with Michael Warari,
Vassar College Head Coach;
recorded Vassar College record 18 wins in 2018;
2018 Liberty League Champions;
2018 NCAA Tournament appearance;
2013 Liberty League Coach of the Year;
former assistant at Messiah College under Jan Trapp (all-time wins leader in Division III)

Michael Warari has put together a jam-packed video full of ideas to improve the stick skills and game readiness of your players. Within this video, you'll come across innovative exercises to encourage getting low and playing with speed/explosiveness when handling the ball, methods to grow wrist strength and boost player confidence playing with either "lead" hand, drills for working together as a defensive unit, and ways to improve communication among teammates.

Stickhandling

Coach Warari runs through three sets of stick skill progressions: On The Line (OTL), 45, and Relays. The outcome of each series is aimed to improve the 5 meter skills of every athlete on your roster. Goals for Warari's progressions include staying low, getting sticks on-ball, playing with speed, and having fun.

You'll see Warari diagram the components of each progression on a whiteboard before moving to the field for a full demonstration. Prior to each rep, Coach Warari reinforces the goals to his team so they will maintain a mindset that breeds maximum improvement.

Competitive Drills

Two main drills are covered by Warari that will prepare your team for a variety of situations you'll see during games. The first is Pressure Cover, which is primarily a defensive drill. In the drill, your players will block the lines to the goal and put pressure on the offensive player that possesses the ball. Coach Warari's primary emphasis is the "Big C"- communication. Additionally, he instructs his team to protect the center of the field to avoid giving up a big shot. Finally, individual players must know how to manage their mark and space, which means knowing the personnel on the field and recognizing when to intercept or delay.

The second drill presented by Warari is 3v2 Continuous. He prefers to extend the field from a traditional 3v2 Continuous space in order to incorporate transition scenarios. You'll learn how to split your players into two teams for the drill as well as how to prep for quick restarts so your team doesn't waste any valuable practice time.

The topics covered by Coach Warari in this video can be applied to lacrosse teams at any level, making it a great choice for beginner or experienced coaches. This video will help you improve your teams' stick skills and game execution today!

71 minutes. 2020.

Matt Soto presents drills and exercises to strengthen your strikers' and midfielders' goal scoring abilities.

Using on-field demonstrators, Coach Soto presents over 25 practice drills that will strengthen both individual skills and develop your team's ability to control the ball and create more goal scoring opportunities.

Using his high school team, Soto shows how you can use basic skills like hits, pushes and aerial passes to get the ball to the attacking circle. He discusses important receiving skills and how to get the ball into an advantageous position for your attackers to score.

Practice is initiated with simple passing and trapping techniques. These are used as warm-up exercises to prepare players for what will be a challenging, technique-driven practice.

Each exercise builds on the last to further challenge your players' abilities. These carefully thought-out drills continue to develop until the players find themselves efficiently performing highly skilled ball handling drills in a game-like setting.

Throughout these progressions players practice how to fake, double pull, reverse stick techniques, purposely getting the ball into the air, and a number of other advanced skills to help them become better ball handlers. The difficulty of the drills continues as players are expected to move the ball purposefully to advance it down the field in a specifically choreographed manner.

Tipping drills will expose your players to advanced passing techniques that require the passer to "time" the runner as they move down the field together.

A key advantage to this DVD is the impact it will have not only on your individual players, but on your whole offensive unit.

The more advanced drills have the consistent element of getting a striker in position on the far side away from the goalie. By always working towards the far post, players develop their "field vision" and will find better positions on the field. The application of these drills in game situations provides the offense with confidence in knowing where their teammates positioning themselves. Therefore, these drills will provide increased scoring opportunities for the entire team.

Each evolution of drills is presented with clear and well defined expectations that will challenge even experienced players to elevate their standards to meet a higher level of expectations. There are a number of drills described in the video that can be used by players in individual practice while others must be practiced in a group setting.

