Water Polo Boot Camp: Competitive Games and Drills 

• Discover fun, competitive games to condition your athletes and kick off your season
• Foster camaraderie and team work and create a competitive practice environment
• Keep your athletes motivated and looking forward to practice

Coaching High School Water Polo: Team Drills for Pre-Season and In-Season Practices 

• Includes pre-season and competitive season training plan
• Get 60 team drills and variations you can use as a resource to create your practice plans
• Includes tapering ideas for championship play

Coaching High School Water Polo: Individual Drills for Off-Season Development 

• Get a detailed outline for off season skill development, strength training and conditioning
• Pick up 35 individual development drills for passing and shooting
• Learn to build competitiveness into every phase of your program

Purchase the DVDs as a 3-pack and save $15:

Coaching High School Water Polo 3-Pack

Becoming a Champion Water Polo Goalie

• Learn to achieve and maintain a high, wide base
• Simple and effective teaching progressions
• Includes vivid demonstrations to learn shot angles

Team Tactics for Water Polo

• Generate aggressive movement involving every player on your team
• Get comprehenisve instruction for six essential tactical areas
• Improve your tactical approach to the game

Defensive Skills for Water Polo

• Help your team play stingy defense
• A complete guide to defensive skill breakdown
• Strengthen your goal keeping skills

Offensive Skills

• Improve your offensive game with over 40 drills/skills
• Reinforce your movement, ball handling, and passing skills
• Help your team score more with enhanced offensive precision

Coaching Water Polo

• This is a complete guide to coaching water polo
• See proven seasonal and practice planning strategies
• Get game day planning tips to gain an edge

Purchase The Complete Guide to Coaching Water Polo Series & Save $20!

Speed, agility and quickness are three necessary ingredients for success in any sport, but most particularly in the fast-paced game of lacrosse. Whether it’s a making an effective split dodge or coming away with possession at the face-off X, having superior speed, agility and quickness will ultimately play a huge role in determining your success on the field.

By following these drills designed by Alan Stein, professional strength coach and owner of Stronger Team Strength and Conditioning Services, athletes will be able to make major strides with their overall speed and agility development while maximizing their athletic potential. Athletes will see improvements with their communication skills, mental focus and hand-eye coordination as well. Plus, the drills use minimal equipment, so they can be done anywhere by anyone and on any kind of budget.

This week’s workout is a standard warm-up intended to raise the body’s core temperature and make the muscles more relaxed. The workout — which should last between 5-15 minutes — features movement preparation, where the goal is to get athletes to go through all of the fundamental athletic movements they will need on the field.

In these speed and agility drills, eight key movements and motions are used: Forward Sprints, Back Pedals (focus on leaning forward with your chest out over knees), Side Shuffles (do not cross feet while ankles, knees, hips and shoulders stay square), Side Runs (waist and above stays square, but ankles, knees and hips facing the side), Jumps (stay stationary and vertical and land easy), Pivots (one leg moves in quarter pivots in one direction while other leg remains flat on the floor), Twists (running in one direction but looking another way) and Athletic Stance (keeping a wide base and a low center of gravity).

The following is a standard warm-up session aimed at improving overall speed and agility. Drills should be conducted for about 45 feet (half of a basketball court) before repeating over.

Speed, Agility and Quickness Workout #1

Drill 1: 3 Steps Forward and 1 Step Backward on Left (Go right, left, right and then step back with the left foot)

Drill 2: 3 Steps Forward and 1 Step Backward on Right (Go left, right, left and back on the right foot)

Drill 3: 3 Steps Backward and 1 Step Forward on Left (Go right, left, right and then forward with the left foot)

Drill 4: 2 Steps Forward and 2 Side Shuffles (Jog two steps and then laterally shuffle two steps. Stay nice and low with your hips square)

Drill 5: 2 Steps Back Pedal and 2 Side Shuffles (Same as before, just with back pedals)

Drill 6: 2 Steps Forward and 2 Cariocas (Focus on quick hip turns with your feet)

Drill 7: 2 Steps Back Pedal and 2 Cariocas

Drill 8: 2 Side Shuffles and Reverse Pivot (After pivot, you will be facing the opposition direction)

Drill 9: 2 Side Shuffles and Front Pivot (Same as before, just with a front pivot instead of back)

Drill 10: High Knee and Butt Kick Combo (Give two high knee kicks followed by two butt kicks and repeat. Always be moving forward)

Drill 11: Cross-Country Skier (Switching places with your feet and always moving forward. Legs will stay fairly straight but not stick-straight. Feet are always flat on the floor)

Drill 12: Basic Forward Skip with Arm Swing (Repeat with a backward skip and arm swing)

Drill 13: Lateral Skip with Arm Swing (Always be facing forward)

Drill 14: Basic Skip with Lateral Hip Movement (Skip and then rotate your hip out on the second hop. Repeat with high knee Out to In. Just opposite direction with knee from before)

Drill 15: Frankenstein Skip (Leg is extended straight out as shoe meets fingertips)

Drill 16: Carioca with High Knee Punch

Drill 17: Carioca with Quick Feet (Fast touches with feet out front and behind; rapid fire)

Drill 18: Skip with Dead Leg Left (Right leg is just trailing behind. Repeat with opposite side)

Drill 19: Forward Jog with Lookbacks (Every couple of steps forward, rotate, look back and put out your outside hand)

Drill 20: 45 Degree Angle Cuts – (Zig Zags forward. Stay low. Repeat with backward cuts. Give two drop steps and then switch directions. Similar to a basketball defender)

This workout can be seen on the Championship Productions DVD “130 “Pro Power” Speed, Quickness and Reaction Drills.” To view additional warm-up drills and more speed, agility and reaction workouts, visit our Performance Training homepage.

1.  California  (Coached by Kirk Everist)
2.  UCLA
3.  Stanford
4.  Southern California
5.  UC Irvine
6.  Loyola Marymount
7.  UC Santa Barbara
8.  Pepperdine
9.  Long Beach State
10.  Pacific

In just six years at Duke, head coach Beth Bozman has turned the Duke field hockey program into a top tier unit, as the Blue Devils have been a consistent presence in the national rankings. Bozman’s team advanced to four consecutive Final Fours from 2003-06, finishing as the national runner-up in three of those occasions (2003-05).

Our first series of clips is from an interview with Dr. Jerry Lynch. Dr. Lynch has been a sports psychology consultant to over 24 international and national championship teams at the professional and collegiate levels.

In 2009, Stanford claimed thrid place nationally and finished the season with an overall record of 26-4. That record included a 6-1 mark in MPSF play, good for second in the conference. The Cardinal also reached the championship game of the MPSF Tournament before falling to eventual champion USC.