E-news Blogs

After meeting with dozens of families and discussing their children’s recruiting process, we’ve come across some great examples of how parents can empower their kids. Notice how we said, “THEIR recruiting process.” After all, it is your son or daughter who is being recruiting. Meaning, the drive to be great and get recruiting should predominately come from your children. With that said, there are many ways families can and should work together through this process. Below is a list of 8 ways YOU can empower YOUR children through THEIR recruiting process.

1- Collaborate with your child while coming up with their list of favorite schools – do the research together. Once you get an initial list put together, have your son or daughter check-out some of those schools on their own, jot down some interesting facts that stood out, and talk about those items together.

2- While there are certain parts of the recruiting process parents and studletes should collaborate on, there are others by which studletes should take care of on there own. For example, your studlete should be communicating with college coaches – not you! The college coaches are recruiting your children, they want to hear from them too. If a college coach asks your child something they cannot answer, they can always turn to you for guidance or advise.

3- Allow your child to have the difficult conversations – they will be better off in the long run for it. If your child isn’t interested in a school, they should be the one respectfully telling the coach of that school they aren’t interested. If your child isn’t happy about their playing time, they should be the one asking the coach, “what can I do better?” Use this process as a time for your child to grow into a mature young man or woman.

4- Your child is his or her own ISLAND – Don’t compare your child and their recruiting experience to other studletes. Also, don’t let your child compare themselves to others. Have them be happy for those who got a letter from a great school or even who have verbally committed to their top choice.

5- Have your son or daughter work hard every day on the thing they CAN control. For example, stamina, strength, lacrosse skills, confidence, and grades. Don’t focus on the “he said, she said” – focus on the “What can I do to get better?”

6- Have your studlete seek feedback and constructive criticism from their coaches/mentors/guidance counselors. Feedback will turn a lot of rumors, stresses and unknowns into useful information to make this process as smooth as can be.

7- Be there for your child if their “Dream School” doesn’t work out. There are great alternatives to finding that “Dream School” or playing for that “Dream Program.” The more your family learns about all the great schools out there, the easier it will be to find a great fit.

8- Remind your studlete that they are choosing the SCHOOL not just the lacrosse program. Don’t forget to ask yourself, “What would my school experience be like without lacrosse?” A strict focus on finding the right school will motivate your son or daughter to get the grades needed to get in!

Lacrosse recruits put on a great webinar today. The webinar focused on best practices for club coaches and recruiting coordinators. During the webinar, something that really stood out to us was creating a culture around lacrosse clubs.

At FLG, our culture can be defined in two words, ALL IN. We want the parents who sign-up for our programs to entrust us in the tournaments we attend, the meetings we organize, and the recruiting process we follow. In regards to using Lacrosse recruits, we expect all of our families to utilize this online recruiting platform to engineer a better recruiting experience. Why? Because it works. Lacrosse recruits is a great way to bring the FLG Coaches and Club Directors in the recruiting conversation. Below is the THREE BIG tasks we expect our studletes to do on Lacrosse recruits before we talk recruiting:

1. Completely fill out your Player Profile. This includes a picture, fall/summer schedule, contact information, GPA, and transcript

2. Get a highlight reel and at it to your Profile

3. Favorite 15-30 schools and research those schools

Help us, help you. Follow our path. Work with us. Be #AllIn

What’s your club culture?

 

It’s Fresh Gear Friday!

Today, we would like to feature Power-tek Performance Gear.

Power-tek Performance Gear was started by Tom and Jim Lalli, two brothers with a passion for delivering quality performance apparel at realistic prices.

FLG have been using Power-tek for years now and have experienced nothing but excellent service, reliability, and competitive prices.

They customize their products to our liking and request. They are a pleasure to work with and a highly reputable brand. Katie Lalli and her team of graphic designers are creative and are great to work with.

If you are looking for a great performance gear company, be sure to check out Power-tek

Here are the FLG Girls & Boys Select jerseys for the 2015/16 Season. Looking forward to another great year!

