DD approached to play lacrosse; good idea or no?

[Eric F]

The DD of a good friend of mine is a LAX player. He has mentioned a few times about athletes coming to LAX from other sports. Soccer and basketball players can run all day. Softball players don't generally have the same kind of endurance, but are better about reading ball flight, and adapting to ball-stick coordination skills.

I vote "go for it!"

 

[CMMom1740]

The DD of a good friend of mine is a LAX player. He has mentioned a few times about athletes coming to LAX from other sports. Soccer and basketball players can run all day. Softball players don't generally have the same kind of endurance, but are better about reading ball flight, and adapting to ball-stick coordination skills.

I vote "go for it!"

I figure, being a catcher, she's got blocking down pretty well and is not scared to block the ball with her body if need be. She's plenty accustomed to being banged and bruised up at all times.

 

[uncdrew]

I think the opposite, as long as it is done respectfully. telling the coach upfront, sure, I'll give it a go, but my travel softball comes first, is letting the coach know up front that in case of a conflict, he will need an alternative. if this is unnacceptable, he can always decline and say if that is the case, no thanks. it is merely a matter of all parties being up front about what they are thinking from the get go.

It's a good life lesson. Honesty is the best policy, be upfront, work on compromises.

 

[djcarter1966]

Definitely goalie would be all she could do if she has never played the skills required to be a good varsity player (especially if you are in competitive area like NE) are just not something you can pick up overnight or a year or two. She would have to take it seriously lots of practice plus probably a goalie lax camp before the season started, that being said it could be fun. But you would have to set priorities ahead of time you can't miss a Varsity game for any reason and probably shouldn't miss practice unless you are out of town...at least if I was the varsity coach I wouldn't sign you up for that otherwise

 

[uncdrew]

Definitely goalie would be all she could do if she has never played the skills required to be a good varsity player (especially if you are in competitive area like NE) are just not something you can pick up overnight or a year or two. She would have to take it seriously lots of practice plus probably a goalie lax camp before the season started, that being said it could be fun. But you would have to set priorities ahead of time you can't miss a Varsity game for any reason and probably shouldn't miss practice unless you are out of town.

Good point. I've spent a few hours trying to play catch. It's an odd feeling for a newbie.

 

[ANNASDAD]

I figure, being a catcher, she's got blocking down pretty well and is not scared to block the ball with her body if need be. She's plenty accustomed to being banged and bruised up at all times.

I bet she's never been hit with a lacrosse ball before.........they make a softball "soft" in comparison!

 

[Tatonka]

Lax is a great sport! My DD's played it for a couple years and I was an AC for the team. One of my DD's who is a catcher was almost immediately recruited to be a goalie..."hey, aren't you a catcher? "Here try these pads, grab that big stick and get in the goal" kind of thing and she did well. Her twin (who is a pitcher with great wheels) loved playing attack and scoring goals. We'd been goofing around and playing catch with some of my old sticks for a number of years so it wasn't completely foreign to them (although the rules in girls Lax are ridiculous IMHO).

As with GA, softball is a fall sport in HS and Lax is a spring sport out here in CO so that was not a problem but as they moved up into higher levels of TB and the Spring TB season took on more importance something had to give. My girls chose softball. Volleyball also fell by the wayside. They did continue to play hoops (just finished their last ever HS hoops game last week). I obviously believe in the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete but just keep in mind that you most likely can't do it all and something, somewhere will have to give.

The benefits of playing stick I believe are numerous. Even as a Goalie your DD will still get her fair share of running and her cardio will benefit. The hand/eye coordination skills are transferable in my opinion as tracking the ball and focus are needed in both sports. Taking a hit and being physical are going to happen as both catcher and goalie.

I say do it as long as the coaches both understand the priorities that you establish. Who knows? Lax could turn out to be her fave!

 

[CMMom1740]

Lax is a great sport! My DD's played it for a couple years and I was an AC for the team. One of my DD's who is a catcher was almost immediately recruited to be a goalie..."hey, aren't you a catcher? "Here try these pads, grab that big stick and get in the goal" kind of thing and she did well. Her twin (who is a pitcher with great wheels) loved playing attack and scoring goals. We'd been goofing around and playing catch with some of my old sticks for a number of years so it wasn't completely foreign to them (although the rules in girls Lax are ridiculous IMHO).

As with GA, softball is a fall sport in HS and Lax is a spring sport out here in CO so that was not a problem but as they moved up into higher levels of TB and the Spring TB season took on more importance something had to give. My girls chose softball. Volleyball also fell by the wayside. They did continue to play hoops (just finished their last ever HS hoops game last week). I obviously believe in the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete but just keep in mind that you most likely can't do it all and something, somewhere will have to give.

The benefits of playing stick I believe are numerous. Even as a Goalie your DD will still get her fair share of running and her cardio will benefit. The hand/eye coordination skills are transferable in my opinion as tracking the ball and focus are needed in both sports. Taking a hit and being physical are going to happen as both catcher and goalie.

I say do it as long as the coaches both understand the priorities that you establish. Who knows? Lax could turn out to be her fave!

I think she would like to do it to help out the school. She is that kind of kid. She has friends on the team, and it would be fun. I'm guessing that if the Coach is really so desperate that he needs to recruit, he'd be somewhat lenient about any conflicts she may have. But I mean, this literally happened today, so she's got to give it some thoughts and ask some questions.

 

[canyonjoe]

My thought is to do anything you can as long as it doesn't interfere with school. Play Lacrosse , join the glee club, be in a play. You only get to be young once so try as many things as you can.

 

[CoachKevin]

Heck, don't dismiss the potential opportunities that LAX may give her, you never know what may happen.