Winning Women's Lacrosse - Kelly Amonte Hiller, Ashley Gersuk and Ann Ellliott

Winning Women's Lacrosse

by Kelly Amonte Hiller, Ashley Gersuk and Ann Ellliott

NEW, 208 pages

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About Winning Women's Lacrosse

• develop the individual offensive and defensive skills of the game,
  
• master the specialty skills of field players and goalkeepers,
  
• train like a champion with sport-specific conditioning drills,
  
• sharpen individual and team execution with situational drills, and
  
• maximize potential by making the most out of practice time.

About Kelly Amonte Hiller

Kelly Amonte Hiller has served as the head women’s lacrosse coach at Northwestern University since 2001. During her time at Northwestern, Amonte Hiller has transformed a club level team into an NCAA Division 1 dynasty. In 2011, her team won the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championships for the sixth time in seven seasons, with seven consecutive appearances in the NCAA title game in that time frame. Since the 2004 season, Amonte Hiller has amassed an overall record of 162-10 (.942) and won 29 of 31 games her team has played in the NCAA Tournament. Along the way, Northwestern has won eight American Lacrosse Conference titles, produced the nation's Tewaaraton Award winner in six different seasons and featured 37 IWLCA All-Americans. Amonte Hiller was named American Lacrosse Conference Coach of the Year in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010. Before joining the coaching staff at Northwestern University, Amonte Hiller was an assistant coach at Brown, Umass, and Boston University.

Amonte Hiller played college lacrosse for the University of Maryland where she was a four-time All-American standout and won back to back IWLCA National Player of the Year honors. She was also named the 1996 ACC Female Athlete of the Year. After her college career, Kelly played for the U.S. national team, where she was a member of the 1997 and 2001 World Cup championship teams.

Reviews

"Kelly Amonte Hiller is a winner and has proven techniques for developing championship-caliber players. In Winning Women's Lacrosse, Kelly demonstrates her innovative approach to coaching while providing players with the tools to compete at the highest level."

Cindy Timchal
Women's Lacrosse Head Coach for Navy

“Kelly Amonte Hiller's innovative style of coaching is on a level above and beyond that of the competition. In Winning Women's Lacrosse, Amonte Hiller provides you with the perfect tools to elevate every aspect of your game.” 

Kristen Kjellman
U.S. National Elite Team 

About Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small solid rubber ball with a lead center and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent's goal, using the lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to dispossess them of the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The sport has four major types: men's field lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse and intercrosse.

Field Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a sport that deals with the physical and mental aspects of the game. There are ten players on each team with three attack, three midfielders, three defenders, and a goalie.

Each player carries a lacrosse stick (or crosse). A "short crosse" (or "short stick") measures between 40 inches (1.0 m) and 42 inches (1.1 m) long (head and shaft together) and is typically used by attackers or midfielders. A total of four players per team may carry a "long crosse" (sometimes called "long pole", "long stick" or "d-pole") which is 52 inches (1.3 m) to 72 inches (1.8 m) long; typically used by defenders or midfielders. The head of the crosse on both long and short crosses must be 6.5 inches (17 cm) or larger at its widest point. There is no minimum width at its narrowest point, the only provision is that the ball must roll out unimpeded. The designated goalkeeper is allowed to have a stick from 40 inches (1.0 m) to 72 inches (1.8 m) long and the head of a goalkeeper's crosse may measure up to 12 inches (30 cm) wide, significantly larger than field players' heads to assist in blocking shots.

The field of play is 110 yards (100 m) long and 60 yards (55 m) wide. The goals are 6 feet (1.8 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m). The goal sits inside a circular "crease", measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter. Each offensive and defensive area is surrounded by a "restraining box." Each quarter, and after each goal scored, play is restarted with a face-off. During a face-off, two players lay their stick horizontally next to the ball, head of the stick inches from the ball and the butt-end pointing down the midfield line. Face-off-men scrap for the ball, often by “clamping” it under their stick and flicking it out to their teammates. Attackers and defenders cannot cross their “restraining line” until one player from the midfield takes possession of the ball or the ball crosses the restraining line. If a member of one team touches the ball and it travels outside of the playing area, play is restarted by awarding possession to the opposing team. During play, teams may substitute players in and out freely. Sometimes this is referred to as "on the fly" substitution. Substitution must occur within the designated exchange area in order to be legal.

For most penalties, the offending player is sent to the penalty box which is located between each team's bench. His team then must play without the player for a designated amount of time based upon the foul. (Most penalties are "releasable", that is, the penalty ends when a goal is scored by the non-offending team.) Technical fouls (such as offsides and holding) result in either a turnover or a player's suspension of 30 seconds, while personal fouls are generally penalized one minute (although some infractions, such as playing with a stick that does not meet the specifications of their designated level of play, may serve non-releasable penalties of up to three minutes). The team that has taken the penalty is said to be playing man down while the other team is on the man up. Teams will use various lacrosse strategies to attack and defend while a player is being penalized. Offsides is penalized by a 30 second penalty. It occurs when there are more than 7 players on the defensive side of the field, (three midfielders/three defensemen/one goalkeeper), or more than 6 players from one team on the offensive side of the field (three midfielders/three attack). The zones are separated by the midfield line.

Winning Women's Lacrosse