Brad: Welcome to Uncoached, a podcast for volunteer coaches and parents figuring out youth sports as we go. Each episode, we keep things simple. Five questions to talk about practical insights you can actually use with your youth athletes. Very excited about my guest today. His name is Jeremy Moses from TRUE Lacrosse. one of the largest youth lacrosse organizations in the country. Jeremy has spent years helping y-youth athletes develop both on the field and off the field, and today, we're gonna talk about what makes lacrosse unique, how TRUE approaches player development, and what parents and coaches from any sport can learn from their philosophy.
So Jeremy, thanks so much for being here. me a favor and, and tell me a little bit about your journey here into youth sports and this lacrosse environment.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, no doubt. I, I appreciate you having me. I'm excited to do this. Um, me personally, I-- born and raised in Connecticut, still in Connecticut now. Um, I grew up playing football, basketball, and lacrosse. Um, and then, you know, I, I played through middle school, high school, and played, uh, lacrosse in college at Eastern Connecticut, a small D3, uh, school here in our state.
And, um, post-playing career, it was definitely a priority to me to stay involved in the game. What started as, um, volunteer coaching at, you know, the, the local youth program, um, in football, basketball, and lacrosse, um, has graduated into, um, taking this thing full-time with lacrosse and doing it both in the, uh, school setting at Choate in, in Wallingford, which is a, a prep school in our area, and then now, um, going into the, the club space as a director with TRUE.
So, um, been around sports my whole life. Learned a lot about, you know, just everything, right? Like, not only just athlete development, but developing as a human through it, and knew I had to stay connected, uh, post-playing career.
Brad: For sure. And you've got quite the development with, with TRUE itself. We were chatting a little bit before we jumped on here, but let, let's talk a little bit about the organization. I- you're fairly widespread, right? It's, it's, uh, lacrosse is a growing sport. Um, and, you know, we'll talk about lacrosse, but in general, the things that we're gonna talk about here, they could be applied to anything, a soccer team, a baseball team, whatever, 'cause I know that you're trying to develop players the right way and create good humans and things like that.
So maybe just give me a little bit of, uh, background on TRUE itself.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So I mean, like you mentioned, uh, by all accounts, TRUE is the biggest, uh, club organization for lacrosse in the country. Um, up to twenty-five states now, two hundred and twenty programs around the country on the boys and girls side. Um, and one of the, the motto of TRUE is retrain more. Um, and that was one of the big things that got me to go with them in term-- instead of, uh, developing a program, you know, locally and doing it myself, is that I think we're mission-aligned in a lot of ways.
Um, I have done a bunch of training over the years, um, just doing small one-off one-on-ones or small group, um, and then eventually becoming-- Uh, I was doing it prior to, to going with TRUE. I was doing it, uh, full-time, um, just training a bunch of kids, um, in lacrosse. So, you know, when looking to do this thing and, and learning more about TRUE's model, um, that bakes that training into the model, it was, you know, a, a match made in heaven for me.
It's like that's kinda what I believe. It's not only about that competition side, like where does the development live? Um, and, and I think, excuse me, I th- I think it's super important to, uh, put development first with everything.
Brad: Yeah. Uh, and I love that approach. Clearly, I'm aligned with that too, and I think there's a lot of others in that space, but I think the more people hear about that type of approach to player development where you're not so focused on and skills, you know, necessarily, but you're, you're, like, looking at a well-roun- rounded youth athlete.
I mean, these are kids we're dealing with in a lot of places. So very cool approach that True has, and I love it. And, and again, thanks for being on here. tell me, for, for parents and coaches who haven't spent a lot of time around lacrosse, what do you think makes the sport uniquely valuable for youth athletes compared to some of the other sports that they could be playing?
Jerimee Moses: When I think a lot-- when I think about lacrosse, I think a lot about the fact that there's really no prototype, um, of a kid who's gonna be good at the sport. Um, now of course, being big, fast, and strong is, is helpful in any sport no matter what sport you're playing, but I've seen so many different athletes be good at this sport over the years, um, that that's one of the things that I love about this game.
You know, there's so many different ways to play it. It's creative in so many different ways that like you can take, you know, just about any kid and find a way for them to be successful. Um, and, and with that, like I think that, that the stick skills of the game is really the greatest equalizer, right? Like, you know, there are...
One of the best players, um, in the world is, is Mikey Sauers, and that, and that guy is, you know, no taller than, than five nine, right? He's a small guy, but he's so quick and, uh, deceptive and creative in his game that it's like, yeah, he's smaller, but good luck catching him, right? 'Cause he finds so many different ways to accomplish what he's trying to accomplish.
Um, not to say that the big guys don't work, right? Like there's, there's great, big, strong, fast athletes who have success as well. So I, I think in short, like the, the fact that the game is so creative in nature makes it so that you can find a way to be successful regardless of what you look like
Brad: Yeah, and I, so I grew up playing hockey, and I'm, I'm super jealous that lacrosse wasn't big in my area here in the Midwest just because I love playing hockey, and I love playing soccer. And in, know, a, a, a layman's vision of lacrosse, it's kind of a mix of those two things, probably a little bit of football in there, too. Um, but what do you, how do you compare it to other sports when you're trying to talk to families about trying lacrosse out? looks like such a fun game to play. Like, I'll be honest, the physicality, like you said, the stick work, I mean, it just aligns with a lot of fun things. What do you, how do you compare it?
Like, in your mind when you're talking to these folks, what do you, what do you say?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, I mean, candidly, I use other sports every single day when teaching, right? Like I use-- get-- being a basketball and football guy, I've used those sports primarily, but, um, I love hockey, so I use a lot of hockey, and it's a big crossover sport, so a lot of hockey players also play lacrosse. A lot of the wrist actions and things like that are transferable, so you'll find that hockey players scale pretty well in our sport.
So I-- because of that, I lean into those other sports all the time, right? Like, um, I'm the defensive coordinator at Choate, so I work with our defensive guys in, you know, basketball defense and lacrosse defense. While there's six playing defense in that-- or in lacrosse and five in basketball, all of the concepts are the-- pretty much the exact same, right?
In terms of, you know, playing the gaps when you're adjacent or, you know, for, for basketball, you call it sliding, but help defense in, in basketball, like all of those rotations and things like that are basically basketball defense on a field with a lot more space. So I think the answer to your question is, you know, I, I use those other sports as the way to bridge the gap with someone who maybe isn't as familiar with the sport of lacrosse specifically.
Brad: sure. Lacrosse might be the poster child for encouraging multi-sport athletes too because some of those skills are gonna develop and, and help you out on the lacrosse field too, I would assume, like you're saying
Jerimee Moses: 100%. And it, and it is a niche, niche sport, right? So like while teaching this, you have to be-- You have to expect that the lacrosse IQ is something that is gonna be like it-- I shouldn't say lacking, but in, by all accounts, like it, not a lot of kids will come into this game having a great understanding of the sport at large.
So it's helpful to utilize what they already have to make teaching a lot easier
Brad: sure. And I know we jumped into this a little bit, um, just a second ago, but, but True talks a lot about developing the complete athlete and not just the lacrosse player. When you're working with younger players, what does that development actually look like? And what should parents be paying attention to besides just, you know, scoring goals and the wins and what, what team their child makes?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So this is, you're, you're hitting on a, uh, on a real hard string with this one. Like, this is something that, um, you know, keeps me up at night. Um, when it comes to the development of, of the players in this game, um, I think that there, there have been quite a few, um, training, uh, organizations or just personal trainers that have come about that have done some great work.
But I think outside of those groups, uh, player development sometimes falls by the wayside for competition. Um, like when I really think about training, and this is not unique to lacrosse, I think in any sport, um, you should be teaching in a progression of, you know, this is how we do everything from the most basic all the way through, and we just kind of compound on top of that.
Um, when you take it to the field and you just keep playing, some of that gets missed, right? Like, you have guys who are competing in really high-level tournaments or games that have skipped the basics of how you properly hold your stick when passing and throwing, so they're just kind of out there figuring it out.
Um, so you know, with specific to our organization, you know, we're gonna utilize progressions to teach things starting all the way from the most basic and even, even with our older guys, right? Like, the proper way to hold your stick can never go over taught, right? Like, you need to have that so that we can get to the more advanced tactics, um, that, that exist in the game.
Um, so when I think about our training model, that's kind of what I focus on, is like, all right, let's go all the way down to the basics, and then let's figure out what's the, you know, the ninth inning of this, and then we reverse engineer the middle.
Brad: Yeah, and I love the approach because what you're doing really is longer term thinking. It's not short term, coaching that you're trying to do just to collect wins. You really are trying to, to... You know, you're developing that individual player, but you've got a long-term mindset to where you're looking down the road to when those athletes that you spend time with today on their foundational elements, you know, it's gonna be super beneficial when they're older and, and probably a little bit more highly competitive in, in higher divisions as well.
