Tip

The “YES” Drill

Former MLL Goalie Trevor Tierney, discusses The "Yes" Drill:

In warm-ups, you pretend like there is a big plate of glass about 3 feet in front of you. The plate is the size of the goal. To do this, you have to relax your eyes and not focus on the shooter, his stick, his eyes or the ball in his pocket. Just learn to keep your eyes relaxed on your window. As your coach or teammate shoots on you, you say “YES” as the ball hits that imaginary plane of glass or window. You should be saying “YES” right before the ball hits your pocket.

This drill trains you to be focused on one thing and one thing alone: seeing the ball where you need to save it. This exercise zones out all the fears and other thoughts that you may have as a shooter is winding up at you. It trains you to react to the ball and not to guess, which will make you a more consistent goalie.

It helped me to develop better reactions when I was facing the hardest shooters in the world in the MLL. It is a pretty simple drill, but very challenging to master at the same time.

Trevor Tierney is a current National Collegiate Athletic Association men's lacrosse assistant coach, former Major League Lacrosse defensive coordinator and retired lacrosse goaltender who has played professional box lacrosse in the National Lacrosse League and professional field lacrosse in MLL.