Receiving and Protecting the Ball

In this lacrosse video Major League Lacrosse player Matt Danowski explains how to protect the ball when you are receiving. A lot throws in a lacrosse game are not perfect, so players must learn to adjust with their body and stick in order to catch the ball. Matt has some great lacrosse tips in this video, watch as he demonstrates how to catch balls in all sorts of positions and still protect the ball.

Transcription:

When receiving the ball from your teammate, you want to put a nice good target up by your head. Unfortunately during the game of lacrosse, you're not always gonna receive the ball where you want it. So you got to be able to adjust and catch the ball when it's thrown opposite when it's thrown low, when it's thrown at your feet. So, the technique here, when Dan throws the ball across my buddy, is to catch it here and to curl my hand over and bring the stick back across my face. I don't wanna catch it here and then bring it like this, where the head of my stick it's facing out because if I do get checked, the ball is out for live play and it's a ground ball for a defenseman to pick up. I want to be able to catch the ball, and protect it across my face, and bring it back to that triple threat position by my head.

So, I'll show you another one here. Now, watch my hands when I receive the ball from Dan. I catch it, I curl back across my body and bring it right back to my face here so I can catch it. Either pass it, shoot it, or protect my stick from this position. Now, not all passes are gonna to be over here or right here. They could be low by your hip, they could be low by your feet. So sometimes, you need to be able to adjust, and I'll have to catch with my left hand when I'm holding the stick with my right hand. So if Dan throws me the ball here, I need to be able to catch a lefty, and, you know, protect my stick with my body and head here, or bring it back to my right hand.

All right, Dan, throw me another one here by my hip. Even if it's thrown to your right hip, you have to move your feet, use your body to move to that ball, catch it, and bring it back up to your head. This would be a great drill to do off the wall, to throw it off the wall on a spot, to catch it and bring it back. Throw it off a different spot on the wall, catch across the [wide?] of body and bring it back. All this could be done either with a partner or by yourself. So I'll have Dan just to fire me a couple here, in a row, and I will just show you how I move my body and my stick to catch the ball. Oh, wide one. You can't catch all of them, you're gonna miss one eventually. The important thing is to stay with it and be able to practice all different kinds of catches and throws.