This video has a wealth of drills you can use to develop your high school players into effective strikers and midfielders. The drill variations will keep your players engaged in working on and improving their skills.

91 minutes. 2013.

Two-time state champion Matt Soto presents drills and exercises designed specifically to strengthen the abilities a goalkeeper.

Coach Soto has designed this progression of drills to continuously build the skills needed to perform the next drill in the series. By practicing these exercises and focusing on the details that Soto stresses, any goalie will improve their ability to keep the ball out of their net

Using on-field demonstration, Coach Soto presents practice drills covering footwork, body positioning and stance that will help your keepers stop shots from various angles and heights. In this DVD you will learn:

• Pre-practice warm up exercises
• Lunging and diving techniques
• Clearing drills
• Defending against multiple shooters
• 1 vs 1 breakaway techniques

Practice is initiated with warm-ups structured to reinforce the goalie skill using correct footwork in an effort to properly position the goalie for lunging and stepping into the ball. Warm-ups start with players kicking the ball to each other. Correct foot position and striking the ball with a controlled, deliberate clearing kick is emphasized.

Moving into shooting on goal, the tempo and skill set builds from simply stopping the ball to clearing the ball to a specific area of the field. Players are shown how to clear the ball after a shot and to direct the ball away from the center of the field to the outside of the shooting circle. Goalies who are able to master the techniques shown will effectively decrease their opponents scoring opportunities.

Coach Soto introduces cones that the goalie must move through before stopping shots. This increases the challenge to the goalie and helps them build confidence in their footwork. Soon the drills develop to include shots from two shooters. The drill is structured to force the goalie to quickly move from one side of the net to the other.

All of the drills shown are strictly defined as goalie drills, therefore all shooting is performed to build a goalie-specific skill.

The drills continue to progress by using several players shooting from multiple spots on the field. The goalie must be able to quickly react to the ball, set in a good athletic stance and successfully clear the ball.

Additionally, this DVD provides clearly defined instruction for defending against a break away and 1-on-1 situations.

Whether you are a high school goal keeping coach, a parent helping your young athlete, or a goalkeeper taking charge of improving your skills, the drills in this video will teach you how to achieve your goals.

64 minutes. 2013.

with Shiv Jagday,
FIH accredited coach;
2020 Field Hockey Canada Hall of Fame inductee;
one of the marquee coaching figures in field hockey history; coached in multiple World Cups, Olympic Games and the Pan Am Games; Canadian National Team Coach from 1981 through 1986; USA National Team Coach from 1998 through 2005

Shiv Jagday, a 2020 Field Hockey Canada Hall of Fame inductee, delivers a quality presentation full of coaching tips and techniques that centers around one of the most important aspects of field hockey - footwork!

Stance & Footwork

Coach Jagday begins by covering three different types of stances: neutral, offensive, and defensive. He details the differences between each stance and also provides good and bad examples for you to observe prior to working on stance with your own athletes.

Next, Jagday dives into various footwork moves that all players should have in their repertoire.

These include:

• Split step
• Side shuffle
• Stutter step
• Baby step
• Pivoting
• Adjustment step
• Drop step
• and more!

Each move is defined and explained in-depth by Coach Jagday to give you an abundance of information for coaching your team's footwork effectively.

Creating Time & Space + Drills

Once you've mastered the fundamentals of stance and footwork, you can move onto applying those concepts to practices and games. Jagday discusses the art of creating time and space on the field, and also covers numerous footwork drills that he's used in practice during his career.

As part of his presentation, Coach Jagday details how to optimize stickwork under pressure. He also talks about how to help players make better decisions when the ball is in their possession. Finally, game footage is included to visually reinforce the concepts covered throughout.

Clean and efficient footwork can provide your players with the edge they need to cut through the defense and score more goals. If you need a great overview of footwork in field hockey, look no further than this video from Coach Jagday!

40 minutes. 2021.