Uh, do- would you agree?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, 100%. I mean, the reality is, like, this sport has-- I, I think on the tournament side, because we're pretty much predominantly tournament-based when it comes to club, there are so many awesome events that, like, I, I don't wanna say anything negative about them because they're really cool, right? Like, you're going to some awesome destinations, you're playing some highly competitive, uh, games, and, like, the experience is incredible.
Um, I just wanna make sure that that doesn't take away from the here and now. And, like, the reality is, while these tournaments are outstanding, like, that tournament T-shirt isn't gonna mean anything in five, ten years, right? So, like, we can't be focused on just trying to win a tournament. We also have to remember that, like, in order to get better at this sport, development needs to be a constant, right?
It can never stop. Even when you get to the varsity level, right? Like, we're gonna have guys who are getting recruited and, you know, they're trying to make a, a college roster. If we solely focus on competition and the recruitment side of things, which in my opinion is the outcome, well, then you lose the plot of what's gonna get you there, right?
So, like, we need to focus on the here and now and developing every athlete to get better so that we can win a tournament and, and have a, have a recruiting conversation. But those are, those are down the road. Right now, it's let's just get better.
Brad: Yeah, for sure. And, uh, a side question here, a little curveball maybe. It runs rampant when I see, uh, the sports of baseball and soccer specifically, where you'll have organizations that will play down a division on purpose just to win the ring or win the medal. Do you see that in lacrosse?
Jerimee Moses: So I don't know that at large, like teams are playing down a division, but US Lacrosse has a fifteen-month calendar that allows some, some folks that are, for example, a thirty-one to play in the thirty-two division. We go by grad year for our age verification. Um, so if they do fall on that younger end of the older group, they are able to play down.
Um, I think that that is more few and far between. I don't think it's often that you'll see a full group of the older, older teams playing down. Um, honestly, I see it more often playing up, and I personally don't know that, that you need to do that because there's so much great competition out there. So it's like, as opposed to feeling the need to play up, well, then just go to a more competitive tournament to find that, um, competition that you seek.
I don't think that you need to take a whole group of thirty-ones to go play thirties in order to get challenged. You just gotta bring them to a different tournament and find the competition that matches their skill set
Brad: sure. And, and I, I think, you know, not, not like age group versus age group, but I think in baseball you've got divisions within an age group where you've got a, a premier and then you've got some lower divisions. That's where I see it happening is where same age group, but you've got more of a top tier team coming down a little bit, 'cause it's gonna be an easier road to that championship game, you know?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So w- that's, that's a talking point within our sport, um, the A, AA, and B divisions. There's, you know... The, the thing is there's no verification process. So
Brad: know.
Jerimee Moses: it's like,
Brad: It
Jerimee Moses: you know, it's 2026, you can identify as a double A- or a AA team and really be a B team, right? And like I think, you know, my philosophy when it comes to that, I had so many parents ask about what, what division we're competing in.
Um, and my response was always like, "We're gonna start where I feel that, that each individual team fits, and we're-- it's gonna be a fluid conversation," right? I'm not gonna make a blanket decision. All of our teams are AA. If we have a B team, we have a B team, and that's okay. We're gonna compete. We're gonna get better.
We're gonna dev-develop our kids. And hey, if we get to be an A team, great, and if they get to be a AA team, awesome. But, um, I, I try to be low ego in that. Like, I'm okay with coaching a B level roster if that's what I have, right? Like, I- it does nothing for the kids for us to take a B level roster, put them in a AA bracket, and, and take a, a butt whooping for four tour- four games and it's
Brad: I, I totally agree. I mean, there's nothing wrong with starting at a lower division. I mean, that's your job as a coach to train them for, for the long-term goal of getting them to a higher division. I mean, it's... Honestly, that's the approach I take with my current soccer team is where, you know, we're working our way up divisions, but we're taking a slow process when it makes sense to jump.
We're not gonna just jump into the premier division because, hey, we can say we're in the premier division, but we're losing eight-nothing every game. You know, that's terrible, terrible experience
Jerimee Moses: Exactly. And, and it's a headache for everybody involved, the kids, the parents, the coaches, the other team, right? Like, and I think that gets lost sometimes is like those other teams put themselves in a AA bracket to be challenged. So for us to go out there with guys who aren't ready for that, that, that team that was expecting a challenge just lost the game as well
Brad: Yeah, it's a great perspective. So tell me, what's, what's one trait you see in kids who keep improving year after year that maybe doesn't have anything to do with talent?
Jerimee Moses: I think that the, the answer for that for me is short, and it's love for the game, right? Like, once this game starts to feel like a chore and you have to do it is when the gains are gonna fall off, right? That's where a lot of that plateau and burnout and all those things that we talked about come into play.
So like, granted, you know, you can be teaching all the right things, but if that kid's not engaged and not having a blast doing it, how far can we really go? So I think that, like, you know, the love of the game and the curiosity is where we have to start in order to get to where we wanna get to when it comes to that skill development and player development.
So, um, you know, I, I think that-- And honestly, you know, coming back to what we were talking about sooner, I think in a lot of ways that may be why at large we rush to do the competition so much, 'cause it's probably the most fun portion of the game is the competition. So it's like, you know, hey, if we're just out on a field training all day, these kids aren't having as much fun, we gotta go play.
But I think there's a balance, and I think there's a way to make training fun, right? Like, we can gamify training. We can, you know, put challenges into this and, you know, I, I lean heavily onto the constraints-led approach when, when, uh, coaching our teams is, um, you know, making-- putting constraints on them that force them to get creative and, and use their brain a bit.
And I think once you do those sort of things, you find that they start having more fun, which in turn they start getting better at a, at a more rapid rate
Brad: I think that's good 'cause be- you know, in my mind, what we're trying to do here a little bit is com- combat the thought process that if you're having fun, you're not also developing. You know, this conversation and this rhetoric has come up where if you're having fun, then you're not serious about your sport and you're not training. But I completely disagree because I feel like, like you're saying, you have to make this stuff fun for them so that they have that curiosity and so that they have that love of the game and the desire to continue coming back and, and developing and playing the sport that, that you hope that they love
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. I mean, for me, at, at, at its core, these are still kids' games. No matter what sport you're playing, these are kids' games, and they're designed to be fun, and the second fun goes out the door, nobody wants to be there. The coach, the player, parents, nobody wants to be there. So it's like we can never, ever, at any level, even if they're the most competitive team in the country, if fun is not involved, then what are we doing it for?
Brad: Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Tell me what's one thing that you think coaches spend way too much time worrying about, and then something that they're not worrying enough about
Jerimee Moses: Um, I think in, in a team setting, um, the thing that coaches spend too much time worrying about is teaching plays, um, versus teaching them how to play. So like, you know, coming back to the constraints-led approach, um, which is, you know, so-- a philosophy that all of our coaches in our program, um, are pushed to use and something that for me personally changed the way that I coach, whether it's just a individual training session or a team session.
Once I started to think about the game in that way, um, of where we're trying to kind of handicap 'em in, in a way of like whether it's the size of the field or the time or what you can and cannot do within that given drill, you start to see something happen with the athletes where they start using their brain a little bit more and stop just relying on the physical, and everything changes, right?
Like, once you start forcing them to think, um, they start looking at the game differently and everything scales. So I think that once coaches-- 'cause the reality is, you know, a lot of us coaches, like we have, we have ideas of what works, right? Like we all have our own ideas of what works, but the reality is you could be the best coach in the world, if you can't teach them how to get into that place in their brain, it's not gonna matter.
Um, so I think that like teaching plays, in my opinion, um, especially at the young- younger ages, is almost pointless, right? They're gonna go out there and it's gonna go wrong at some point, and if they don't know how to play in that broken area, um, well, then they're-- it's gonna-- Like once, once the, the train comes off the tracks, how do we get it back on, right?
So I think at large, that's probably the biggest thing in my opinion, that coaches spend too much time on. Um, and then I, I think, I think the reality is every set works, right? Like if there are so many different plays, and again, this is not unique to lacrosse, every play can work, right? But if they don't know how to play through when it doesn't, then they, they're not prepared for the realities of this game 'cause it's never gonna go perfect.
So I think that's the what we spend too much time on. What we don't spend enough time on, I think comes back to what we were just talking about, is the fun, right? Like, um- In every, in every drill. Like what you deem fun and what the kids deem fun may not always align, right? I, I think back to, uh, some teams that I've coached and, like, there are times where it's like, "Hey, we- we've done everything today that I wanted to do.
