Line drills, a lacrosse practice activity where players line up across from each other to repetitively practice dodges, passing or most any fundamental, aren’t exactly the most riveting activity. But in a world filled with lacrosse camps packed with game after game, last week at Woodberry Forest, campers were running line drills, throwing recently-learned dodges, working on their form and making sure they protect their stick on each repetition.
While those line drills may not be exciting, they pay big dividends. Fast.
“At night (when we play games) you see it,” said Woodberry lacrosse coach and camp director Brian Hemming. “They’re in there and they throw it and you can see they’re like ‘oh, split (dodge), that really works.”
Most everything taught at Woodberry Forest’s lacrosse camps works for the campers ranging in age from 10 to 16. And why wouldn’t it? This year, the camp was staffed with Woodberry’s coaches as well as top-flight college coaches and players like Lynchburg College head coach Steve Koudelka, Frostburg State head coach Thomas Pearce and Gettysburg assistant Justin Domingos. Pearce is a Woodberry alum, earning high school All-American honors as a Tiger.
The camp’s relatively low numbers also give all the campers hands-on instructions from those coaches and counselors. Several times after drills, players got more in-depth assistance on a specific skill from a counselor.
For those coaches, the appeal of a camp like Woodberry’s is exactly that. They get a chance to teach the game the right way to up and coming players. Too often those college coaches are spend the entire camp circuit recruiting, a vital part of their offseason. But for four days at Woodberry, they just teach ground balls, reads and passing.
“Most kids want to go out there and score,” Hemming said. “But they learn here that to be great, you have to do these other things. You have to pass, you have to move.”
As the day goes on, the campers work up to game situations, moving from the individual instruction to small-game situations (one-on-one, two-on-one and on up) and then, late in the day play full-tilt games. That’s when the campers put those skills learned in the morning to good use.
And all those line drills pay off.
For more information on the camp, click here.
