see it before it happens and anticipate that it's going to be a bone-crushing hit or a spear to the throat, neck, or belly-button area, and then it's up to us to make those calls. Those are the calls you have to make. You can't miss those calls.
The Scoop: Is there consideration for the offensive player? If he's bigger and the body contact doesn't affect him the way it would a smaller offensive player?
JT: When they get bigger. When they're eight graders or above, that's when I start to think about the offensive player. And if the offensive player defends himself. If he puts his shoulder or his head down, now I've got a real problem.
The Scoop: Where are you focusing your attention when it becomes apparent there's going to be some contact?
JT: If I think he's going to hit him low or high, I'm looking at that. If he's coming from five yards you're looking at that. You've already made up your mind already, probably, that he's going to hit him illegally. So you're looking at how you're going to sell the call: Too high, too low, behind the shoulder blade, too violent. So I'm looking at everything as he comes across.
The Scoop: We see a lot of Man-Ball drills at practice and in games. When there's a loose ball on the ground, we teach the athlete closest to the ball to "negate" the opponent and the teammate to scoop the ball. But this can lead to some unnecessary roughness. Should we be getting away from "Man, Ball, Release" drills?
PQ: No, absolutely not. It's still a huge part of the game. When that ball's loose, picking up a ground ball is a huge part of the game. And the Man-Ball drill and the Man-Ball play is still a great play. It's just that kids and coaches need to get away from killing the opponent.
JT: The amount of force used cannot be considered inordinate. So any time you feel the kid is using too much force to knock him off the ball in a Man-Ball drill, then you call something: a push, or a hold, or something. Most likely the kid's going to take his hands off the stick anyways when he hits him. So you make that call: push. We call pushes a lot.
PQ: You can still interfere, legally with a player when he's within five yards of a loose ball. So that doesn't mean running ten yards and putting your shoulder into his back and drill him to the ground, but it means getting up beside him and you can hold him, legally hold him, two hands together on your stick, put it up on his chest and kind of hold him there. You can't come in there and clean the kid up. You can't label the kid. But you can come in and bump him off the ball so that your teammate can pick up the ball, and that's what they need to be practicing.
DB: At U11, we liken it to boxing out in basketball. Using your body to box out the player and keep the player away from the ball while your teammate can scoop the ball up. At U13 it can probably be a little more physical. As Paul said, you can have two hands on your stick and hold him away. You can give him a little bump and a little push. And at U15 it can be even more physical. But again, not cleaning him out. So we try to use those parameters.
PQ: And we're using our opinion a lot. It's quite often that the coach whose player is in the penalty box is going to disagree with our opinion on that one.
DB: And by the way, the coach's comments on the sideline can have a dramatic positive influence on the game or a dramatic adverse effect on the game.
JT: If it appears to be too heavy, then it's a penalty. If it appears he's not trying for the ball, it's a penalty. As they get older, you can allow a little more at a time.
DB: We want every kid to come out of the game feeling good about the game and feeling like he had a good, positive experience, and if they're getting knocked into next week then they're probably not going to want to come back and play.
The Scoop: Darrell, Jimmy, Paul, thank you for your time and explanation! We look forward to our next issue when we can start talking slashes...
Darrell Benson
Paul Quill
Jimmy Tighe
The Scoop / Winter '15 33