As we told you earlier this week, one of the game’s premier faceoff specialists, Chris Eck, will be doing his thing on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. in a clinic presented by Dynasty Lacrosse at the East Fishkill Golf and Baseball Center in Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
I just completed a Q&A with Chris on the clinic. Be sure to check it out.
How did you personally develop your faceoff skills?
I was lucky enough to work with (Dartmouth coach) Andy Towers at a young age. He was first an assistant at Yale, then Fairfield University. Andy was a great teacher and showed me what it took to be great. I just ran with it. When it came to practice in high school, I actually only did it every so often. At the time I played O-middie as well as man-up, so I didn’t have a ton of time to work on it. Much of the time I dedicated to facing off was on my own time after practice.
What physical or mental skills are needed to excel in the faceoff X?
Physically it’s important to be quick, and it doesn’t hurt to be strong. Mentally I do my best to focus in on the whistle to be the first to react to it. To help with both, I typically focus on my breathing, and try and slow it down to help my body be ready to quickly react.
What are the key concepts you emphasize to help players improve their faceoff skills?
The way I approach learning faceoffs is the way I approach everything else in life. Break it down into a few fundamentals and tweak those for each move. The way I teach kids is through what I call the fundamentals of facing off — three things you need to do in every face off to win. I personally believe if you master these three techniques it doesn’t matter what move you do, you should win the face off.
* For registration info on Saturday’s clinic, click here.
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Great clinic yesterday Chris. It was time well spent for Cole and as always he came away from your clinic with a better understanding of what’s important in the faceoff X position. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge of this key position and joining up Dynasty Lacrosse.