What drill you guys wanna do, right? And let's just do that a little bit just to have some fun." Um, there's a, there's a drill in lacrosse for the, specifically the little, little guys, it's sharks and minnows, where everybody will get on the end line and the coaches will start as the sharks, the players are the minnows, and they're trying to run by you, and we're trying to strip the ball out of their stick.
And as you get the ball out of their stick, they then become sharks. And now there's less guys and it's, it's-- I bring up that drill 'cause it's one of those drills that, like, at large, are you getting a whole heck of a lot of out of that drill? No. But it's a blast and the kids love it. So if you can sprinkle something in like that every once in a while, um, it just keeps 'em engaged, keeps 'em having a good time.
Now, you gotta be careful when you do that. You're gonna get asked to do it every practice.
Brad: Yeah
Jerimee Moses: But, but the reality is, like, it's got-- you gotta find a way to, to do some of what they wanna do in order to, to keep them engaged
Brad: and I would challenge coaches. There's a version of Sharks and Minnows, I feel like, for any sports almost because we do it in soccer. I know there's one we, we've done in, in basketball on a team we coach. I, I've got a sneaky suspicion that kids of any age would like doing that. You know, I know we're talking young kids, probably nine, eight, nine, 10, but I think those older kids will have fun doing it, too.
They... Everybody likes having fun, you know?
Jerimee Moses: No doubt. Now is, is sharks and minnows something that happens in the soccer world too?
Brad: a sharks and
Jerimee Moses: Right.
Brad: Yep, you put them in a
Jerimee Moses: Oh, yeah.
Brad: area. You've got a shark that has to steal the ball, and then once the ball's stolen, then everybody, you know, they start turning into sharks just like what you've done too. So it's
Jerimee Moses: I love it. Yeah, it, it's a, it's a crowd favorite for sure
Brad: Very cool. Um, I, I always think about how I'd answer these things, too.
Your answers, way better than mine. To b- but to be short, and we talked about this already to some extent, but I think coaches are way too worried about winning. I think if they took out of the equation and just worried about teaching the kids, uh, the best that they can, you know, to a certain age level, you know, I think winning shouldn't matter.
I think at a higher age level, obviously winning comes into the equation. But I think when you take that stress, that pressure of having to try to win a game, I think we'd see a lot more freedom in, in how we're engaging with these kids. And then I think, we talked about this a little bit, but something they're not thinking enough on is long-term thinking, long-term development planning. They're thinking about, "I need this practice to, uh, execute in the next game," not, "Hey, what am I doing this season or this year that's gonna help me next season and in the future season?" And I think, think we could spend a little bit more time as coaches and even parents to think a little bit more longer term and not so, so much on the short-term gratification of the things that we're doing
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. To that point, for some reason, that brought my brain to, like, moving on from a drill. Um, like I, I-- Early on when I started coaching, right, like, when you run a drill, you expect to see something specific, right? And what do you do when that doesn't happen? Are we gonna spend thirty minutes on this drill or are we gonna say, "You know what?
Let's move on. Let's go to the next drill, and we'll come back to this next practice or next week." Right? Like that, for some reason, when you said that, I started to think about, like, being okay with it not working sometimes, right? Like I am-- We-- And I learned this from, uh, I, like I mentioned, I coach at Choate in Wallingford, and it's, you know, by all accounts, one of the best schools in the country for lacrosse.
We have a heck of a program. And, and what our head coach, Coach Ethan McDonald, is one of the, in my opinion, one of the best co-coach, coaches in the country in our sport. Um, and I learned from him, like when I first got there, I was like, "We're gonna do all this today?" I'm looking at the practice plan, and there's so much, and the periods are short.
At, at that time, I felt, I'm like, "This is a short period to do this." And what I realized is that like, yes, by the time you get to the end of that period, you're probably like, "We could use five more minutes of this." But when you do that, you get through so much more in a given practice, and then when you come back to that drill, whether it's next week or next month, you a-have already gone through the ugly.
Now, the second time, based on all the other things that you've done, you're now, you now have more information and more data, and now it's like that drill looks totally different. So I-- We didn't need to accomplish it all today. We needed to get something out of this. We got something. We didn't get what-- get to where we wanted to get to, but we got something.
Now, when we come back to this later on, based on everything else we've done over the course of the practice or, or weeks leading up, this drill looks totally different. And I've seen that in real-time, and I give Coach Mac a lot of credit of like, he is kind of-- He's brought me along in the sense of like, you know, you have an idea of what you want a drill to look like, and some days they're gonna knock it out of the park, and some days they're not, and we, we can't wait for them to get it.
We've gotta do the best we can in that timeframe, and then come back to it and hope that it's better next time.
Brad: I love it. I think it's, me, I, it, it resonates very well because I'll have a drill in my mind and we'll run it, and it'll just completely broke down, you know, and, and I'll say, "Man, they're just not getting it. Uh, we need to move on." But I think it's instant feedback for the coach too to evaluate what are you asking them to do, and are you doing a good enough job explaining what this thing is that you want them to do?
And I've had to reevaluate myself at times thinking, you know, I'm, I'm spitting too much stuff out at them, uh, that they need to be doing. This needs to be broken down before we get to this level. So I think to your point, like, move on, but also reevaluate what you're doing as a coach, you know?
Jerimee Moses: 100%. And sometimes it just requires like lowering your expectations on the front end, and then if they exceed them, then you throw in a new wrinkle, right? Like I think about some drills that I do where like I give them very basic information, and I tell them to start playing, and then based on what I see that they're doing, well, then I throw, throw a new wrinkle in and it changes a little bit.
And then you throw a new wrinkle in, and it changes a little bit. And it's like, well, I knew where I wanted to get to at the end of this, and I could have, you know, gone through the whole spiel of here's how we do it all. But I think you get more out of piecing that information up into smaller subsets, and then you also learn something of like, huh, when I say that, this is what they do.
And then that gives you some more information so that, so that the next time you come back to that drill, maybe you deliver it a little bit differently on the front end
Brad: for sure. Uh, couldn't agree more. Tell me something that you see parents rushing young lacrosse players toward that you'd actually prefer them to slow down with them
Jerimee Moses: This one's easy, recruiting. When-- And the thing is anything-- anyone that has been through the recruiting world would say the same thing, right? It's stressful. There's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot of good, and there's a lot of disappointment. There's so many things that go into recruiting and, like, when an eleven-year-old's parent starts talking to me about recruiting, like, I have to stop them.
And it's like, "You don't have a recruiting process. Your son is eleven. So, like, right now, recruiting is not on your plate. It's just not." And that doesn't mean that, like, he can't have aspirations of playing in college because he should. Have big dreams, and let's, let's chase them, and I'll help you chase them.
But I'm not gonna have a conversation with you about recruiting when your son's eleven. It, it just-- it does no one any good, right? Like, we come back to the same conversation we've been having throughout this. He's gotta fall in love with this sport still. He's gotta learn how to do the basics still. And even if he's an advanced eleventh grader or eleven-year-old, he still doesn't have a recruiting process.
You can ask any college coach in the country if they have a big board for the eleven-year-olds, and the answer is no, right? Like, and especially with the way, uh, the col- the college landscape is going right now, half of them don't know what they're gonna do with the twenty-nines because everything's changing, right?
It's like, like we don't know what, what recruiting is gonna look like when an eleven-year-old is seventeen right now. So it's like, again, I think any parent who has been through the recruiting process would agree with me is like, they rushed to get here, and they got there, and they were like, "Oh, this is what it is.
This is not what I, what I wanna be doing.
Brad: sure
Jerimee Moses: was more fun when we were just enjoying the game." So any parent that, that rushes to recruiting, I'm gonna do them a favor and tell them that they don't have to worry about that right now.
Brad: No, that's good. I, you know, shameless, shameless plug, I've got a good friendship with some folks at Athlete Narrative who do, do a lot of recruiting, and they echo your same thoughts, right? Like the- these kids that are in, um... They're 11 years old, right, in fifth grade, sixth grade maybe, it's t- way too early to be worrying about that sort of thing.
You don't, you don't, almost don't worry about that until you're eighth grade, freshman, sophomore, but even then it's like you're doing is trying to develop your skills still, maybe taking some video, you know, but there's not a lot of heavy outreach going on for recruitment. So, um, just wanted to echo y- your thoughts from, from some of the other folks that I know that are, are doing this stuff day to day.
Um, it's
Jerimee Moses: and then on, on that topic, it's like the video and, you know, the coach or coaches, parents will, will use the word exposure a lot, and it's like, what exposure are we talking about for y- for your kid right now? Like, the exposure is to the sport, right? So it's like, um, I think a lot of that video, i-it's fun, right?
