Lacrosse is a rare sport where you can improve your skills rapidly, without needing anyone else to practice with you.

The key is PLAYING WALL BALL as often as possible.  If you commit yourself to playing wall ball for 30 minutes at least three times a week, you will notice significant improvement in your game.

The following tips are courtesy of the Desert Mountain Lacrosse club:

WALL DRILLS

50 repetitions lefty and righty per drill, except where noted. Do this 3 times a week at least, 6 times at most. This lasts ~30 minutes. Do this half the days you go with gloves, half without. Big sticks should get a short stick on their head if they can. Warm up your shoulders, elbows, wrists, and lower back, then go into:

1. 5 yard drills

    a. quicksticks

    b. one hand quicksticks

    c. quicksticks changing hands with ball in midair

2. 10 yard drills

    a. 1 hand throw catch and cradle

    b. throw, catch, face dodge (don’t switch hands)

3. 15 yard drills

    a. throw, catch, split dodge (switch l to r or vice versa)

4. 10 yard drills again

    a. backhand (right hand high on stick, stick on left side,or vice versa)

    b. throw behind the back, catch in front

    c. fake overhand, throw sidearm (15 reps each hand)

    d. Denvers (10 reps each hand)*

5. Try to learn some kind of new stick trick for about 10 reps with BOTH HANDS.

How to get better with this routine:

At first, do everything overhand (except where noted). Once you can finish all drills in about 30 minutes, overhand, with excellent fundamentals, split your 50 throws between overhand and sidearm.

Once you have mastered this, split your 50 throws in to 20 overhand ,20 sidearm, and 10 underhand.

At first, throw to a point on the wall higher than your head. The ball will hit and come back down to you. Once you have mastered this, move on to throwing at a point about 6 feet in the air on the wall.

Mark your target on the wall with a piece of tape. The ball will hit the wall, bounce once on the ground and rise to your stick. This will more closely mimic a pass to a teammate, and improve your catching ability.

Focus on one cradle and out in each drill (except quicksticks).

*What are Denvers?

Throw sidearm with only your bottom hand (release the stick with your top hand), pivot and catch the ball on your backhand side, then throw it back, and catch again on your forehand side. This is one rep. It looks like tennis when done correctly.

Remember you are a representative of our team.  Clean up after yourself, be polite, and if you are asked to leave a wall, do so immediately.