We talked earlier this month about being successful with your lacrosse budgeting. Fall is a great time of year to take inventory of what we have and what we need for the upcoming spring training. It’s also a good chance to look out on the web for the cool new innovative products. One thing I love about lacrosse is we are getting more and more entrepreneurs in the game of creating new tools to help us train ourselves in a more efficient manner than ever before. But with all those tools comes a cost.
Visit my Recommended Products to see my list of must haves.
But what if that new gear isn’t really in the budget. What if I said you can find almost all you need at a discounted rate. How about an insanely discounted rate? That’s right you can safe beaucoup bucks right in your backyard. I’ve been doing some shopping lately for the kids to get a new basketball hoop and released the expense associated with a new one. But lets be honest, we don’t need a “new” one. As long as the rim stays in the air; my kids will be thrilled. This is when I ventured onto Facebook Marketplace. A simple search returned dozens of hoops within a 20 minute radius. All of a sudden as the buyer I had the power and I wasn’t going to have to spend a couple hundred dollars on something I wasn’t sure how well it was going to go.
“Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…search lacrosse.”
Facebook Marketplace for Lacrosse Training Aids
It was such a simple tool that was under my nose the whole time and really haven’t thought much about. That search unlocked a whole world of treasures ready to be had for discounted prices. My team doesn’t care that they are getting a 1 year old rebounder that was kept indoors and now is 50% off. $50 and now I can have another goal at practice and don’t have to beg the school to buy me a new one….yes please. Or maybe the holy grail of them all, BRAND NEW LACROSSE BALLS. That’s right new lacrosse balls still in package. Case of 120 for $100, that’s just the asking price, who knows what kind of bargain you can get with a conversation. Lots of used balls for 50¢ a piece. (Beware of greasers). I don’t know what your budget limits are, but I’d highly recommend scouring Facebook Marketplace for your team or even your family. Get out there and search those listings. Great deals to be had and it could be just down the street.
Great drill for your new cost effective goods
We as coaches love to drill into defense it is not the stick that plays defense it is your feet. We take the poles away from defenders to reiterate this point and then that look like they are stumbling over themselves. They start this weird hugging activity that is not lacrosse. There’s gotta be a better solution.
Solution: One of my previous coaches loved taking kids broken sticks. He would cut them down to a length of about 8-12″ (no head). During those footwork focused drills we’d give the kids the shortened sticks to pretend like they had the stick in there hand but they’d have to rely on their footwork to still play difference. This solved the previous clumsy dilemma, and bonus it had the defenders working on keeping their hands together to minimize the cross checking calls. Now with $15 D-poles facebook marketplace, you can get the entire defense working on correct positioning for a minimal cost. WIN, WIN, WIN!
*Safety tip – put butt ends on both sides or at least cover it up so you don’t shred O players arms.