Like, you can start to develop a following on social media. Like, I think it's fun to see, you know, you know, whatever kid thirty-two Instagram who, you know, he's a class of thirty-two kid, and he's putting up his highlight tape, and I think it's cool. It's fun. Parents are actually learning how to do that so that when junior year comes around or sophomore year comes around and they need it, they know how, and I think that's super valuable 'cause it's like if you wait until you need it to learn how to do it, it's too late.
So from that perspective, super valuable, right? Learn how to edit, learn how to post these videos, right? Like that kind of-- from that side of things, awesome. But like this idea that you have to have a highlight tape so college coaches can see it, give me a break.
Brad: Yeah, no, I, I, I hear you totally. I think I-- So I wrote down an answer to this one too, and I don't know if it quite fits the, the question, but I see a lot of people spending a lot of money on additional coaching outside of their team, and I get it. For some sports, you need some specialized coaching at times. I feel like there's, there's this fear of out or your, like, your kid's behind if you're not spending X amount of dollars to do additional training outside of the training that they're already doing, and it just compounds, and it makes that... We're talking about fun, but it puts all that pressure.
Like, you're spending this money. You expect to see a result. If you're not seeing that result, then we're just gonna add more training to it. And I would just say, you know, to parents out there, don't, don't be too overzealous on what you're spending and the amount of time that you're pushing your kids into.
You know, they're gonna develop on their own timeline, and give them that space to do that, you know?
Jerimee Moses: No, I love that. And there's two things that I think about when you say something like that is, one, this sport-- Well, actually all sports, but I, I think a lot for lacrosse, like, a lot of this should be developed in the backyard on the bounce back in your own net, right? Like, there-- This sport, you can't fake having stick skills, right?
Like, in other sports, in, in-- Sometimes in lacrosse too, you can get away with just being bigger, faster, stronger. But at the highest level of this sport, if your stick doesn't match, like, there's no faking that. So, and the only way to get there is just hours, right? And it's not-- And it doesn't always have to be, to your point, structured, right?
It could just be, let's just go in the backyard and let's just hit the bounce back for... And it doesn't have to be hours, right? It could be twenty minutes a day. But twenty minutes a day, six days a week for six years goes a heck of a long way, right? And it's like, we need to get back to just playing outside, right?
Like, put the video games down, get away from the trainer for a couple days and just go play outside and just figure it out, out on your own, right? So, like, that's one thing. And then I intend to fully contradict myself and now say, you know, with our program, um, you know, I think a lot about training, right?
And, you know, we're gonna do the competition, right? We have our tournaments and, you know, we have our team practices. But when I talk to a lot of parents this summer about the team and the program, um, I use the, the word training and the word practice, and they're like, "Well, what's the difference between the two?"
Right? Team practices are for the team, right? It's for putting guys into place and hav- helping them play together and develop chemistry. When we look at it at, uh, a true level, when we look at training, that's player development, right? That's, again, teaching how do you hold your stick, how do you do a split dodge, how do you do a roll dodge, how do you shoot on the run?
All the, all the skills of the game that you need, right? In my opinion, the training side of things doesn't exist enough in our sport, right? Like, it's, it's a lot of team practice and it's a lot of competition, which super important and awesome, and kids love it. Training has to happen because, again, there are kids who are competing at high-level tournaments who are doing basics wrong.
And I'm not saying that everything has to be perfect, 'cause this is a creative sport and there's so many different ways to accomplish the same thing. But I think there's a lot of value to just breaking the sport down and just teaching it at its most bare bones level
Brad: Yeah, that's great. of just picking up a stick and, and starting to play, say you're talking to a nine-year-old never tried lacrosse, has some interest. What are you gonna tell them that, uh, is, is the best thing about lacrosse, or what would you tell them, um, is so much fun to play lacrosse?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So I, I think the biggest thing in this sport, and again, this lives in other sports, but for me personally I've loved about lacrosse so much is the creativity that exists in it. Um, there are so many different ways to put the ball in the net. You can shoot behind the back. You can, you know, uh, shoot underarms, s- sidearm.
You can sh- uh, Canadian, uh, twister. There's so many different things. Um, and again, coming back and, and giving Coach Mac another shout-out here. Uh, so he's, he's a Canadian. Um, and the way the Canadians play this sport is so different from the way that, uh, we play it here in the States. Um, and I learned a lot from him of just like in practice we're teaching kids how to throw a behind the back pass and how to throw a Canadian release and, and all these things, where back in the day I might have been the overhand, overhand, overhand coach, which is, you know, "Hey, do the fundamentals."
And the fundamentals are super important, but the reality is sometimes you can't throw the ball overhand based on where you are, maybe pressure on you, and maybe someone's open right now, but your stick just isn't in a place where I can get it to a fundamental overhand pass, right? If you have never taught that and they've never practiced that, well, how do you expect them to do that in the game?
And I think that, like, learning all, all of those different release points and all that kind of stuff is so much fun and to the point where when you get proficient doing all those other things, it almost gets to a point where you're just an artist painting on a canvas with, with no outline, right? Like, and you can just kind of do whatever you want, right?
Like that extension-- That stick becomes an extension of your hands, and you're just kind of out there doing things. I think a lot about on a basketball side of things of like Kyrie Irving, right? Like, he works so much on his dribbling that, like, he probably gets into a game and doesn't think about any moves he's doing.
He's just existing, and he's just creating, right? And that lives so much in our sport where, like, the level of creativity is, is endless, right? There's, there's nothing you can't try. And again, a lot of that can happen just being in the backyard just doing stuff. Just do- just doing it all.
Brad: I went down a, a rabbit hole on social media of, of lacrosse highlights, and I'll tell you what, some of the goals that I've seen are just so pretty looking. You know, I like... I don't know, I don't know the names of the moves you're talking about, but I've seen the backhand, between the legs, all the things, and it looks, it looks so fun. I don't know how you can be a goalie in that sport because that ball is co- it's coming in you so fast, and it's like it could come from anywhere, and these guys are, these guys are magicians with the ball. It's really fun to watch
Jerimee Moses: It's hilarious. They say that the best lacrosse goalies are either crazy or stupid for being willing to go in there and take those shots, 'cause those balls are moving, right? Like, at the highest level, you know, kids are shooting the ball 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, and you're expected to stay, stand in there and not avoid it.
You're expected to try and make the save with your stick, but they're also taught to, to get a piece of their body on it and, you know, hey, I give those guys a lot of credit. I played every sport or every position on the field except for goalie. I wasn't doing that.
Brad: It's, it's, it's similar to hockey. I mean, those guys, they're, they're a different, a different species of, of mindset when it comes to it. I'll tell you what, those l- lacrosse goalies, they don't even seem to have as much padding as the, as the hockey goalies either, which is, adds another element of pain, I think, that those guys probably feel.
It's crazy
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, I mean, they're, they're covered, their, their chest is covered. They have a cup, they have a helmet, they have gloves, but like from your wrist to your shoulder, totally exposed, and waist down, you're totally exposed. You'll see that a lot of them wear sweatpants just so that it's not a direct skin, 'cause the ball is rotating and can rip up your skin a bit.
But yeah, to your point, it's like, you know, I would think that they would have, uh, you know, the, the hockey goalie, you know, leg pad. It's like, no, they're, they're out there, you know, just them and a stick finding a way to keep that thing out of the cage, and I give them a lot of credit
Brad: It's fun. It's a fun sports watch.
Jeremy, this has been such a fun conversation. Um, I'm super jealous that I never had an opportunity to play lacrosse. I guess it's never too late, but, um, you know, I've got some kids in the area here who I think I can talk into picking up a stick and, and getting out there and trying it.
I thank you for your time. It was awesome to get your perspective on how you approach coaching, uh, how True's approaching development. It sounds like an outstanding organization. Um, maybe just give listeners an opportunity to understand where they could go learn more about and see if there's something in their area.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, at large, um, again, True is all over the country, so if you are looking to see if there's a True branch in your market, uh, truelacrosse.com is where you can find that, and then it'll break down each individual state and, and team. Um, for us, with the Connecticut branch, um, we just completed selecting our first, uh, batch of teams this summer.
Um, we look to hit the, hit the fields this fall and, and forward. Um, but we're super excited about building this thing. You can find us at, at Connecticut True or Connecticut True Lacrosse, um, on, on Instagram. That's probably where you'll get most of the information, and then all the links and such, um, will be there for you to find.
But even if you're not in your market, I, I recommend following us. We-we're gonna try and do quite a bit of coaching and player education on there just to continue to spread the game. I have a passion for just growing the game. So, um, at Connecticut True, True Lacrosse on Instagram is the best place to find us and, and feel free to reach out.
We're looking forward to, to growing this program.
