Lacrosse Cradling & Stick Skills Practice Plan for 9 and 10 Year Olds
At 9 and 10, the cradle earns its wheels: full-speed running cradles, BOTH hands (the off-hand cradle starting its patient career), and the sport's money skill joins: GROUND BALLS, scooped through with two hands low, the play that decides more youth games than any other. First protection habits arrive as body positioning rather than stick tricks.
This session runs about 45 minutes with stick, balls, and cones or objects for patterns. Ground balls get the featured block and the famous coaching sentence (through it, not at it), and the off-hand work follows wall ball's house arithmetic: near-equal turns at kinder standards. Speed with the ball aboard is the age's thrill; the session spends it generously.
This plan was written for every 9 and 10 year old. ParentEdge writes one for yours.
Built around their game, their goals, and what they’re working on.
Why are ground balls called the money skill?
Because youth possession lives there: most games hand out dozens of fifty-fifty ground balls, and the team that shovels through them owns the ball. The mechanics (back hand low, through the ball, cradle rising in stride) are completely home-trainable, and the kids who own them get described as "always around the ball."
How fast should off-hand cradling progress?
Patiently and constantly: near-equal turns at kinder speeds, celebrating survival over style. The milestone sequence: standing comfort, then walking, then jogging, then the weave, each arriving weeks apart without drama. By 11, the off hand should carry through cones without ceremony.
What protection should a 9 or 10 year old learn?
Geometry only: body between pressure and stick, cradle on the far side, turns answering circling pressure. Stick-trick protection (rolls, switches under checks) belongs to 11-plus after the body-wall instinct exists. The walking-monster keep-away builds exactly the right foundation.