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What's Good for Your Players Can Work for Your Assistant Coaches

By Brian Logue, US Lacrosse, 10/19/17, 1:15PM PDT

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Put your assistants in positions where they can grow and use their voice

Being a coach isn’t easy. Everything you do is scrutinized, and the scoreboard gives you instant feedback and a way for people to judge you. You can’t lose sight of what’s most important.


Liz Robertshaw helped lead the U.S. women's national team to a pair of gold medals last summer. She is entering her 12th year as the head coach at Boston University where she has won 119 games and led the Terriers to four NCAA tournament berths.

An old coaching axiom is that a coach’s job is to put his or her players in a situation where they can be successful. Boston University head women’s lacrosse coach Liz Robertshaw uses the same mantra for her assistant coaches.


“Find out what they get excited about and give them opportunities to grow and use their voice,” Robertshaw said. “If you put them in positions where they don’t find success, then they shrink.”

The size of a lacrosse team makes it virtually impossible for the head coach to be in every place at every time. In order to run efficient practices and build a complete program, head coaches need contributions from their assistant coaches, regardless of the level where they are coaching. So, Robertshaw does her best to put coaches in a position to make their impact felt.

Some coaches are great at running specific drills. Some have a sharp eye for evaluating opponents and sharing scouting reports. When Robertshaw sees something they excel at, she tries to feed that success with more opportunities to shine. But, just like her players, they have to improve on their weaknesses.

“You have to push them and hold them to high standards,” Robertshaw said. “We have a saying that love is shown through honesty.”

Some other pointers for coaches from Robertshaw, an assistant coach for the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s national team this summer:


Never Stop Learning and Ask for Help

“If there are teams that are doing things you like, reach out to that coach and ask if you can go to their practice and sit in on meetings,” Robertshaw said. “I saw something Clemson football was doing that I wanted to learn more about, so I reached out and went down there for a day. They were an open book and so welcoming.”

Use Drills That Fit Your Style

Robertshaw loves using man-up and man-down drills in practice. The extra player for the offense helps creates an up-tempo environment. The ball moves faster, defensive communications become ramped up and players aggressively attack the cage.

Another way she creates an up-tempo feel is using a 1-minute drill where the offense tries to score as many times in a minute as it can. In addition to making things move faster in the practice setting, it can make her teams feel more comfortable when then they have to score at the end of a game.

“When they have to score, they can think back and say ‘We scored three or four goals in a minute in practice earlier this week, we can do this.’ It mentally empowers your team. Even the defenders get pumped up,” Robertshaw said.


Focus on what you can control

Being a coach isn’t easy. Everything you do is scrutinized, and the scoreboard gives you instant feedback and a way for people to judge you. You can’t lose sight of what’s most important.

“You just need to coach your team,” Robertshaw said. “In this society, everything is judged so quickly. You have to ignore the noise.”

Have fun

“I really try to have fun every single day,” Robertshaw said. “It’s hard sometimes, but I know how lucky I am to be able to do this. You should enjoy this, and it’s something you should be passionate about.”

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