I read a very interesting New York Times article last night about kids’ developing “Math Anxiety.” The article was titled – “Square Root of Kids’ Math Anxiety: Their Parents’ Help.” Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrate smaller working memory spans and lapses in mathematical development. The big question is, how do kids develop math anxiety?! Math anxiety is developed when math-anxious parents help too much with their children’s math homework. The more math anxious-parents tried to work with their children, the worse their children did in math.

I’d like to think there are parallels between math-anxious parents negatively affecting their children in math, AND, anxious parents negatively affecting their children in sports. For example, if you’re a parents that goes to your child’s game and can’t help but to scream when your child has the ball, when a play is developing, or when the balls on the ground, than you need to be very contentious of this behavior; children put enough pressure on themselves during play. If they hear their mom or dad screaming during their event, it will only add to anxiety. If your child is looking over at you after this play, than its a sign they’re becoming an anxious player.

 

Additionally, if you’re a parent that gets anxious during your son or daughter’s games, you need to be conscious of what you say and do with your children on the walk to the parking lot, on the car ride home, and when your children are playing in the back yard. Let your children bring up events from their practice or game on their own. If they don’t feel like discussing it, than talk about something else. If your children don’t feel like getting instruction during their play in the backyard, than let them just play.

Children are inherently creative. They should have the confidence to try new things, make mistakes, and experiment during sporting events. If your child is feeling anxious during PLAY, than they won’t have the confidence to try new things and develop their game. Their development will be flawed both mentally and physically, not allowing them to progress.

Sometimes doing nothing can mean everything for your child’s development. Let your children make mistakes. Let them be creative. Just let them PLAY. Every child develops at a different rate. Some kids pick up things quicker than others. Substitute some of that anxiety with patience and support. Your child will be successful in whatever they pursue.

This is the question you should be asking every time you leave an organized event. Learning compounds more reliably than winning or the promise of winning does*. Learning is the driving force behind growth, success, and happiness.

At FLG, we hope that player’s leave every single one of our events saying, “I got something out of that!” Our emphasis on development will give the player’s associated with our program a feeling of growth. A win for FLG is when every player at our events learns something new or something that will better themselves as a studlete.

*Quote from Seth Godin’s Blog

College Tune-Up – Schedule for Day 3

Last Day, here we go!

5:00 — Arrive

5:15 – Dynamic Warm up

5:25 – Group-up for 300’s

5:30 – 300 Testing

5:30 – group 1

5:31 – group 2

5:32 – group 3

5:33 – group 1

5:34 – group 2

5:35 – group 3

5:36 – group 1

5:37 – group 2

5:38 – group 3

5:39 – DONE

5:40 — Water

5:45 – Speed Ladder Shooting

6:00 – Lacrosse Football

6:25 – Quads

6:55 – Water

7:00 – CrossFit Training with Coach Sean Pastuch

7:50 – College Tune-up Awards Ceremony

To see what’s going on at the College Tune-up, be sure to check out our instagram page at FLGLAX!

#CollegeTuneup #FLGLAX #FLG #HardWork

 

The top 50 U19 boys from around the country came together for the last round of cuts for the U19 USA Lacrosse team this weekend. FLG Lacrosse Alumni James Sullivan, Thomas Wright, Jack Tigh and Matt Borges were all in attendance. “FLG is very proud of Jack, Thomas, James, and Matt! It seems like yesterday they were 7th graders playing for FLG. They are four hard working young men that deserve an opportunity to compete for a chance to represent our country. We wish them the best of luck in making the team!” -Corey Winkoff (Program Director, FLG Lacrosse)

 

The final roster will be announced later today – we wish our guys luck!

The FLG College Tune-up is right around the corner. If you are asking yourself the following questions, then you should be at the College Tune-up:

Will I pass my run test?

Are other players on Long Island getting ready for Fall Ball already?

How do I measure up to collegiate student-athletes?

Am I cut out for College Lacrosse?

Am I in shape?

Is it time to pick up my stick?

To learn more about the FLG College Tune-up, click here!