There are a number of reasons why you, as a lacrosse parent, should get yourself a new stick.  Most importanlty, there is something indescribably fun about hanging out with your kid, throwing the ball back and forth.  If you don’t have a stick, you probalby don’t understand.  But once you get the hang of it and can catch and throw the ball with confidence, you’ll understand what I mean.  In addition to being great excercise and fun, it gives you a chance to offer immediate feedback to your child on his or her progress.  As an adult, you can process information better than your child.  You can understand what techinques your coach as been teaching him or her.  So if you see him throwing the ball with his elbow low and tucked into his side you know it’s wrong and you can say, “get your hands up,” instead of letting him do it wrong for four days by himself at the wall and then get corrected by his coach.  And last, as I’ll explain later, that second stick in the house is crucial to the growth of the game. With the game still in a huge growth phase simple math tells us that most lacrosse parents never played the game.  The fundamentals appear as a mystery to most parents.  Just like the various positions and rules, new parents quickly get a vague understanding of what they are watching.  But they generally just see their kid having a great time, a coach giving instruction, the young player learning something new and trying it out.  But after practice is over, more often than not, that’s it.  Nothing until next week or the next practice.  Why? Because Mom and Dad have no idea how to catch or throw with their child in the back yard. It stands to reason that a child who is involved in sports has at least one parent who played some sport at some time in their lifetime.  It probably wasn’t lacrosse.  So if the child takes up basketball, for example, Mom or Dad (if not both) probably have played at least some basketball during their lifetimes.  They could easily take their child outside and practice dribbling the ball, passing, hopefully shooting at the park or on a neighborhood basketball hoop.  This basic exposure to the sport helps the parent to reinforce what they saw the coach working on in practice.  If they saw the team working on free throws then it’s easy enough for Dad to say, “Hey, after dinner let’s go up to the park and shoot some free throws.”  He would be comfortable with that.  Maybe not so much with a lacrosse stick. Holding a lacrosse stick is done in a specific way.  A player “grips” the stick with his or her top hand in a way that allows the free and easy release of the ball without “pushing” the ball out.  It’s something that needs to be learned.  The same way a player needs to hold the stick upright, palm out, when catching the ball.  Not hold it like a basket for something to fall into.  But every little kid picks up the stick for the first time and holds it like a shovel.  Then tries to “shotput” the ball to their new coach before trying to catch lacrosse balls falling out of the sky in his or her “basket.”  We’ve all seen in a million times.  It doesn’t take long to get it straightened out for most of them.  It takes basic instruction, trial, feedback, and practice.  However, improvement would be infinatley faster with a little practice with Mom and Dad in the backyard. If your kid picked up a baseball or softball and stuffed it deep into the palm of his hand, wrapped his fingers around it, and then pushed it toward you without snapping the wrist it would be simple for you to show him the proper way to hold the ball.  In the fingers, up by your ear, snap the wrist when you throw.  Even if you weren’t a collegiate baseball player you probably can throw a ball well enough to play catch and give basic, easy feedback.    In baseball or basketball the new player goes to practice, stands in line, gets the basic instruction, tries the skill a dozen times or so along with his teammates.  Then he goes home, hits the backyard with Mom or Dad, and tries it about a million times before the next practice. Lacrosse practice starts the same way.  Kids get instruction, get in line, try it a few times, get more instruction, go home.  But then the stick hangs up in the garage until next Tuesday before gettting more reps.  About a million reps short of his baseball playing neighbor!  It’s too bad because, as I hope you’ll find out, learning how to hold the stick properly and catch and throw is easy! Even for an adult. The pocket in a stick can get out of shape and cause problems.  If you don’t know how to catch or throw you may not know the signs.  If your son suddenly starts throwing the ball into the ground six feet in front of him you may not realize what the problem is.  But if you can operate the stick yourself, you could try it out and learn that it has developed a bad “whip” and can easily be fixed after watching a few YouTube videos or taking it up to the local lacrosse shop. All coaches encourage players to “hit the wall.”  Wall ball is a time honored and well proven step on the way to championship caliber play.  I feel pretty confident that every single goal scored in every single MLL game was scored by someone who, at one point in their career, played wall ball.  It’s as important as lacing up your cleats.  However, it’s not as much fun as playing with your buddies.  If your kid played football there is a good chance that he can find a neighbor to “toss the old pigskin around with.”  Same with baseball.  What 12 year old kid doesn’t have access to a baseball glove in this country.  But finding someone to play lacrosse with in the neighborhood can be a challenge for many kids south of Virginia.  That’s why I believe having a second stick in the house is critical to the growth of the game. Kids will try just about anything.  Often times leading to disaster.  But that adventurous spirit can be put to good use.  When your child comes in the house and asks if the kid down the street can borrow your stick to play catch you can say, “heck yea!” and smile because you just grew the game. So go buy yourself an inexpensive lacrosse stick and take it to the next practice.  Before or after practice ask your child’s coach to show you how to work it.  Don’t be shy, it’s his or her passion to share the game.  It’s why we all get out there and sweat, pull our hair out, blow whistles, and make practice plans.  We believe in the game and we believe it should be shared.  Nothing makes a coach happier than to know his or her hard work is taking root in another believer with a new stick.