PLL – Lax Drip

Embracing the Lacrosse Lifestyle: Uniting Passion, Skill, and Community

Nathan Branson — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 15:10:21 +0000

Lacrosse is more than a sport; it’s a way of life. For those who have fallen in love with the game, it becomes an integral part of their identity. It permeates in every aspect of their lives, shaping their values, routines, and relationships. As a lacrosse lifestyle company, we understand the unique bond that lacrosse enthusiasts share, and we celebrate the vibrant community that thrives around the sport. Lacrosse & Love of the Sport At the heart of the lacrosse lifestyle is a profound love for the sport. Whether you’re a player, coach, or passionate spectator – lacrosse becomes a central focus. The game embodies dedication, perseverance, and an unwavering competitive spirit. The lacrosse lifestyle embraces the joy of stepping onto the field, the satisfaction of improving skills, and the thrill of pushing boundaries. It’s about immersing yourself in the game’s rich history. Celebrating the sport’s rich traditions and feeling connected to a tradition that spans generations which sets the sport apart. The shared passion for the game brings strangers together and can create lifelong bonds. Lacrosse & Tradition, Innovation Innovation and evolution is at the heart of our sport while still recognizing the roots of the game. From the ancient roots of Native American origins to the modern-day advancements in equipment and training techniques, lacrosse encompasses both heritage and progress. Lacrosse enthusiasts appreciate the historical significance of the game, honor its origins, and respect its cultural significance. At the same time, they eagerly embrace technological advancements and new strategies that push the boundaries of the sport. Lacrosse Equipment View New Drops on Battle Lax Lacrosse & Daily Life The lacrosse lifestyle extends far beyond the lines of the field. It’s a mindset that influences daily life. Lacrosse players and enthusiasts exemplify qualities such as leadership, teamwork, discipline, and resilience. These attributes carry over into different aspects of life, whether it’s academics, careers, or personal relationships. The endless lessons learned from lacrosse shape individuals into well-rounded and determined individuals. The PLL has many names for it: the tough game, the skilled game, the passion game, and many more – learning how to harness these through the sport of lacrosse will help you harness these in your own life outside of the sport. Lacrosse & Fitness Lacrosse demands physical fitness and mental resilience. Engaging in the lacrosse lifestyle means recognizing the importance of maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. It involves disciplined training and year-round workouts to stay fit for the season. Lacrosse players not only strive to be stronger and faster but also focus on developing their mental toughness during their workouts in order to overcome challenges both on and off the field. The lacrosse lifestyle encourages a holistic approach to wellness, promoting self-care, proper nutrition, and injury prevention. Check out my other post on lacrosse drills here. Conclusion Lacrosse is an embodiment of passion, dedication, and community. It encompasses not only love for the game but also the values and traditions that have been passed down through generations. Through physical fitness, mental toughness, and the bonds formed with teammates and fellow enthusiasts, lacrosse creates a sense of purpose and belonging. As a lacrosse lifestyle company, we are proud to support and inspire individuals who live and breathe the lacrosse lifestyle, and we look forward to continuing to be a part of the community.

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PLL Events: Fan Experiences and Community Engagement

Nathan Branson — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 19:31:21 +0000

