work at home part. If your kid wants to be good (not you wanting your kid, thats different!) they have to work at home.

The rest not so much. My daughters travel coach is a stick skill beast. He looks at every little detail, details a parent isn't going to see. And he works to make it perfect. Obviously not all coaches are the same so your milage may vary. But a good coach knows the devil is in the details and will help your daughter makes them perfect. They will still have to work on them at home. A coach can only suggest changes, the child has to make them happen.

Talent is mostly [lacrosse] until the kids are no longer "kids". It really only comes into play at higher levels like HS and above when they've nearly perfected their skills and the only thing that can separate them is innate ability. Hard work and a desire to constantly get better make all the difference with children. Help them with this and they'll do great at more than just lacrosse. Case in point, I know a young girl who's 8-9 years old that blows away girls 2 years older than her on the field (and no, she's not my child). Why? She's got an older sister that she wants to be better than. She's not faster than the other kids, nor bigger, taller etc. In fact she's somewhat shorter and stocky. She lights other girls up. Why? She works hard at her skills and wants to be the best in her own little world. She wasn't born with that. She makes it happen. "Talent" is a word that should not be applied to children, unless of course you're trying to make an excuse as to why your kid got blown away by another kid because you can't face that they were simply outworked. And thats okay too - lacrosse may not be all that important to them. Just don't make excuses; maybe spend that time instead trying to find something that is that important TO THEM so they work their butts off doing it.

Lastly, there is no "DONT DO THIS UNTIL NTH GRADE." It's your kid, and as a parent you be the judge of what is best for your kid. You'll know when and if they're wanting to take their game to a more competitive level. Hopefully they'll be telling you ;-)



Whoever wrote this - you rule! Great content. /bow

Here's a warning about training for parents,,,,
The two year younger girl this poster describes, they exist in nearly every town, usually a coaches daughter or a kid who has been brought into the sport early because an older sibling plays. They get out to an early jump and stand out head and shoulders, even on a top travel team at a very young age. They always get surpassed when the teams get older. You will see in 7-9th grade, all the kids with the rare athletic ability finally start catching up in stick skills, these kids disappear. You start wondering why that little kid with incredible stick skills doesn't look so good anymore. This post isn't singling out any one girl or meant to be mean in spirit, it is more directed at parents, to put their kids lacrosse success into perspective, it is a long process with lots of leap frogging through the years. At the end of the day, stick skills in only a small part what makes the great ones great, much more to do with athletic ability and heart.

90 percent you are born with. The physical gifts, ability and heart. The last 10 is learned. That's why 20 year old girls and any parent could coach most yj teams. The girls are already very good so dump out the ball bag and stay back

Here's a warning about training for parents,,,,
The two year younger girl this poster describes, they exist in nearly every town, usually a coaches daughter or a kid who has been brought into the sport early because an older sibling plays. They get out to an early jump and stand out head and shoulders, even on a top travel team at a very young age. They always get surpassed when the teams get older. You will see in 7-9th grade, all the kids with the rare athletic ability finally start catching up in stick skills, these kids disappear. You start wondering why that little kid with incredible stick skills doesn't look so good anymore. This post isn't singling out any one girl or meant to be mean in spirit, it is more directed at parents, to put their kids lacrosse success into perspective, it is a long process with lots of leap frogging through the years. At the end of the day, stick skills in only a small part what makes the great ones great, much more to do with athletic ability and heart. [/quote]

Well this is one that I find cropping up quite a lot. The idea that stick skills somehow are a small part of the game and don't somehow require "athletic ability". Had one dad whose daughter was a sophomore in high school going on and on about how college coaches don't care about stick skills just want athletes etc etc. Of course his daughter had crappy stick skills and wasn't getting any D1 sniffs the way he was sure she should be.

I do know that what the poster is saying is that the kid that can stand around and do all kinds of great things with her stick won't get to top levels if they are slow, passive, can't see the field etc.

But great stick skills are a part of being a great athlete, and in today's game they are getting more important, not less. Know LOTS of girls who are great "athletes", can run fast, are aggressive etc. They can't see the field and have horrible stick skills. The "great ones" have all of it. So yes it isn't the little kid with great stick skills unless they have speed and vision, and it's not the big fast kid, unless they have stick skills and vision.

In fact THE GREAT ONE himself, Wayne Gretzky, was that little kid who wasn't a "great athlete" that had the ultimate stick skills and vision.

When I think of the best women's lax players, they all have amazing stick skills and vision. Some have elite speed, others like Kayla Treanor and Selena Lasota do not. But they do have sick stick skills and great vision and are aggressive.

My point is I see it on both ends, the daddy that thinks his daughter is awesome because her stick is great but she is too slow etc, and the daddy who thinks his daughter is great because she is 5'9", has thighs like Earl Campbell and can run and is aggressive, yet has crappy hand eye and no sense for the game.

So can we warn all of those parents too? The parents of the "athletes" that there is way more to being an athlete than just size and aggressiveness? In fact if you ask me, the things that separate the great from the good in most sports is vision, anticipation and desire. And in order to have those in lax, you need great stick skills. It is only then, when the stick becomes an extension of your body, that you are able to see the way an elite player does.

I think we're trying to say the same thing. I completely agree with your post. I was disagreeing with the whole idea that talent makes a defining difference in children and I was using this feisty young lady as an example. Sorry for the confusion. The kid is competitive and works hard, that's her talent ( and IMHO that is more important than lax skills because it helps you win at life). You just can't really see "talent" in children which is what the original poster was implying. They all develop at different paces. Talent certainly does matter later on as the late bloomers catch up and is a defining difference by high school. As does heart and dedication to your craft.

