Statistics show that 70% of girls quit playing organized sports by age 13 and the number one reason given is, 'It stopped being fun!' Red Stix was established in part to reverse this trend in the south Atlanta area by providing an awesome environment for your daughter.
It is the goal of Red Stix Lacrosse to:
1. Create an environment where young girls are surrounded by awesome role model coaches who teach a love of sports, lacrosse and learning.
2. Take a long-term view of player skill development. Winning games and league titles take a back seat to developing skills and a love for the game. When your daughter finally retires from organized sports she will absolutely not remember the U11 league playoff games, whereas she will definitely remember the relationships she built playing this awesome team sport. We want to prepare her to compete at her highest potential, but with lots of life lessons along the way -- that are not exclusive to lacrosse. We are building skills with the end-game in mind -- with the goal of helping her develop into a top performer who peaks at the high school or college age, not elementary or middle school.
3. Focus skill development on the right things. Practice absolutely does not make Perfect. Practice makes Permanent. Perfect Practice makes Perfect. Red Stix teaches proper lacrosse technique from the beginning. We emphasize a slower approach that takes the time to build the fundamentals the proper way. Bad habits take years to relearn if they ever are, and we don't let players "do it wrong" enough to form bad habits. We're quick to identify errors in their mechanics and we intervene to show them how to fix things so they make good habits early.
4. Lacrosse skills are formed by repetitive muscle memory. Red Stix embraces the concept of "10,000 touches". Practices and games are planned and sized to give each player as many turns, and touches with the ball, as possible. Small fields and small-sided games, where every player is on offense and defense, are designed to provide players the best opportunity to come in contact with the ball as much as possible. Practices are structured to limit 'standing-around' during and between drills.
5. Our program is fun, and designed to help build the confidence in each young girl -- so that she can get better at whatever she commits to working hard at! We acknowledge that not every student-athlete is destined to be a top-performing professional lacrosse player, or even a collegiate athlete, but every young girl will benefit from the lessons learned about setting goals, working hard, being a good teammate, and doing her best at everything she does. These lessons will translate to everything she does in life, and we believe that youth sports should be a great place for young girls to learn these things.