Laxlife Revolutionizes Coaching With Story-Based Practice Plans

Over the past 8 years Laxlife has been tackling the issue of how to engage youngsters 3-6 years old in sports, on our quest to introduce the game of lacrosse to as many young folks as possible.

Back in 2016, Laxlife co-founder Chet Koneczny was enrolled in the NCCP Advanced Coaching Diploma and upon returning to Lacrosse Nationals in Whitby, Ontario, met up with his childhood lacrosse buddy Mike Rollings.  As they always do, the two began exchanging stories about their coaching experience of the past summer, when Michael broached the subject of themed practices he had been running in a program geared at introducing lacrosse to 3-6 year olds.

Like any respectable practitioner, he had run 360 feedback at the end of his program (which many are scared or ignorant in doing) and he mentioned that one parent had commented on how they really loved his Star Wars themed practice and that he should do more of that in the future. In this practice he had these "peanut" lacrosse players running around the floor with their arms linked on the “starship,” pulling up to different galaxies and practicing “shooting stars” that he had taped against the fall of his school gymnasium.  The kids had a blast and the practice had really captured their imagination, as well as the interest of Koneczny who had been learning about best practice in visualization in his coaching program, noting that stimulating the 5 senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, could enhance the story-practice concept even further.

From that point forward the idea of building out a series of practices that utilize practical stories that kids can relate to and which stimulate the 5 senses, was born.  

With lacrosse being an Indigenous sport and story telling (oral tradition) being such an integral part of Indigenous culture, most lacrosse players are familiar with the Haudenosaunee story about when the land animals played the birds in a game of lacrosse.

When Koneczny moved back to Ontario to teach at Toronto Prep School and make a return to the NLL in 2018, after a 4 year hiatus as Technical Director of Lacrosse Nova Scotia, he was invited to team up with Rollings and offer a 6 week program on Georgina Island First Nation, located on Lake Simcoe in Southern Ontario.  Upon arrival, Chief Rachael Big Canoe presented them with a pamphlet titled “A Fish Story” which highlighted the oral tradition of the Chippewas of Georgina Island.  They asked Chief Big Canoe how she felt about them turning the story into a practice plan and she thought it was a great idea and a way to share their bands history with the local youth and also non-natives from off reserve.  

The program was a great success and Koneczny and Rollings continued to refine the process in subsequent years, creating a series of stories utilizing stories that most young kids are familiar with:  The Land Before Time (Dinosaurs), The Lion King, Super Mario, Dora The Explorer, Krusty the Clown and others.

All 8 story-based lacrosse practice plans, in what Laxlife has branded it’s totLax series of practices, are available for free at laxlife.ca and within their recently released app available in Google Play and The App Store.  The plans come fully equipped with an Apple Music Playlist that provides audio clips for every drill, suggested foods for after practice, tactile and visual elements to pass around and share pre & post practice, alongside corresponding youtube videos and reading suggestions for parents to engage in with the child pre-practice.

Check out the concept in action, with Lacrosse New Brunswick Technical Director Chris Burgess telling the story of Kluskap vs. Winpe, Kluskap being the cultural hero of the Mi’kmaw who reside on unceded territory across eastern Canada.  

We feel strongly that this concept of story based practices is a revolutionary concept to introduce kids to all sports, not just lacrosse; give it a try!  If you would like more information on best practices on introducing story-based practices in your community, feel free to inquire through our support@laxlife.ca email address.

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