Brad: Well, I know I'm following. I can't wait to see, uh, more of the content and more of the things you guys are doing. I'm gonna follow along closely 'cause now you've got me hooked on this sport of lacrosse. So
thanks again, Jeremy
Jerimee Moses: I appreciate you
Brad: If this episode helped you, share it with another coach or parent who's figuring it out too.
You can find Uncoached and this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. You can watch the episode on YouTube, and make sure to follow The Coaching Dad on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. We'll see you next time on Uncoached
So Jeremy, thanks so much for being here. me a favor and, and tell me a little bit about your journey here into youth sports and this lacrosse environment.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, no doubt. I, I appreciate you having me. I'm excited to do this. Um, me personally, I-- born and raised in Connecticut, still in Connecticut now. Um, I grew up playing football, basketball, and lacrosse. Um, and then, you know, I, I played through middle school, high school, and played, uh, lacrosse in college at Eastern Connecticut, a small D3, uh, school here in our state.
And, um, post-playing career, it was definitely a priority to me to stay involved in the game. What started as, um, volunteer coaching at, you know, the, the local youth program, um, in football, basketball, and lacrosse, um, has graduated into, um, taking this thing full-time with lacrosse and doing it both in the, uh, school setting at Choate in, in Wallingford, which is a, a prep school in our area, and then now, um, going into the, the club space as a director with TRUE.
So, um, been around sports my whole life. Learned a lot about, you know, just everything, right? Like, not only just athlete development, but developing as a human through it, and knew I had to stay connected, uh, post-playing career.
Brad: For sure. And you've got quite the development with, with TRUE itself. We were chatting a little bit before we jumped on here, but let, let's talk a little bit about the organization. I- you're fairly widespread, right? It's, it's, uh, lacrosse is a growing sport. Um, and, you know, we'll talk about lacrosse, but in general, the things that we're gonna talk about here, they could be applied to anything, a soccer team, a baseball team, whatever, 'cause I know that you're trying to develop players the right way and create good humans and things like that.
So maybe just give me a little bit of, uh, background on TRUE itself.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So I mean, like you mentioned, uh, by all accounts, TRUE is the biggest, uh, club organization for lacrosse in the country. Um, up to twenty-five states now, two hundred and twenty programs around the country on the boys and girls side. Um, and one of the, the motto of TRUE is retrain more. Um, and that was one of the big things that got me to go with them in term-- instead of, uh, developing a program, you know, locally and doing it myself, is that I think we're mission-aligned in a lot of ways.
Um, I have done a bunch of training over the years, um, just doing small one-off one-on-ones or small group, um, and then eventually becoming-- Uh, I was doing it prior to, to going with TRUE. I was doing it, uh, full-time, um, just training a bunch of kids, um, in lacrosse. So, you know, when looking to do this thing and, and learning more about TRUE's model, um, that bakes that training into the model, it was, you know, a, a match made in heaven for me.
It's like that's kinda what I believe. It's not only about that competition side, like where does the development live? Um, and, and I think, excuse me, I th- I think it's super important to, uh, put development first with everything.
Brad: Yeah. Uh, and I love that approach. Clearly, I'm aligned with that too, and I think there's a lot of others in that space, but I think the more people hear about that type of approach to player development where you're not so focused on and skills, you know, necessarily, but you're, you're, like, looking at a well-roun- rounded youth athlete.
I mean, these are kids we're dealing with in a lot of places. So very cool approach that True has, and I love it. And, and again, thanks for being on here. tell me, for, for parents and coaches who haven't spent a lot of time around lacrosse, what do you think makes the sport uniquely valuable for youth athletes compared to some of the other sports that they could be playing?
Jerimee Moses: When I think a lot-- when I think about lacrosse, I think a lot about the fact that there's really no prototype, um, of a kid who's gonna be good at the sport. Um, now of course, being big, fast, and strong is, is helpful in any sport no matter what sport you're playing, but I've seen so many different athletes be good at this sport over the years, um, that that's one of the things that I love about this game.
You know, there's so many different ways to play it. It's creative in so many different ways that like you can take, you know, just about any kid and find a way for them to be successful. Um, and, and with that, like I think that, that the stick skills of the game is really the greatest equalizer, right? Like, you know, there are...
One of the best players, um, in the world is, is Mikey Sauers, and that, and that guy is, you know, no taller than, than five nine, right? He's a small guy, but he's so quick and, uh, deceptive and creative in his game that it's like, yeah, he's smaller, but good luck catching him, right? 'Cause he finds so many different ways to accomplish what he's trying to accomplish.
Um, not to say that the big guys don't work, right? Like there's, there's great, big, strong, fast athletes who have success as well. So I, I think in short, like the, the fact that the game is so creative in nature makes it so that you can find a way to be successful regardless of what you look like
Brad: Yeah, and I, so I grew up playing hockey, and I'm, I'm super jealous that lacrosse wasn't big in my area here in the Midwest just because I love playing hockey, and I love playing soccer. And in, know, a, a, a layman's vision of lacrosse, it's kind of a mix of those two things, probably a little bit of football in there, too. Um, but what do you, how do you compare it to other sports when you're trying to talk to families about trying lacrosse out? looks like such a fun game to play. Like, I'll be honest, the physicality, like you said, the stick work, I mean, it just aligns with a lot of fun things. What do you, how do you compare it?
Like, in your mind when you're talking to these folks, what do you, what do you say?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, I mean, candidly, I use other sports every single day when teaching, right? Like I use-- get-- being a basketball and football guy, I've used those sports primarily, but, um, I love hockey, so I use a lot of hockey, and it's a big crossover sport, so a lot of hockey players also play lacrosse. A lot of the wrist actions and things like that are transferable, so you'll find that hockey players scale pretty well in our sport.
So I-- because of that, I lean into those other sports all the time, right? Like, um, I'm the defensive coordinator at Choate, so I work with our defensive guys in, you know, basketball defense and lacrosse defense. While there's six playing defense in that-- or in lacrosse and five in basketball, all of the concepts are the-- pretty much the exact same, right?
In terms of, you know, playing the gaps when you're adjacent or, you know, for, for basketball, you call it sliding, but help defense in, in basketball, like all of those rotations and things like that are basically basketball defense on a field with a lot more space. So I think the answer to your question is, you know, I, I use those other sports as the way to bridge the gap with someone who maybe isn't as familiar with the sport of lacrosse specifically.
Brad: sure. Lacrosse might be the poster child for encouraging multi-sport athletes too because some of those skills are gonna develop and, and help you out on the lacrosse field too, I would assume, like you're saying
Jerimee Moses: 100%. And it, and it is a niche, niche sport, right? So like while teaching this, you have to be-- You have to expect that the lacrosse IQ is something that is gonna be like it-- I shouldn't say lacking, but in, by all accounts, like it, not a lot of kids will come into this game having a great understanding of the sport at large.
So it's helpful to utilize what they already have to make teaching a lot easier
Brad: sure. And I know we jumped into this a little bit, um, just a second ago, but, but True talks a lot about developing the complete athlete and not just the lacrosse player. When you're working with younger players, what does that development actually look like? And what should parents be paying attention to besides just, you know, scoring goals and the wins and what, what team their child makes?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So this is, you're, you're hitting on a, uh, on a real hard string with this one. Like, this is something that, um, you know, keeps me up at night. Um, when it comes to the development of, of the players in this game, um, I think that there, there have been quite a few, um, training, uh, organizations or just personal trainers that have come about that have done some great work.
But I think outside of those groups, uh, player development sometimes falls by the wayside for competition. Um, like when I really think about training, and this is not unique to lacrosse, I think in any sport, um, you should be teaching in a progression of, you know, this is how we do everything from the most basic all the way through, and we just kind of compound on top of that.
Um, when you take it to the field and you just keep playing, some of that gets missed, right? Like, you have guys who are competing in really high-level tournaments or games that have skipped the basics of how you properly hold your stick when passing and throwing, so they're just kind of out there figuring it out.
Um, so you know, with specific to our organization, you know, we're gonna utilize progressions to teach things starting all the way from the most basic and even, even with our older guys, right? Like, the proper way to hold your stick can never go over taught, right? Like, you need to have that so that we can get to the more advanced tactics, um, that, that exist in the game.
Um, so when I think about our training model, that's kind of what I focus on, is like, all right, let's go all the way down to the basics, and then let's figure out what's the, you know, the ninth inning of this, and then we reverse engineer the middle.
Brad: Yeah, and I love the approach because what you're doing really is longer term thinking. It's not short term, coaching that you're trying to do just to collect wins. You really are trying to, to... You know, you're developing that individual player, but you've got a long-term mindset to where you're looking down the road to when those athletes that you spend time with today on their foundational elements, you know, it's gonna be super beneficial when they're older and, and probably a little bit more highly competitive in, in higher divisions as well.
