Michigan Coaching Clinic No. 1: Mini-recap

Head coach John Paul at the whiteboard.

I attended Michigan’s coaching clinic last Thursday, mostly out of curiosity but also because I was hoping to glean a few useful tidbits on the team from the presentation (and I very much did, including the 2012 schedule in completed form). A few other team items:

• Weak defensive performances so far this year have been partially caused by an undermanned unit. The coaches talked about a player who recently switched to longpole – they didn’t want to call him out, but that would be Rob Healy – who has struggled early this season. As he continues adjusting, and the team gets back to full strength, those performances should be a bit better.
• On offense, it sounds like Judd Lattimore is changing things (somewhat radically) from what they’d been doing before, all the way down to using a very specific set of fundamentals – more on that in a moment, because it was a big part of his presentation. It seems like a tough adjustment for players, and though it’s something that will pay off in the long run, could have hindered their performance this fall.

Ken Broschart

The team’s defensive coordinator spoke first. Broschart went over most of the basic slides that the team uses, including obvious ones like the adjacent and crease slides, along with variations on those. He also went through a bit of film from the scrimmages against Providence, Towson, and St. Joseph’s (not much – a clip or two from each).

It seems like, schematically, not a lot has changed going from the club level to the D-1 level. The slides are what they have been. What has changed are the individual attention to detail – which seems to be the main struggle for the team right now – and the expectations from the players to know their responsibilities from any point on the field, including first slide, second slide, and so on.

Broschart made no pretense that the defense is where it needs to be to compete at the Division-1 level. The players and coaches all need to step up to reach the level that will be acceptable for the spring. The good news is that the D is in good hands, and they’ll be worked until they get it. Whether there is enough practice time (limited by NCAA regulations, of course) to bring it far enough quickly enough is another question.

It also seems like the defense has been slightly short-handed lately (my observations, not his statements), and when the team is fully healthy, eligible, and practicing, there’s the possibility of a quick learning curve.

Judd Lattimore

Lattimore spent most of his presentation covering the very basics of offensive lacrosse: cradling, hand placement, shooting, passing, etc. What made it interesting was that he believes in a very specific set of fundamentals and seems to be very strict on those. It’s likely that offensive players will struggle a little bit until they adjust and get used to doing things his way.

“His way” is the West Genesee High School system, which isn’t surprising given that he’s an Upstate New York guy from Auburn, NY – not very far at all from West Genny. Given that West Genesee is a traditional high school power in the sport, obviously there must be something to this system.

The system focuses on improving efficiency in the offensive player’s movement, mostly through mandating a little motion in the stickwork as possible, and always cradling within the box of the shoulders (no more cradles at the waist on full-field sprints). Lattimore is in favor moving the hands into different positions as little as possible for shooting, passing and cradling. Protecting the stick is obviously at a premium.

One poor coach kept asking for more details on how to get his players to do it right, and it seemed like he was much more worried about getting his players to buy into the system than actually teaching them the basics of the stickwork.

General

The Michigan coaching staff was very open, and they were willing to answer questions of any high school or youth coach in attendance. They aso invited the coaches to e-mail them about attending practices if they wanted – and to attend the games with their players.

Since this was the first session of the coaching clinic, it served more as an introduction to the coaches and a brief overview of their offensive and defensive philosophies (head coach John Paul spoke only briefly, and left the rest to his coordinators). As the clinics go on, I would expect them to have a more conversational or classroom-type feel.

I think most of the coaches (and one random blogger) there got quite a bit out of it, or at least had a foundation laid for getting more out of the next clinic, which takes place on November 10th. For more information visit the website.