THE COACHING DIARIES, PART 3: GET THE JAM OUT

This spring, Jon is coaching youth lacrosse. This is the second in a series of posts about the experience.

Ringo Starr, the drummer for the Beatles, had an expression for how the band decided if they had a good song or not.

“We’ve just got to get the jam out,” he said.

Translation––we won’t know if we have a good song until we play it.

The same sentiment can be applied to this lacrosse season.

We all know what a lousy spring this has been. A non-stop barrage of rain and cold. Rubbish (ode to Ringo and our friends in the UK)! The poor weather has robbed athletes of valuable practice time and games. This spring season is a developmental one, and not just lacrosse-specific movements. There are life skills built through participating in team sports. For the time that we have the boys, we place just as much importance in that area.

At one of our rare practices (May 16), Charlie and I saw an opportunity. We thought it would be a good time to re-define the season.

“Our second half begins now,” Charlie said at the beginning of practice.

One could see the edict as a challenge thrown to the boys. Who will seize the day? Whom will take responsibility for their own performance and do their job? Urgency is the currency for any sports coach. Sometimes that urgency is slightly manufactured. Other times, its self-evident.

Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach of the Buffalo Bills during their Super Bowl run of the 1990’s, once famously (and humorously) said before a Super Bowl game, “This is not a must win. World War 2 was a must win.” I would say Marv did not have to create urgency around the Super Bowl. It was self-evident. But downplaying its importance, he gave permission for his players to create whatever head space they needed to draw on their own motivational tanks.

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The 12-to-14 year old brain is a tricky one. Boys are old enough to take on leadership roles but not yet of age to understand entirely what that means. Direction is needed.

At the end of the May 16 practice, we had a player captaincy vote. The vote finished in a tie between Rocco Ferretti and Jack Lucania.

On the field, Rocco (midfield) and Jack (defense) play different positions. Up to the point they were named captains, they were the most productive players at their positions for us this season. One could say the boys know this and through inductive reasoning, elevated them to a leadership role.

But I think the vote revealed more.

Rocco is a dual recognition leader––coaches and players see what he brings. He’s a good-sized kid with a personality to boot. He says what’s on his mind, connecting his heart to his head (don’t ever lose that Rocco). We can coach him hard and he has enough self-awareness where we can blow him a little crap if necessary. He gets it.

Jack was the surprise.

We see the all-out effort in practice and in games. We hear what he says on the sidelines without provocation, always being positive and uplifting with his messaging. We’ve seen the evolution of a quiet, stay-in-my-lane sixth grader to a vocal, dignified leader-in-progress seventh grader.

What we weren’t sure of was if his teammates recognized it. To our delight, they did.

Now it’s one thing to be a captain. It’s another to act like one. We’ll be having conversations with Rocco and Jack about what being a captain means. But mostly, we won’t be telling. Rather, asking questions and giving guidance when needed. That’s the best learning exercise there is and why team sports is so valuable to a young person’s personal development.

The weather may not be cooperating this spring season. But there are still plenty of ways to get the jam out.