Strengthen the Communication Between Your Reaction and Your Attack
Physically your eyes are the most important part of your body to perform at a high level - this is with the understanding that all of your internal organs are in healthy working condition and your limbs are attached! With your entire body in working order there’s nothing you can accomplish in lacrosse consistently without your eyes. Your eyes are the physical conduit to the reactive mind (your mental state of flow or your mental state when your habits take over and you are aware of everything happening without judgement which allows you to make the right play at the right time) - the connection between the physical and the mental. Because of that, everything we train revolves around using our eyes as correctly, as early and as long as possible. When you are coaching athletes of any age or are training yourself, plan drills that will warm up the eyes just as you would to warm up your legs and arms.
The above video is a very common drill mostly used by goalies but is beneficial to all lacrosse athletes. This drill hides the ball from the receiver and manipulates the amount of time the receiver has to catch the ball which tests the internal tempo of the receivers mind. Drills should always test how early an athlete can respond to a stimulus (ball, defender, teammate…etc.). Once tested, evaluate the level of the response and then if needed make an adjustment to improve react & attack.
Challenge your athletes and challenge yourself with stick work that will connect your physicality to your mentality early in practice to setup for success.