Practice Makes Perfect

The short videos at the end of this are a bit unexpected and uncommon from what I generally post here, but somewhat fun, I think.

But first some background.

It's been quite a week for women's sports at the beloved Northwestern.  The other day, the women's golf team won their first-ever national championship.  And yesterday, the remarkable women's lacrosse team qualified for tomorrow's national championship finals by winning their semi-final match against Boston College -- coming back from an 11-6 deficit to win 12-11.

This was a big deal, since Boston College beat Northwestern last year in the finals -- after Northwestern had beaten Boston College in the finals the year before.

And the reason I call them "the remarkable women's lacrosse team" is because that win in 2023 was the Northwestern women's team eighth national championship in 18 years under coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. 

The finals this year, to be played on Sunday at 9 AM Pacific Coast time, will be broadcast on ESPN.  It'll be a tough contest, against #1 ranked North Carolina.  Northwestern is ranked #4.

As it happens, when I was back in Chicago last month, I was staying in Evanston and went to the campus and wandered around.  And at one point, I came across a practice field by Lake Michigan.  And there was the women's lacrosse team practicing.  I took some short videos and thought this would be a proper time to post them.  One in particular is offbeat and amusing.

If the "start" icon isn't showing, just tap on the image, and it should show up.

This first is a 35-second video of the players in a sort of "shoot-out" scrimmage, practicing their one-on-one moves against the goalie.  (You can see Lake Michigan in the background.)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/11b1a3_e892ab425e97482f9c423cc6f64f4c66/720p/mp4/file.mp4

And this second video is...well, I'm not exactly sure what the point of it is.  They team was at the far end of the field, so the details are a bit far, though I tried to zoom the lens as much as possible.  But what they're doing -- other than having great fun -- was sort of bewildering to him, though a treat to watch.

Basically, they seem to have split the team into two sides and appear to be playing a sort of dodgeball game, but with more than one ball and with what might be a small lacrosse ball.  Though it looks a touch bigger and softer.

Why they are doing this...I don't have a clue.  Perhaps it's to develop hand-eye coordination. Or to develop teamwork or camaraderie.  Or maybe it's just something the women love playing, and it's a treat the coaches give them as a break during practice. 

Whatever it was, it went on for maybe 10-15 minutes.  And they were having a really wonderful time.  (You'll hear the cheers at the end.)  And considering they've won eight national championships in 18 years and are in the finals tomorrow, it seems to work.  Here are 25 seconds of it.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/11b1a3_e06a090f306649839b60ec610c30ed06/720p/mp4/file.mp4