pll events, Premier Lacrosse League tickets have been selling at record numbers this year – growing 93% over the first 2 weeks from 2019’s ticket high and a few weekends even selling out. (PLL League Growth) It’s clear that the PLL is attracting many new customers including a variety of famous athletes and influencers. This makes the PLL gameday experience all the more important for the growth of the sport and league. Premier Zone The Premier Zone is where everything happens before the games! This is the place to hang out and do fun stuff before games. The PLL has some tents for the pll events Academy and the Fan Experience. There’s tons more to do in the Premier Zone like cornhole, fiddle stick lax, and even meet a PLL player in the LAX World Zone! LAX World The LAX World Zone is a brand new edition to the Premier Zone. LAX world (https://lax-world.com/) is a rejuvenation of the old LAX World “with a new brand and a new vision” as RJ Kaminski puts it. They are now an online retailer specializing in premium lacrosse based apparel and equipment. They have gifted us with an incredible area to relax and have a little competition. In the LAX World zone, there is a lounge and an awesome virtual lacrosse game. The lounge has PLL players taking pictures and signing autographs every game day and some couches to relax in between games. The virtual lacrosse game is an accuracy challenge on an interactive wall much like a golf simulator. You will be facing up against Sean Sconone of Chrome LC trying to score on him with targets popping up along the screen that you need to hit to score points. There is a leaderboard for each week with top players for each week (with potential giveaways to the winners). PLL players and some of your favorite YouTubers will also be testing out the wall so you get to compete against them as well! Lacrosse Equipment View New Drops on Battle Lax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmriV7hITto Bar Down Club (21+) The Bar Down Club is a fan experience for fans 21 and up. This field-side lounge is a great place for people to hang out and have a specialized drink! The field-side action is awesome to witness as you really get to see how amazing the athletes actually are. There’s also cornhole and jenga to get your own competitive spirit going. PLL Events App The PLL app offers fans an immersive experience outside of the weekend games. You can make a profile and start earning XP right away! They have pickems every week with who will win and a variety of other questions to answer. Fantasy is one of my favorites as I get to compete against friends to see who has the best team (see the post I made about it here). In addition to all of those fun weekly games, there are articles about a variety of PLL topics and live stats for games every weekend. Each game day weekend, there is a QR code at the site for PLL app users to scan and earn a boat load of XP and a badge for that weekend. Each level you get to offers different rewards so check out the app to see what those are! ABC & ESPN Deal The PLL has a deal with ABC and ESPN where every game is streamed on ESPN+ with many of the games also on ABC or one of the ESPN networks. That means every game will be available to you to watch on ESPN+ and many new fans will be made when they are shown on the bigger networks. Themed Weekends The PLL has a few themed weekends. They have a kids weekend, indigenous heritage weekend, and more. These weekends exist to engage different communities and promote inclusivity in lacrosse. The kids weekend had the PLL junior championships while the indigenous heritage weekend featured special jerseys. Be on the lookout for these weekends because they have limited time PLL gear during them. Conclusion The PLL does a great job promoting the game of lacrosse. Their socials and events draw new fans every weekend. With so much access to players, the PLL is unique in giving fans an immersive experience. Be sure to try and get to a weekend before the end of this summer, but if you can’t, the PLL is here to stay and there will be plenty of opportunities to get to a game!

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PLL Fantasy Lacrosse: Tips and Strategies for Success

Nathan Branson — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 18:52:47 +0000

PLL Fantasy lacrosse has gained popularity among lacrosse enthusiasts, providing an interactive and engaging way to follow the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) season. Building a successful fantasy lacrosse team requires a combination of knowledge, strategy, and a keen understanding of player performances. What is PLL Fantasy: PLL Fantasy uses a weekly “Salary Cap” system where you get 200 coins to make the best team you can. Players are valued a certain amount depending on their previous fantasy scores for each game. You can join groups and face off against your friends in “Challengers”. It is a great way to feel like a part of the game. Understand the Scoring System: This is the most important thing to understand in PLL fantasy lacrosse. Because of the way the scoring system is set, high producing offensive players will get the most points. Typically, attackmen score the highest, with goalies next, middies, and defense last (I’ll get to fogos later). The best goalies will score more than a majority of the rest of the league because of saves gaining that player 3 points. Below is the scoring system for the PLL Weekly Fantasy. (https://premierlacrosseleague.com/fantasy#royale-scoring) Lacrosse Equipment View New Drops on Battle Lax FOGOs: For this 2023 season, faceoff guys are tricky because some teams don’t have a faceoff guy at all. Picking a fogo that is playing against a team that isn’t fielding a fogo at all is going to earn you a lot of points. Fielding Trevor Baptiste every week isn’t a bad idea, but this week he goes against Sisselberger and I think they’ll be pretty even, so just picking him isn’t always the best idea. Beware of defenders and LSMs that take faceoffs. If you choose those players at defense, they will lose you a ton of points. Utilize Low Player Costs: As mentioned earlier, PLL fantasy uses a “Salary Cap” system for fantasy coaches to pick their players each week. Each PLL player is valued on their average fantasy points of all games. This means if they don’t play that week they get a zero regardless of if they were on the roster or not and this is added into their average. The top player costs 50 coins, with every other player’s cost based on their average against the top player’s average. This can be a huge advantage when good players have a bad game or two, or miss a few games. They cost lower than they should be valued because their average is lower. Some players just have bad seasons, so be sure to pick lower costing players who have the potential to do really well so you can save coins for players who are currently hot. Pay Attention to Matchups and Game Schedule: Look at player matchups and the PLL game schedule. Which teams have faceoff guys and which teams don’t? Has this goalie or defense struggled against this offense? Who is going to be guarding the player I’m putting in? These are questions that will be beneficial to answer before picking your players. This can take a lot of time to research, but if you want to win this will be immensely helpful. Look at Injury List and Active Rosters: The injury list and rosters for each team are posted each week on their social media accounts. Look at these to make sure the players you choose are actually playing that week. Engage with the Lacrosse Community: Engaging with the lacrosse community can provide valuable insights, tips, and perspectives. There are various X and Instagram accounts that analyze the PLL as their job. Dan Arestia and Joe Keegan are two that I follow in order to get good information. PLL fantasy lacrosse offers an exciting opportunity to immerse yourself in the sport and compete against fellow lacrosse fans. A good understanding of the sport and how the PLL fantasy system works is key to do well against your friends. Watch the games on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN+ every weekend to learn which players would be the best for your team!

