~Eli Waldeck, Class of 2025

Why Lyle Thompson, Ryder Garnsey, and Connor Fields are so good, and how you can use your own unique skills to succeed

Lacrosse is a fast, physical, but also very skilled game. Many times, when someone seems like a good lacrosse player, it’s probably because they’re either big, strong, fast, or all of the above. The most overlooked skill is creativity. Coaches always preach about being fundamental, not using unnecessary shots like behind the back, and that you’re supposed to shoot overhand to the bottom corner, but really, that’s not true. There is no single mold for a good lacrosse player. Some great examples of players who are good because of their creativity are Lyle Thompson, Ryder Garnsey, and Connor Fields. 

Lyle Thompson is an attackman for the PLL Cannons, and a forward for the Georgia Swarm in the NLL. He is a Native American player who has had a stick in his hands since the day he was born. He and all three of his brothers grew up really close, always playing together in their backyard. Lyle not only would play with his brothers, but he would wake up before school to play, and would play all day after school when he got home. The stick was his best friend. When he would play, sometimes he wouldn’t even have a ball or a net. He just had his stick and his imagination. His imagination and creativity are what make him the best lacrosse player in the world today. Lyle is unguardable with the ball in his stick. He is a strong player who knows how to use his body to get an advantage. He wouldn’t be good, though, if he were just strong. The thing that separates Thomson from the other strong attackmen is his ability to get his hands free and release a good shot on net, no matter how well covered he is. Even with defenders twice his size hitting him to the ground, Lyle can get a shot off. He often will not just get a shot off with a defender on him, but he will use the defender as a screen so the goalie can’t see his shot. To be able to do this, Lyle has to throw crazy shots. He’ll shoot falling off his back foot, one-handed, behind his back—you name it. Lyle has even brought a new shot into the game that is used today. At Albany, Lyle Thompson would also go to X, drive to the left side with the stick still in his right hand and shovel the ball into the net. No one had ever seen anything like this, but now, almost all good attackmen have done it at some point in their career. All his success comes from having such a great connection with his stick, and the creativity he developed in his backyard by himself and with his brothers. If he had just followed all those coaches who said he should only play fundamental lacrosse, he would have never been as good as he is today. 

Ryder Garnsey is an attackman for the PLL Redwoods. The thing that makes Ryder Garnsey special is his ability to use his unique strengths to beat his defender. Ryder is not the biggest or fastest player, and yet he can still dodge and score on any defender. His physical stature doesn’t let him have the luxury of just blowing by someone, or running through his defender, so he has to be smarter than other dodgers and be unpredictable. One of Ryder’s strengths is his ability to feel the pressure his defender is applying to him. If he wants to get to his strong left hand, you will constantly see him leaning in to get the defender on his right, then splitting or rolling off that contact for a shot. His other strength is not a physical ability, it is his insane amount of confidence. A lot of times, when you watch Garnsey, you will see him take shots that coaches would personally say are “bad shots,” and he’ll make them. He has never seen an opportunity to score that he doesn’t think he can convert, and so when he’s on the field, defenders have no clue what he’s going to do. There is no possible way to see any tendencies in Ryder’s game. Every game he’ll throw a shot no one has ever seen, and even if he misses, the next play he’ll try it again or shoot an even crazier shot. His ability to feel pressure, insane confidence, and lack of fear let him play completely free, making him a tough matchup for any defender.

Connor Fields is an attackman for the PLL Archers and a forward for the Rochester Knighthawks. Like Garnsey, Fields is special not because of his physical strength or speed but because of his ability to slip off of defenders and put himself in good positions to score. Whenever Fields is dodging, he keeps two hands on his stick. This allows him to do two key things. The first, he can always pass, shoot, or fake. For Fields, he uses fakes constantly to get defenders to just look one way or become off balance for a second, then he moves free to shoot. The second thing dodging two-handed does for Fields is that he can use his elbow and his bottom hand to push off his defender or pull past him. If the defender is overplaying to the topside, Fields can push his elbow up into the defender’s stick, getting his hands free and allowing him the space to step back and get a shot off. If the defender is at all behind him, Fields will pull his elbow up and over their stick, then rip it back, pulling himself past his man for a shot. This is what makes Fields so slippery, and he’ll never get called for a ward because he has two hands on the stick. To be successful with this though, Fields has to be good at shooting in tight spaces with not a lot of room, as well as being comfortable shooting at any release. He has to react to where the defender is or where their stick is and shoot in a way that doesn’t interfere with that. This means that sometimes he will do things like shoot behind his back or even between his legs. The other thing that helps Fields in his dodging is that he has a very good change of direction and uses this a lot in his dodging. He will never run too far without a good angle to shoot at. His feet sometimes look like they’re just jumping side to side, and that’s unnecessary, but each time he moves back or forth, or side to side, the defender has to react to that a fraction of a second behind him, and eventually, the defender will be far enough away from him that Fields can run past him to score. 

To become great at lacrosse, you have to figure out what you’re good at, then master that. Not everyone is big and strong or has insanely fast feet and great straight line speed, but everyone can be a very valuable player on the field. If your best skill is your hand-eye coordination, you can make any team as a good crease player. If you have a great outside shot, at worst, you’ll find yourself time on the man up. There is no one way to find playing time; the only way is the one that works for you. This can all be true for any aspect of life. Even if you’re not the most “adequate” contender for a job, or promotion, if you think outside the box and bring your own creative skills, anyone can make a difference.