Why Wall ball might actually be making you a worse lacrosse player. 😬 (Thread)

Wall ball, stick work, dodging cones are all variations of unopposed training or isolated skill training and since there is no decision making these workouts simply cannot make you better at the game itself.

You cannot separate the skill from the decision, the skill is the decision. Small tweaks like shooting on a goalie, playing 1v1 or 2v1 monkey in the middle keep away would be so much better than any of the private lesson type activities.

Repeating the same skills and routines against a wall can create bad habits. A bad habit is any skill that comes out at the wrong time, which is what happens when you rep the same things over and over again.

Further, once your wall ball isn’t challenging you, how is it actually making you better?

There are ways to make wall ball worthwhile by leveraging the concepts of “Differential Learning” which is all about “Repetition without Repetition". By introducing variability into your wall ball workouts, you can improve through the exploration of different movement solutions.

Examples would be using different release points, swathing hands while the ball is in the air, on the move with different footwork, using different balls, different sticks (long stick, girls stick, boys stick, huge whip etc) throwing it very hard and from different distances.

Wall ball alone will never make you a great lacrosse player because it will never improve your lacrosse IQ or decision making, but through getting creative with variability you can improve your dexterity and slickness.

A player isn’t going to have the luxury of worrying about decision making or IQ if they can’t pass and catch, since they won’t be on the field. Unless you have D1 level stick skills, wallball is a useful tool. Lazy wallball can certainly reinforce bad habits though

Tell that to the Powells

“Differential wall ball” is still wall ball.