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FOGOs Losing Their Spots because of New PLL Shot Clock Rule

Nathan Branson — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 20:07:35 +0000

The new PLL shot clock rule has made it very difficult for faceoff specialists to keep their spots on PLL rosters. Coming off the All Star break, Connor Farrell, who played in the All Star game, has found himself on the bench this upcoming week. In this post, we review the new shot clock rule and look at how it’s affecting the PLL fogos. What is the New Shot Clock Rule? The old shot clock rule is when a team gains possession at any point, the shot clock resets to 52 seconds. The 52 second shot clock reset was also applied to hitting a pipe or the goalie. With the new rule, the shot clock is reset to 52 seconds only after the ball changes possession. Every other time, the shot clock resets to 32 seconds, which includes a shot off the pipe or goalie and is picked up by the team that shot it and faceoffs. The rule was implemented at the start of the 2023 season with the goal being to increase the speed of play. What do I think of the Rule? The idea of a 32 second reset is a phenomenal one, with it being very similar to the basketball’s shorter clock reset after the ball hits the rim but is rebounded by the offensive team. Because the team is already set up in their offense, the clock doesn’t need to be reset to 52 seconds. It makes the game much faster with more shots and more scoring. That being said, the 32 second shot clock after a faceoff I knew from the start of the season was going to be horrible for faceoffs. There is not nearly enough time to substitute and get into an offense, with many teams opting to not even dress a faceoff specialist, with the most recent team being the Chrome who are benching Connor Farrell as of 7/27/23. Imagine just finishing a PLL All Star Game, facing off at 68% for your team, and being benched as your team goes 1-4 for the first 5 weeks. That should never happen. Teams are actively being punished for putting a faceoff guy at the X. When will it come to a point when teams refuse to pick up the ball or play hockey for the first 30 seconds of every faceoff? Connor Farrell scoring a 2-pointer at the PLL All Star Game. – Louisville ’23 – Veterans vs Rising Stars. Photo: Liam Murphy, PLL Lacrosse Equipment View New Drops on Battle Lax The rule also takes away the option to go backwards. Faceoff guys have to play the ball forwards or their offense will only have about 10 seconds to do something with the ball. That is an alarmingly short amount of time to run an offense. Teams have been trying to experiment with different wing options, having the defensive players and fogo stay on for the 32 seconds, and putting a defensive mid on the defensive end to play offense and sub quicker. Even with these options, it’s easy just to put an LSM on the faceoff and have the fogo have to go backwards which is almost a guaranteed turnover. Faceoff Stats There have been 5 weeks of the new shot clock rule, yet teams have yet to figure out a good strategy to score. The two teams with the highest faceoff percentages are Atlas and Chrome sitting at 75.2% and 67.8% respectively. (PLL Team Stats) Both teams are at the bottom of the standings. The teams with the lowest faceoff percentages? Waterdogs and Cannons, sitting at 23% and 28% respectively, but are second and third in the rankings. Both of these teams have decided to not dress a faceoff specialist at all and use one of their 19 roster spots for another field player. Chrome are the next team to follow suit as they are 1-4 on the year being second in faceoffs. Will other teams that are losing faceoffs heavily to teams with better fogos follow suit? The Redwoods and Chaos have both been struggling to keep up with the top faceoff guys, but are still in the middle of the pack in standings. There is one caveat, the Archers are 67.7%, basically tied for second place on faceoffs with Chrome, but are at the top of the standings at 4-1. Why? Because the Archers have a 32% efficiency on 32 second possessions. (Joe Keegan Offensive Efficiency Tweet) Even with that stat, Sisselberger still said winning the faceoff feels like a punishment. Will the faceoff success continue to flourish for the Archers? Turning faceoff wins into goals instead of turnovers is a hard task, and even with the Archers winning so many faceoffs, it seems that many teams are just forgoing the faceoff guy altogether, and trying a different strategy. Joe Keegan breaks down offensive efficiency based on shot clock. (My interpretation is no resets, only after faceoffs). Via Twitter @joekeegs Future of the Rule Obviously, there is more to lacrosse than just faceoffs. The Atlas are at the bottom of the standings for defense as well, which is also a huge factor in them losing games. But it’s hard to ignore how the faceoff has affected the game. I love the 32 second shot clock reset off of hitting the goal, that change is very well done. Hopefully, the PLL will change the faceoff shot clock, but that change will not happen until next season. My suggestion is to do a 42 second clock at the faceoff, which will still speed up play and give teams ample time to sub effectively. The other option would be to put it back to 52 seconds, which will slow down play slightly but I don’t think that’s a big issue. Teams may adapt to better their odds, putting offensive players on the faceoff instead of defensive players, but I think a shot clock change is going to be the best option going forward.

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