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Coaching Players With Different Levels Of Skill

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Former collegiate lacrosse player and current youth coach Sean Carscadden (@seancarscadden) is the Partnership Manager for PCA-Bay Area. Here he explains an approach to coaching teams whose players have different skill levels: pairing up one skilled athlete with a lesser-skilled teammate during drills. He will even appoint players within a position as leaders or captains of that position, and give them the responsibility to help their teammates.

This does two things for his teams: 1.) It reinforces the mentality that this is a group effort and not about individuals, and 2.) It gives many players an opportunity to focus on leadership skills, letting them more fully own a part of the team’s success. This is a great tactic to grow a team mentality while developing leadership skills.