I would also like to add that being a coaches daughter certainly helps develop skills early on - however, it is not a requirement. My older daughter picked up a lacrosse stick before I ever did. I never knew a thing about lacrosse but I've learned. When it became apparent that it was important to my daughter - I made it important to me. I watched practices, listened to the coaches and hung around at clinics and so forth. Yeah, she's better than me but you just can't beat having a catch with your kids. It's fun. Anyone can be a student of the game, learn something new and help pass on that knowledge to kids. You don't have to had played lacrosse to teach kids lacrosse or be involved with the sport.

What you don't say that the daddies of both kids will tell their kid to go to the cage every single time they touch the ball so the stats will grow. Pass the ball, it's a team game...

"Here's a warning about training for parents,,,,
The two year younger girl this poster describes, they exist in nearly every town, usually a coaches daughter or a kid who has been brought into the sport early because an older sibling plays. They get out to an early jump and stand out head and shoulders, even on a top travel team at a very young age. They always get surpassed when the teams get older. You will see in 7-9th grade, all the kids with the rare athletic ability finally start catching up in stick skills, these kids disappear. You start wondering why that little kid with incredible stick skills doesn't look so good anymore. This post isn't singling out any one girl or meant to be mean in spirit, it is more directed at parents, to put their kids lacrosse success into perspective, it is a long process with lots of leap frogging through the years. At the end of the day, stick skills in only a small part what makes the great ones great, much more to do with athletic ability and heart."


The post became idiotic when you said always. Plenty of these early overachievers stay at the top and have great success. Take a look at the LI kids playing in college now and in the past and many were phenoms as young players.Are there kids who are late bloomers , absolutely .Seems to me your kid was not very successful as a youth player and there must have been a kid who she was always in the shadow of. Give it a rest there are so many different stories to these top players that they do not fit in any one mold.

YJ's are by far the best girls program on LI with the best players but they are poisoning each and every HS team their players are associated with. Players and parents just don't seem to mix well with others when people don't bow to the bee.

How do they poison their HS teams?

Because they're egotistical SOB's. Their parents are by far the worst to be around. Loud, obnoxious, conceited...shall I go on? That's how they're poisoning their hs teams, and everyone else they associate with.

My experience has been the complete opposite.

Because if you aren't one of them, you are beneath them. All the parents talk about is Newsday stats, their club team and recruiting. If you are a girl playing with them, you are also looked down upon and by a wild coincidence, the ball rarely if ever gets passed your way if you aren't one of their club teammates.

Unfortunately, you're right. That's something the coaches have to deal with. If you have a strong coach they will break that in short order.

Or more likely your kid cannot catch. If the other kids trust your kid to catch , keep her head up and not turn the ball over they will pass to her. If your kid turns the ball over constantly then no they will not pass her the ball for long.

You sound like a crybaby Huntington parent. Time to move on and stop looking to blame others.

No, not a Huntington parent. I'm a Md parent. I can tell you from experience, whenever we see YJ on the schedule it's not because of the competition. The team is good and all teams (generally) want to play good competition. The problem is the parents...and coaches. 95% of the parents on 95% of the clubs are really nice, maybe a little overzealous but generally nice people. However, the opposite is true when dealing with YJ parents (I used the word dealing on purpose because that's what it is. Try to tolerate them). Maybe 5% are nice. I have never heard or seen a more intolerable bunch of parents. Absolutely wrapped up in themselves, me-first attitude, my-way-or-the-highway. Being even near them on the sidelines completely takes the enjoyment out of watching the game. They treat club lax like it's the NFL. Horrible bunch of souls.

Just because we don't drink the kool aid and pay for CR's vacation home doesn't mean our kids cant play. What a tool and the reason you all are poison and just out for yourselves.

Trying playing HS lacrosse with them, you have no idea!

It amazes me how much time people spend bashing the top programs. It's laughable. But you do whatever you've got to do to make yourself happy. At the end of the day none of it matters. Especially your opinions. You know, opinions, they're like assholes. Everybody has got them and they're usually full of [lacrosse].

Guess what YJ. The only humans that care about being "the top program" (whatever that actually means), is YJ and their lemmings. Nobody else cares. If it makes you guys feel better in your self-centered tiny world, then go ahead and call yourselves THE TOP PROGRAM! All of the marbles are yours. And, my daughter and your daughter will probably wind up on the same college team. The only difference between my daughter and your daughter is that your daughter played on THE TOP PROGRAM. We all bow down to the.

YJ certainly isn't the top team in the 2019s, i can tell you that.

Too funny that you take time to read a YJ thread, Take time to rant about how much you or anyone else do not care that YJ has the the top teams and are the top club on Long Island yet the fact that you do so shows you care too much. The anger in your diatribe also points to it all meaning too much to you. As far as your daughter winding up at the college team as mine , maybe , but I can tell you without hesitation playing for YJ has helped my daughter get into the college of her choice while many of her schoolmates have not gotten the same attention. I hope the best for those kids as well but can guarantee you if they had played YJ many would be done with the recruiting process.

Perhaps getting 2,000+ on an SAT score might also be helpful? We all know how valuable the LAX degree is and all the options it will give your daughter later in life!

My kid is choosing between Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern and ND. Is that good enough for you?

You need to get help!!