frustration

[Flagman]

Is their any correlation between face-offs won and points scored? Watching a few minutes of the game, I noticed that the possession changes almost as often as in a soccer match.

[Jasper]

Excellent question, Flagman. Yes, there is a very big correlation between face-offs won and goals. Like in most sports, you cant score without possessing the ball and the team that wins more than its share of face-offs has that many more possessions and therefore usually more shots on goal. Because of our problem this year with face-offs, teams were outshooting us by a lot - sometime 50% more in a game. That puts great pressure on the goalie. We have a real good one and he managed to keep many of those shots out.... but numbers are numbers. I don't know how long you watched the game but LAX possessions generally last much longer than soccer for instance. The level of passing and catching skill is so high now that these kids can play "keep away" for quite a while. As a matter of fact, in recent years the rules have changed to include a referee imposed shot clock if he feels the offense is stalling. But just like in basketball, some teams play a deliberate offensive scheme with lots of picks and screens in order to get higher % shots on goal. Teams like that who do a good job backing up their shots can retain possession of the ball for several minutes at a time. Others fast break more and try to get the ball into the scoring zone before the defense gets set up - question of style. The basic rules of LAX are actually simple and the strategies, etc. are very similar to basketball and hockey as well as soccer. I think the coaching staff should hold a fans clinic some Saturday before the season. I think a lot of Furman fans have been intimidated by LAX because they are just not familiar with it. LAX is a great spectator sport once you understand the basics. There are usually around 20 goals between the teams in a well played game. That's a lot of scoring and excitement along with tremendous athleticism. Lots of great high school athletes are switching to lacrosse from football and basketball once they realize they are not going to grow into the physical behemoths necessary for those other sports at a D 1 college level.

[fulax]

Being good at facing off is a variety of things.
1. The anticipation and reaction of the whistle - something that isn't really that coachable
2. Technique - is coachable, but is not as important as item 1.
3. Being great at groundballs under pressure - very hard to replicate in practice due to the physicality needed
4. Having teammates on the wings with the above three traits as well.

A good face-off unit is anything +55%/. A bad face-off unit is -45%. We were in the 31% on the season.

Think of it this way, ever groundball won equates to a possession. You can't score without possessions. There are typically 20-30 face-offs in a game. Meaning opponents typically had a double-digit possession advantage over Furman just due to face-offs.

The only way to mitigate this is to win other contested ground balls and clear near perfectly - but our disparity made that even harder and really put our team at a serious disadvantage that no degree of talent and scheme could overcome.

[Jasper]

Can someone that understands the game explain the difference in a good face-off person and a bad face-off person and what our guys were doing wrong to get beat so consistently?

I am not an expert but I will do my best. FOGOs are truly specialists. Many of them rarely play outside of the time they are in the X. It is a question and combination of strength, quickness and technique. There is a kid at Denver right now I believe who wins face offs with brute forearm stength. Rarely loses. But most do it with technique and dogged determination to just stay with it. We had a two brothers a few years apart on my son's HS state championship team who had a unique technique that garnered scholarships to UVA for each of them. I believe both of them were the top face off men in the country and on teams that either won or contended for the national championship. These kids were practicing face offs in the 4th grade. At the D 1 college level that we play at, it is impossible for a kid who has not been doing that his whole life to compete. We lost our face off man to graduation last year and then lost two other specialist replacements to unforeseen attrition. The staff tried to coach up a few kids who had some previous high school experience but that is near impossible and it cost us the season. ***t happens in sports. No one did anything wrong. We actually hung tough last week with Richmond for 3 quarters mostly because they have a fairly average face off man themselves and we won about 40% of the face-offs. That will kill them in the NCAA tourney if they win the SoCon. I hope this helps.

[fufanatic]

Can someone that understands the game explain the difference in a good face-off person and a bad face-off person and what our guys were doing wrong to get beat so consistently?

I am not an expert but I will do my best. FOGOs are truly specialists. Many of them rarely play outside of the time they are in the X. It is a question and combination of strength, quickness and technique. There is a kid at Denver right now I believe who wins face offs with brute forearm stength. Rarely loses. But most do it with technique and dogged determination to just stay with it. We had a two brothers a few years apart on my son's HS state championship team who had a unique technique that garnered scholarships to UVA for each of them. I believe both of them were the top face off men in the country and on teams that either won or contended for the national championship. These kids were practicing face offs in the 4th grade. At the D 1 college level that we play at, it is impossible for a kid who has not been doing that his whole life to compete. We lost our face off man to graduation last year and then lost two other specialist replacements to unforeseen attrition. The staff tried to coach up a few kids who had some previous high school experience but that is near impossible and it cost us the season. ***t happens in sports. No one did anything wrong. We actually hung tough last week with Richmond for 3 quarters mostly because they have a fairly average face off man themselves and we won about 40% of the face-offs. That will kill them in the NCAA tourney if they win the SoCon. I hope this helps.

Very interesting. I can't think of another sport where a faceoff - or something like it - is so critical. Basketball happens maybe a couple of times a game, not a big deal. Hockey is a decent amount, but possession changes so quickly it's not a big deal. It's like if after every TD or FG in football there was a scrum to see who would get possession next. Maybe rugby? I don't know that sport very well to say either way.

[Jasper]

Can someone that understands the game explain the difference in a good face-off person and a bad face-off person and what our guys were doing wrong to get beat so consistently?

I am not an expert but I will do my best. FOGOs are truly specialists. Many of them rarely play outside of the time they are in the X. It is a question and combination of strength, quickness and technique. There is a kid at Denver right now I believe who wins face offs with brute forearm stength. Rarely loses. But most do it with technique and dogged determination to just stay with it. We had a two brothers a few years apart on my son's HS state championship team who had a unique technique that garnered scholarships to UVA for each of them. I believe both of them were the top face off men in the country and on teams that either won or contended for the national championship. These kids were practicing face offs in the 4th grade. At the D 1 college level that we play at, it is impossible for a kid who has not been doing that his whole life to compete. We lost our face off man to graduation last year and then lost two other specialist replacements to unforeseen attrition. The staff tried to coach up a few kids who had some previous high school experience but that is near impossible and it cost us the season. ***t happens in sports. No one did anything wrong. We actually hung tough last week with Richmond for 3 quarters mostly because they have a fairly average face off man themselves and we won about 40% of the face-offs. That will kill them in the NCAA tourney if they win the SoCon. I hope this helps.

Very interesting. I can't think of another sport where a faceoff - or something like it - is so critical. Basketball happens maybe a couple of times a game, not a big deal. Hockey is a decent amount, but possession changes so quickly it's not a big deal. It's like if after every TD or FG in football there was a scrum to see who would get possession next. Maybe rugby? I don't know that sport very well to say either way.

Very good analysis. In most every sport, after a score is made, the other team gets the ball. Not so LAX. They have to win it in the X. It is one of the elements of LAX that makes it so exciting. A team can come back from a severe deficit in a very short time if they can gain momentum by scoring and then retaining the ball for an opportunity to score again quickly. Hockey is similar but as you point out, the possession in LAX is more important because of the rarity of goals in hockey and the difficulty of maintaining that possession. Plus when a team is losing face offs, the defense tightens up and tries to be more physically aggressive which often results in a penalty and a "man up" advantage for the offense.