Uh, do- would you agree?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, 100%. I mean, the reality is, like, this sport has-- I, I think on the tournament side, because we're pretty much predominantly tournament-based when it comes to club, there are so many awesome events that, like, I, I don't wanna say anything negative about them because they're really cool, right? Like, you're going to some awesome destinations, you're playing some highly competitive, uh, games, and, like, the experience is incredible.
Um, I just wanna make sure that that doesn't take away from the here and now. And, like, the reality is, while these tournaments are outstanding, like, that tournament T-shirt isn't gonna mean anything in five, ten years, right? So, like, we can't be focused on just trying to win a tournament. We also have to remember that, like, in order to get better at this sport, development needs to be a constant, right?
It can never stop. Even when you get to the varsity level, right? Like, we're gonna have guys who are getting recruited and, you know, they're trying to make a, a college roster. If we solely focus on competition and the recruitment side of things, which in my opinion is the outcome, well, then you lose the plot of what's gonna get you there, right?
So, like, we need to focus on the here and now and developing every athlete to get better so that we can win a tournament and, and have a, have a recruiting conversation. But those are, those are down the road. Right now, it's let's just get better.
Brad: Yeah, for sure. And, uh, a side question here, a little curveball maybe. It runs rampant when I see, uh, the sports of baseball and soccer specifically, where you'll have organizations that will play down a division on purpose just to win the ring or win the medal. Do you see that in lacrosse?
Jerimee Moses: So I don't know that at large, like teams are playing down a division, but US Lacrosse has a fifteen-month calendar that allows some, some folks that are, for example, a thirty-one to play in the thirty-two division. We go by grad year for our age verification. Um, so if they do fall on that younger end of the older group, they are able to play down.
Um, I think that that is more few and far between. I don't think it's often that you'll see a full group of the older, older teams playing down. Um, honestly, I see it more often playing up, and I personally don't know that, that you need to do that because there's so much great competition out there. So it's like, as opposed to feeling the need to play up, well, then just go to a more competitive tournament to find that, um, competition that you seek.
I don't think that you need to take a whole group of thirty-ones to go play thirties in order to get challenged. You just gotta bring them to a different tournament and find the competition that matches their skill set
Brad: sure. And, and I, I think, you know, not, not like age group versus age group, but I think in baseball you've got divisions within an age group where you've got a, a premier and then you've got some lower divisions. That's where I see it happening is where same age group, but you've got more of a top tier team coming down a little bit, 'cause it's gonna be an easier road to that championship game, you know?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So w- that's, that's a talking point within our sport, um, the A, AA, and B divisions. There's, you know... The, the thing is there's no verification process. So
Brad: know.
Jerimee Moses: it's like,
Brad: It
Jerimee Moses: you know, it's 2026, you can identify as a double A- or a AA team and really be a B team, right? And like I think, you know, my philosophy when it comes to that, I had so many parents ask about what, what division we're competing in.
Um, and my response was always like, "We're gonna start where I feel that, that each individual team fits, and we're-- it's gonna be a fluid conversation," right? I'm not gonna make a blanket decision. All of our teams are AA. If we have a B team, we have a B team, and that's okay. We're gonna compete. We're gonna get better.
We're gonna dev-develop our kids. And hey, if we get to be an A team, great, and if they get to be a AA team, awesome. But, um, I, I try to be low ego in that. Like, I'm okay with coaching a B level roster if that's what I have, right? Like, I- it does nothing for the kids for us to take a B level roster, put them in a AA bracket, and, and take a, a butt whooping for four tour- four games and it's
Brad: I, I totally agree. I mean, there's nothing wrong with starting at a lower division. I mean, that's your job as a coach to train them for, for the long-term goal of getting them to a higher division. I mean, it's... Honestly, that's the approach I take with my current soccer team is where, you know, we're working our way up divisions, but we're taking a slow process when it makes sense to jump.
We're not gonna just jump into the premier division because, hey, we can say we're in the premier division, but we're losing eight-nothing every game. You know, that's terrible, terrible experience
Jerimee Moses: Exactly. And, and it's a headache for everybody involved, the kids, the parents, the coaches, the other team, right? Like, and I think that gets lost sometimes is like those other teams put themselves in a AA bracket to be challenged. So for us to go out there with guys who aren't ready for that, that, that team that was expecting a challenge just lost the game as well
Brad: Yeah, it's a great perspective. So tell me, what's, what's one trait you see in kids who keep improving year after year that maybe doesn't have anything to do with talent?
Jerimee Moses: I think that the, the answer for that for me is short, and it's love for the game, right? Like, once this game starts to feel like a chore and you have to do it is when the gains are gonna fall off, right? That's where a lot of that plateau and burnout and all those things that we talked about come into play.
So like, granted, you know, you can be teaching all the right things, but if that kid's not engaged and not having a blast doing it, how far can we really go? So I think that, like, you know, the love of the game and the curiosity is where we have to start in order to get to where we wanna get to when it comes to that skill development and player development.
So, um, you know, I, I think that-- And honestly, you know, coming back to what we were talking about sooner, I think in a lot of ways that may be why at large we rush to do the competition so much, 'cause it's probably the most fun portion of the game is the competition. So it's like, you know, hey, if we're just out on a field training all day, these kids aren't having as much fun, we gotta go play.
But I think there's a balance, and I think there's a way to make training fun, right? Like, we can gamify training. We can, you know, put challenges into this and, you know, I, I lean heavily onto the constraints-led approach when, when, uh, coaching our teams is, um, you know, making-- putting constraints on them that force them to get creative and, and use their brain a bit.
And I think once you do those sort of things, you find that they start having more fun, which in turn they start getting better at a, at a more rapid rate
Brad: I think that's good 'cause be- you know, in my mind, what we're trying to do here a little bit is com- combat the thought process that if you're having fun, you're not also developing. You know, this conversation and this rhetoric has come up where if you're having fun, then you're not serious about your sport and you're not training. But I completely disagree because I feel like, like you're saying, you have to make this stuff fun for them so that they have that curiosity and so that they have that love of the game and the desire to continue coming back and, and developing and playing the sport that, that you hope that they love
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. I mean, for me, at, at, at its core, these are still kids' games. No matter what sport you're playing, these are kids' games, and they're designed to be fun, and the second fun goes out the door, nobody wants to be there. The coach, the player, parents, nobody wants to be there. So it's like we can never, ever, at any level, even if they're the most competitive team in the country, if fun is not involved, then what are we doing it for?
Brad: Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Tell me what's one thing that you think coaches spend way too much time worrying about, and then something that they're not worrying enough about
Jerimee Moses: Um, I think in, in a team setting, um, the thing that coaches spend too much time worrying about is teaching plays, um, versus teaching them how to play. So like, you know, coming back to the constraints-led approach, um, which is, you know, so-- a philosophy that all of our coaches in our program, um, are pushed to use and something that for me personally changed the way that I coach, whether it's just a individual training session or a team session.
Once I started to think about the game in that way, um, of where we're trying to kind of handicap 'em in, in a way of like whether it's the size of the field or the time or what you can and cannot do within that given drill, you start to see something happen with the athletes where they start using their brain a little bit more and stop just relying on the physical, and everything changes, right?
Like, once you start forcing them to think, um, they start looking at the game differently and everything scales. So I think that once coaches-- 'cause the reality is, you know, a lot of us coaches, like we have, we have ideas of what works, right? Like we all have our own ideas of what works, but the reality is you could be the best coach in the world, if you can't teach them how to get into that place in their brain, it's not gonna matter.
Um, so I think that like teaching plays, in my opinion, um, especially at the young- younger ages, is almost pointless, right? They're gonna go out there and it's gonna go wrong at some point, and if they don't know how to play in that broken area, um, well, then they're-- it's gonna-- Like once, once the, the train comes off the tracks, how do we get it back on, right?
So I think at large, that's probably the biggest thing in my opinion, that coaches spend too much time on. Um, and then I, I think, I think the reality is every set works, right? Like if there are so many different plays, and again, this is not unique to lacrosse, every play can work, right? But if they don't know how to play through when it doesn't, then they, they're not prepared for the realities of this game 'cause it's never gonna go perfect.
So I think that's the what we spend too much time on. What we don't spend enough time on, I think comes back to what we were just talking about, is the fun, right? Like, um- In every, in every drill. Like what you deem fun and what the kids deem fun may not always align, right? I, I think back to, uh, some teams that I've coached and, like, there are times where it's like, "Hey, we- we've done everything today that I wanted to do.
What drill you guys wanna do, right? And let's just do that a little bit just to have some fun." Um, there's a, there's a drill in lacrosse for the, specifically the little, little guys, it's sharks and minnows, where everybody will get on the end line and the coaches will start as the sharks, the players are the minnows, and they're trying to run by you, and we're trying to strip the ball out of their stick.
