S1 E38. Syracuse 4 X All American and Professional Skills Trainer Ric "The Beast" Beardsley, Part I.

In our final interview of our inaugural season we had the pleasure of sitting down with the legendary Syracuse defenseman Ric Beardsley!

Ric was a two time high school All American, won gold for the U19 USA Team, and was a four time collegiate All American. Following graduation he founded a lacrosse skills training business that he continues to run to this day. Over the years he has helped many boys and girls achieve their dreams of playing college lacrosse.

In this first installment of our series, Ric tells us of his late mother Angela, who encouraged Ric to play a number of different contact sports, “My mom didn’t want no softie,” Ric explains. Unfortunately, she would pass away from cancer while Ric was in the ninth grade. He dedicated his playing career in her memory. 

Beardsley also recounts the strong influence his middle and high school coaches had upon him as well as describing the intense rivalry his alma mater, Lakeland, had with their in town rivals Yorktown of West Chester County, New York. Sit back and enjoy this high energy exchange, you won’t be disappointed!

And if you enjoy the show, please support the podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and telling a friend about us so you can help our message grow! 

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Transcript

Jay: 0:00

It's time for get the La Scoop, a podcast bringing you all the people and stuff you should know. In the game of lacrosse, we take LAX seriously, but ourselves, not so much. Join hosts, big Dog and Jaybird, and the biggest names in the game. Brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's J M L Skills, mindset, and LAX IQ training. Ron Doish, the big dog, was a collegiate football and lacrosse player at Brown. He was also an assistant lacrosse coach and the executive director of the sports found. and Jay McMahon, the Jaybird, a three time All-American Midfielder Brown. He was a captain of the US Junior National team and is the founder of J M L. And joining us in the studio, Steve gfi, who's collegiate lacrosse career statistics equals one goal against Dartmouth. Brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's J M L Skills, mindset, and LAX IQ training. Helping the next generation cross players. Get to the next level.

