Lacrosse Footwork & Agility Practice Plan for 7 and 8 Year Olds
At 7 and 8, lacrosse footwork is movement play with an occasional passenger: the stick riding along (no ball) during some games so moving-with-equipment starts feeling normal. The curriculum underneath is the universal one: hopping, stopping, dodging, balancing, built through tag and races.
Thirty minutes, chalk, a stick for the passenger rounds. The dodge gets its playground introduction (the big-step lie from tag), stops get graded inside games, and everything stays laughing. The athlete being built here will make every later lacrosse skill land faster; that is the whole quiet plan.
This plan was written for every 7 and 8 year old. ParentEdge writes one for yours.
Built around their game, their goals, and what they’re working on.
Why carry the stick during movement games?
Normalization: moving athletically WITH equipment is its own small skill, and kids who tag-and-race with the stick aboard never develop the stiff carrying posture that plagues beginners. No ball needed: the passenger rounds are about the body forgetting the stick is there.
What is the playground dodge and why start there?
The big-step lie from tag (a committed step one way, the dart the other): it is the split dodge's embryo, learnable at 7 as pure play. Formal dodging arrives years later onto a body that already owns the pattern, which is the entire trick of early athletic development.
How much of this should be lacrosse-specific?
Almost none, deliberately: the 7-8 curriculum is general movement (hops, stops, balance, dodging play) with a light lacrosse accent. The sport-specific stack (wall ball, cradling, shooting) has its own sessions; this one builds the athlete they all run on.