And as you get the ball out of their stick, they then become sharks. And now there's less guys and it's, it's-- I bring up that drill 'cause it's one of those drills that, like, at large, are you getting a whole heck of a lot of out of that drill? No. But it's a blast and the kids love it. So if you can sprinkle something in like that every once in a while, um, it just keeps 'em engaged, keeps 'em having a good time.
Now, you gotta be careful when you do that. You're gonna get asked to do it every practice.
Brad: Yeah
Jerimee Moses: But, but the reality is, like, it's got-- you gotta find a way to, to do some of what they wanna do in order to, to keep them engaged
Brad: and I would challenge coaches. There's a version of Sharks and Minnows, I feel like, for any sports almost because we do it in soccer. I know there's one we, we've done in, in basketball on a team we coach. I, I've got a sneaky suspicion that kids of any age would like doing that. You know, I know we're talking young kids, probably nine, eight, nine, 10, but I think those older kids will have fun doing it, too.
They... Everybody likes having fun, you know?
Jerimee Moses: No doubt. Now is, is sharks and minnows something that happens in the soccer world too?
Brad: a sharks and
Jerimee Moses: Right.
Brad: Yep, you put them in a
Jerimee Moses: Oh, yeah.
Brad: area. You've got a shark that has to steal the ball, and then once the ball's stolen, then everybody, you know, they start turning into sharks just like what you've done too. So it's
Jerimee Moses: I love it. Yeah, it, it's a, it's a crowd favorite for sure
Brad: Very cool. Um, I, I always think about how I'd answer these things, too.
Your answers, way better than mine. To b- but to be short, and we talked about this already to some extent, but I think coaches are way too worried about winning. I think if they took out of the equation and just worried about teaching the kids, uh, the best that they can, you know, to a certain age level, you know, I think winning shouldn't matter.
I think at a higher age level, obviously winning comes into the equation. But I think when you take that stress, that pressure of having to try to win a game, I think we'd see a lot more freedom in, in how we're engaging with these kids. And then I think, we talked about this a little bit, but something they're not thinking enough on is long-term thinking, long-term development planning. They're thinking about, "I need this practice to, uh, execute in the next game," not, "Hey, what am I doing this season or this year that's gonna help me next season and in the future season?" And I think, think we could spend a little bit more time as coaches and even parents to think a little bit more longer term and not so, so much on the short-term gratification of the things that we're doing
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. To that point, for some reason, that brought my brain to, like, moving on from a drill. Um, like I, I-- Early on when I started coaching, right, like, when you run a drill, you expect to see something specific, right? And what do you do when that doesn't happen? Are we gonna spend thirty minutes on this drill or are we gonna say, "You know what?
Let's move on. Let's go to the next drill, and we'll come back to this next practice or next week." Right? Like that, for some reason, when you said that, I started to think about, like, being okay with it not working sometimes, right? Like I am-- We-- And I learned this from, uh, I, like I mentioned, I coach at Choate in Wallingford, and it's, you know, by all accounts, one of the best schools in the country for lacrosse.
We have a heck of a program. And, and what our head coach, Coach Ethan McDonald, is one of the, in my opinion, one of the best co-coach, coaches in the country in our sport. Um, and I learned from him, like when I first got there, I was like, "We're gonna do all this today?" I'm looking at the practice plan, and there's so much, and the periods are short.
At, at that time, I felt, I'm like, "This is a short period to do this." And what I realized is that like, yes, by the time you get to the end of that period, you're probably like, "We could use five more minutes of this." But when you do that, you get through so much more in a given practice, and then when you come back to that drill, whether it's next week or next month, you a-have already gone through the ugly.
Now, the second time, based on all the other things that you've done, you're now, you now have more information and more data, and now it's like that drill looks totally different. So I-- We didn't need to accomplish it all today. We needed to get something out of this. We got something. We didn't get what-- get to where we wanted to get to, but we got something.
Now, when we come back to this later on, based on everything else we've done over the course of the practice or, or weeks leading up, this drill looks totally different. And I've seen that in real-time, and I give Coach Mac a lot of credit of like, he is kind of-- He's brought me along in the sense of like, you know, you have an idea of what you want a drill to look like, and some days they're gonna knock it out of the park, and some days they're not, and we, we can't wait for them to get it.
We've gotta do the best we can in that timeframe, and then come back to it and hope that it's better next time.
Brad: I love it. I think it's, me, I, it, it resonates very well because I'll have a drill in my mind and we'll run it, and it'll just completely broke down, you know, and, and I'll say, "Man, they're just not getting it. Uh, we need to move on." But I think it's instant feedback for the coach too to evaluate what are you asking them to do, and are you doing a good enough job explaining what this thing is that you want them to do?
And I've had to reevaluate myself at times thinking, you know, I'm, I'm spitting too much stuff out at them, uh, that they need to be doing. This needs to be broken down before we get to this level. So I think to your point, like, move on, but also reevaluate what you're doing as a coach, you know?
Jerimee Moses: 100%. And sometimes it just requires like lowering your expectations on the front end, and then if they exceed them, then you throw in a new wrinkle, right? Like I think about some drills that I do where like I give them very basic information, and I tell them to start playing, and then based on what I see that they're doing, well, then I throw, throw a new wrinkle in and it changes a little bit.
And then you throw a new wrinkle in, and it changes a little bit. And it's like, well, I knew where I wanted to get to at the end of this, and I could have, you know, gone through the whole spiel of here's how we do it all. But I think you get more out of piecing that information up into smaller subsets, and then you also learn something of like, huh, when I say that, this is what they do.
And then that gives you some more information so that, so that the next time you come back to that drill, maybe you deliver it a little bit differently on the front end
Brad: for sure. Uh, couldn't agree more. Tell me something that you see parents rushing young lacrosse players toward that you'd actually prefer them to slow down with them
Jerimee Moses: This one's easy, recruiting. When-- And the thing is anything-- anyone that has been through the recruiting world would say the same thing, right? It's stressful. There's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot of good, and there's a lot of disappointment. There's so many things that go into recruiting and, like, when an eleven-year-old's parent starts talking to me about recruiting, like, I have to stop them.
And it's like, "You don't have a recruiting process. Your son is eleven. So, like, right now, recruiting is not on your plate. It's just not." And that doesn't mean that, like, he can't have aspirations of playing in college because he should. Have big dreams, and let's, let's chase them, and I'll help you chase them.
But I'm not gonna have a conversation with you about recruiting when your son's eleven. It, it just-- it does no one any good, right? Like, we come back to the same conversation we've been having throughout this. He's gotta fall in love with this sport still. He's gotta learn how to do the basics still. And even if he's an advanced eleventh grader or eleven-year-old, he still doesn't have a recruiting process.
You can ask any college coach in the country if they have a big board for the eleven-year-olds, and the answer is no, right? Like, and especially with the way, uh, the col- the college landscape is going right now, half of them don't know what they're gonna do with the twenty-nines because everything's changing, right?
It's like, like we don't know what, what recruiting is gonna look like when an eleven-year-old is seventeen right now. So it's like, again, I think any parent who has been through the recruiting process would agree with me is like, they rushed to get here, and they got there, and they were like, "Oh, this is what it is.
This is not what I, what I wanna be doing.
Brad: sure
Jerimee Moses: was more fun when we were just enjoying the game." So any parent that, that rushes to recruiting, I'm gonna do them a favor and tell them that they don't have to worry about that right now.
Brad: No, that's good. I, you know, shameless, shameless plug, I've got a good friendship with some folks at Athlete Narrative who do, do a lot of recruiting, and they echo your same thoughts, right? Like the- these kids that are in, um... They're 11 years old, right, in fifth grade, sixth grade maybe, it's t- way too early to be worrying about that sort of thing.
You don't, you don't, almost don't worry about that until you're eighth grade, freshman, sophomore, but even then it's like you're doing is trying to develop your skills still, maybe taking some video, you know, but there's not a lot of heavy outreach going on for recruitment. So, um, just wanted to echo y- your thoughts from, from some of the other folks that I know that are, are doing this stuff day to day.
Um, it's
Jerimee Moses: and then on, on that topic, it's like the video and, you know, the coach or coaches, parents will, will use the word exposure a lot, and it's like, what exposure are we talking about for y- for your kid right now? Like, the exposure is to the sport, right? So it's like, um, I think a lot of that video, i-it's fun, right?
Like, you can start to develop a following on social media. Like, I think it's fun to see, you know, you know, whatever kid thirty-two Instagram who, you know, he's a class of thirty-two kid, and he's putting up his highlight tape, and I think it's cool. It's fun. Parents are actually learning how to do that so that when junior year comes around or sophomore year comes around and they need it, they know how, and I think that's super valuable 'cause it's like if you wait until you need it to learn how to do it, it's too late.
