Lax and the City: Why Lacrosse Stick Tricks Are More Than Just Awesome.

Stance? Feet Apart. Bent knees. Arms steady. Check!

You’re ready.

You wind up. Toss the ball on the side of your stick. Bounce it on the side five times and flick the ball in the air. You whip your stick around your back and catch the ball behind your back!

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! Or, at least the five of your friends who just saw you complete a Sidewall Juggle/Behind the Back Combination.

One of the most satisfying feelings for a lacrosse player is successfully learning and showing off a new lacrosse trick. The smiles and “Man, that was AWESOME!” comments are well worth all the practice it took to learn the skill.

But, stick tricks are great for more than just showing off: they also form character. But, really, learning stick tricks takes dedication! Do you know just how many times it took Pro Lacrosse player Mikey Powell to learn to do all this?!

It takes practicing over and over and over again. If you stick with it, though, you will have bettered yourself as a person and as a player.

See, stick tricks are also fundamental part of refining your stick skills and your hand-eye coordination. If you practice juggling a lacrosse ball on the side of your stick, you are training your hands to feel the weight of the ball and detect when it is off balance. If you can whip your stick around the ball as it is falling three times, then you have successfully trained your eyes to see the ball in slow-motion and respond with your stick and hands accordingly. If you can spin a stick over your head, carefully see the stick as it falls, and catch it at your hip with the ball still in the net, you should have no difficulty seeing a ball passed to you during a game and successfully catching it.

Watch how Pro Lacrosse Player Matt Gibson's stick trick skills translate into some fantastic stick skills in a game.