So from that perspective, super valuable, right? Learn how to edit, learn how to post these videos, right? Like that kind of-- from that side of things, awesome. But like this idea that you have to have a highlight tape so college coaches can see it, give me a break.
Brad: Yeah, no, I, I, I hear you totally. I think I-- So I wrote down an answer to this one too, and I don't know if it quite fits the, the question, but I see a lot of people spending a lot of money on additional coaching outside of their team, and I get it. For some sports, you need some specialized coaching at times. I feel like there's, there's this fear of out or your, like, your kid's behind if you're not spending X amount of dollars to do additional training outside of the training that they're already doing, and it just compounds, and it makes that... We're talking about fun, but it puts all that pressure.
Like, you're spending this money. You expect to see a result. If you're not seeing that result, then we're just gonna add more training to it. And I would just say, you know, to parents out there, don't, don't be too overzealous on what you're spending and the amount of time that you're pushing your kids into.
You know, they're gonna develop on their own timeline, and give them that space to do that, you know?
Jerimee Moses: No, I love that. And there's two things that I think about when you say something like that is, one, this sport-- Well, actually all sports, but I, I think a lot for lacrosse, like, a lot of this should be developed in the backyard on the bounce back in your own net, right? Like, there-- This sport, you can't fake having stick skills, right?
Like, in other sports, in, in-- Sometimes in lacrosse too, you can get away with just being bigger, faster, stronger. But at the highest level of this sport, if your stick doesn't match, like, there's no faking that. So, and the only way to get there is just hours, right? And it's not-- And it doesn't always have to be, to your point, structured, right?
It could just be, let's just go in the backyard and let's just hit the bounce back for... And it doesn't have to be hours, right? It could be twenty minutes a day. But twenty minutes a day, six days a week for six years goes a heck of a long way, right? And it's like, we need to get back to just playing outside, right?
Like, put the video games down, get away from the trainer for a couple days and just go play outside and just figure it out, out on your own, right? So, like, that's one thing. And then I intend to fully contradict myself and now say, you know, with our program, um, you know, I think a lot about training, right?
And, you know, we're gonna do the competition, right? We have our tournaments and, you know, we have our team practices. But when I talk to a lot of parents this summer about the team and the program, um, I use the, the word training and the word practice, and they're like, "Well, what's the difference between the two?"
Right? Team practices are for the team, right? It's for putting guys into place and hav- helping them play together and develop chemistry. When we look at it at, uh, a true level, when we look at training, that's player development, right? That's, again, teaching how do you hold your stick, how do you do a split dodge, how do you do a roll dodge, how do you shoot on the run?
All the, all the skills of the game that you need, right? In my opinion, the training side of things doesn't exist enough in our sport, right? Like, it's, it's a lot of team practice and it's a lot of competition, which super important and awesome, and kids love it. Training has to happen because, again, there are kids who are competing at high-level tournaments who are doing basics wrong.
And I'm not saying that everything has to be perfect, 'cause this is a creative sport and there's so many different ways to accomplish the same thing. But I think there's a lot of value to just breaking the sport down and just teaching it at its most bare bones level
Brad: Yeah, that's great. of just picking up a stick and, and starting to play, say you're talking to a nine-year-old never tried lacrosse, has some interest. What are you gonna tell them that, uh, is, is the best thing about lacrosse, or what would you tell them, um, is so much fun to play lacrosse?
Jerimee Moses: Yeah. So I, I think the biggest thing in this sport, and again, this lives in other sports, but for me personally I've loved about lacrosse so much is the creativity that exists in it. Um, there are so many different ways to put the ball in the net. You can shoot behind the back. You can, you know, uh, shoot underarms, s- sidearm.
You can sh- uh, Canadian, uh, twister. There's so many different things. Um, and again, coming back and, and giving Coach Mac another shout-out here. Uh, so he's, he's a Canadian. Um, and the way the Canadians play this sport is so different from the way that, uh, we play it here in the States. Um, and I learned a lot from him of just like in practice we're teaching kids how to throw a behind the back pass and how to throw a Canadian release and, and all these things, where back in the day I might have been the overhand, overhand, overhand coach, which is, you know, "Hey, do the fundamentals."
And the fundamentals are super important, but the reality is sometimes you can't throw the ball overhand based on where you are, maybe pressure on you, and maybe someone's open right now, but your stick just isn't in a place where I can get it to a fundamental overhand pass, right? If you have never taught that and they've never practiced that, well, how do you expect them to do that in the game?
And I think that, like, learning all, all of those different release points and all that kind of stuff is so much fun and to the point where when you get proficient doing all those other things, it almost gets to a point where you're just an artist painting on a canvas with, with no outline, right? Like, and you can just kind of do whatever you want, right?
Like that extension-- That stick becomes an extension of your hands, and you're just kind of out there doing things. I think a lot about on a basketball side of things of like Kyrie Irving, right? Like, he works so much on his dribbling that, like, he probably gets into a game and doesn't think about any moves he's doing.
He's just existing, and he's just creating, right? And that lives so much in our sport where, like, the level of creativity is, is endless, right? There's, there's nothing you can't try. And again, a lot of that can happen just being in the backyard just doing stuff. Just do- just doing it all.
Brad: I went down a, a rabbit hole on social media of, of lacrosse highlights, and I'll tell you what, some of the goals that I've seen are just so pretty looking. You know, I like... I don't know, I don't know the names of the moves you're talking about, but I've seen the backhand, between the legs, all the things, and it looks, it looks so fun. I don't know how you can be a goalie in that sport because that ball is co- it's coming in you so fast, and it's like it could come from anywhere, and these guys are, these guys are magicians with the ball. It's really fun to watch
Jerimee Moses: It's hilarious. They say that the best lacrosse goalies are either crazy or stupid for being willing to go in there and take those shots, 'cause those balls are moving, right? Like, at the highest level, you know, kids are shooting the ball 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, and you're expected to stay, stand in there and not avoid it.
You're expected to try and make the save with your stick, but they're also taught to, to get a piece of their body on it and, you know, hey, I give those guys a lot of credit. I played every sport or every position on the field except for goalie. I wasn't doing that.
Brad: It's, it's, it's similar to hockey. I mean, those guys, they're, they're a different, a different species of, of mindset when it comes to it. I'll tell you what, those l- lacrosse goalies, they don't even seem to have as much padding as the, as the hockey goalies either, which is, adds another element of pain, I think, that those guys probably feel.
It's crazy
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, I mean, they're, they're covered, their, their chest is covered. They have a cup, they have a helmet, they have gloves, but like from your wrist to your shoulder, totally exposed, and waist down, you're totally exposed. You'll see that a lot of them wear sweatpants just so that it's not a direct skin, 'cause the ball is rotating and can rip up your skin a bit.
But yeah, to your point, it's like, you know, I would think that they would have, uh, you know, the, the hockey goalie, you know, leg pad. It's like, no, they're, they're out there, you know, just them and a stick finding a way to keep that thing out of the cage, and I give them a lot of credit
Brad: It's fun. It's a fun sports watch.
Jeremy, this has been such a fun conversation. Um, I'm super jealous that I never had an opportunity to play lacrosse. I guess it's never too late, but, um, you know, I've got some kids in the area here who I think I can talk into picking up a stick and, and getting out there and trying it.
I thank you for your time. It was awesome to get your perspective on how you approach coaching, uh, how True's approaching development. It sounds like an outstanding organization. Um, maybe just give listeners an opportunity to understand where they could go learn more about and see if there's something in their area.
Jerimee Moses: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, at large, um, again, True is all over the country, so if you are looking to see if there's a True branch in your market, uh, truelacrosse.com is where you can find that, and then it'll break down each individual state and, and team. Um, for us, with the Connecticut branch, um, we just completed selecting our first, uh, batch of teams this summer.
Um, we look to hit the, hit the fields this fall and, and forward. Um, but we're super excited about building this thing. You can find us at, at Connecticut True or Connecticut True Lacrosse, um, on, on Instagram. That's probably where you'll get most of the information, and then all the links and such, um, will be there for you to find.
But even if you're not in your market, I, I recommend following us. We-we're gonna try and do quite a bit of coaching and player education on there just to continue to spread the game. I have a passion for just growing the game. So, um, at Connecticut True, True Lacrosse on Instagram is the best place to find us and, and feel free to reach out.
We're looking forward to, to growing this program.
Brad: Well, I know I'm following. I can't wait to see, uh, more of the content and more of the things you guys are doing. I'm gonna follow along closely 'cause now you've got me hooked on this sport of lacrosse. So
thanks again, Jeremy
Jerimee Moses: I appreciate you
Brad: If this episode helped you, share it with another coach or parent who's figuring it out too.
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