Ron: 0:59

Everyone. Welcome to another episode of get the lack scoop. We are really honored with today's episode to have one of the most dynamic defenders who I ever saw play the game. And, we're really excited To explore his life and career with him. I, I hear he's kind of quiet and shy Jay. So we really, you know, we might have to really get them going a little bit. I try to draw him out, get him out of his shell. Should be a great episode. Jay, you want to do the intro? Absolutely. Our next guest was born in Cape Coral, Florida, and later moved to New York, where he attended Lakeland high school in Yorktown. There, he set a school record for points by a defenseman and was named an all American twice. and played in three Empire State games. He attended Syracuse University. In his freshman season, 1992, he made an immediate impact, earning honorable mention All American honors. In the summer of 1992, he played for the U 19 Junior USA team, winning gold on home soil at Hofstra University. He finished up his time with the orange with an impressive resume. To say the least, he was a four time all american defenseman, one of four captains his senior year and a player who had a knack for finding where the ball was as he was in the top four players on the team and ground balls in all four of his seasons. He was a two time national champion in 93 and 95 and was named to the 1995 NCAA all tournament team. He's well known as one of the best takeaway defenders in the game's history and is listed as number 79 for SU's top 100 best athletes ever in any sport for the school. In many ways, he was ahead of his time as far as offensive output, as he not only pushed the ball downfield, but also finished plays with goals and assists throughout his career. He played six years of professional lacrosse and was the defensive coordinator for the Atlas Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League until 2021. Since graduating from Syracuse in 1995, he's been a TV commentator for many college lacrosse games with ESPN. Back in 1996, he founded his own lacrosse training program, which he's continued to this day, and has helped many boys and girls achieve their dreams of becoming college lacrosse players. He was the head varsity boys lacrosse coach at Christian Brothers Academy in central New York for 10 years, leading them to a state title in 2017. Please welcome the one, the only, Rick Beardsley. Thanks guys for having me. That's a heck of an intro. I don't know if I, did I, I don't know if that's all true. Let's see, that's a lot of things. How can one guy do that? You know, you're a long gone. You just, you just keep spewing the statistics out, you know, who the hell is going to claim you didn't do it. But listen, here's the problem. Let's really talk about the holes in that resume. Okay. There's a gaping hole to me. Well, how am I not all tournament all four years? Let's go. I guarded everybody's leading score from my freshman year to my senior year. I won two championships of those three of those four that I went to. I went to a national champion, my freshman year, we lost in overtime, guarded the nation's like number two elite. We were going to get to that. That's how it was that later in the interview. How do I get shipped? Let's be honest. Well, I think you got a case there. Well, Rick, at least you're over it. I mean, it's good to see you're back. It's good to see you've done a lot of work there, clearly, to get over it. Believe me, Rick, it doesn't take me long to get triggered, either. Go ahead. Ron wouldn't understand. Here's my job, Rick, on this frickin podcast. My job is to control the All Americans. Yeah, I was just an average player. Nice kid. Good team guy. aLl right. Hey Rick, look, we, all of us, you know, we do this cause we love the game and you've made it your career. But what are the earliest memories? We always like to start with what was the spark for you? Where, what are your earliest memories of playing and who are maybe some of the people who are influential in those early days of you getting introduced to the game? Where really it got sparked was my mother and father were high school athletes, right? In this, in that, in our generation of parents, if you didn't go to college, right? Or you grew up in a certain part of Westchester County, you weren't going to college. And my mom was an all county softball player. My father was an all county football player and all county basketball player. So, you know, they got kind of out right from down county to where everybody was a hick in the north, you know, 45 minutes north. And, you know, my spark really came from my mom and dad. I mean, my mom, she was a tough person. Very, very Angela Beardsley, the late Angela Beardsley, who died when I was, uh, when I was in ninth grade, she was a tough. Tough person. I mean, meaning she was a sweetheart, loved you, but she was, you know, she, she didn't want to raise a softie. And, you know, she put me in so many things. that encouraged me to be violent. I don't even know any other way to say it. And I don't like, you know, I don't have like any anger issues that I, you know, I'm worried about beating children and, and doing that stuff. It was, it was really my mom with, and I was, you know, I'm a high energy guy and, she put me in everything. And that was where the spark came from from lacrosse. I was lucky enough that in my neighborhood, I mean, how lucky did I get? It was, you know, previous all americans. In the neighborhood because where you are, there's Lakeland high school and then there's Yorktown high school, right? Yes. And there was so many guys in town basically. And I was, The biggest influence in my, my early lacrosse career was, was Frank Vitolo, who was my high, my college, my high school head coach. He was a, you know, a gym teacher in the middle school. He got tasked with being the lacrosse coach. Obviously, Yorktown was the incumbent. That was a leg, you know, that was a legendary program. And how he did it was really simple. He took all the, you know, sixth grade kids who were good athletes and said, Hey, and we dangle a stick and dangle. You know, gloves and a helmet, you sign these out and you play in a, in a league before school, there's a draft. And he made this whole thing up that we, it took so much, like, it was so much pride in our street of guys that like my mother didn't want to lose. So she would pick up like five guys who were good, be like, I'll drive them all. So there was no draft. So you had like six future all Americans playing with each other in two grades. Right. And then when I got to high school, a real big influence is a guy that I don't think he knows how much he influenced me. I think I've told him it before was a guy by the name of Tom Connor, who was my modified coach. Now I played two years of modified guys. And it was because coach Vitola wanted to keep the guys together. So you had in seventh and eighth grade at Lakeland, you had guys who went on to be Syracuse guys with me, guys that went to Loyola, went to Loyola. Delaware went to UPenn, Ohio State, Army. I mean, those are just my teammates that are in my grade. yOu know, Coach Connor really taught me. He was a mountain of a human being. He was a big dude, really overweight, like. scary beard, and he was a bus driver, right? And he would put it now. What was modified? Modified is seven modified, like a different league. They didn't have a freshman team back then. So it was seventh and eighth grade. No, I'm sorry. We had a freshman team. So seventh and eighth could play freshman, right? So you had to pass a test in New York State. I ended up passing it now in eighth grade, I could have played varsity, but Vitola kept us and those ninth graders who were eighth graders, he kept us all together. So Tom Conner really had the future of our program and he was such a big influence on me because he taught me the biggest thing you need as an athlete who has tons of skill, tons of athleticism, discipline, the disciplining of your own self, how to just be like, yo, you've done enough. You're you gotta stop or you gotta change this and the big thing he taught me was one a lesson I take with me all the time when I coach still do it. I catch myself when I don't do it I run on and off a lacrosse field. I never walk I always jog on and off when I coach, when I do a clinic, when I do a training, when I play, I run on and off. Even when I'm gassed, that little bit of pride, I do it to my own kids. Viviana, my youngest daughter, I do like this, and then she, you know, she walks all of a sudden, she jogs. I don't have to tell my oldest. Angela has been disciplined enough with her own self discipline and that. Really, I have to say, guys, probably for the first time in my life, and I know you gave me a few questions to make sure I was prepared, I didn't really have to look at him because I'm pretty good off the cuff, but, but it really made me, now that I really think about it, he could be the biggest influence on my career, and most people say it's their varsity coach or their college coach, let's be frank, how blessed was I To go from Tom Connor to Frank Vitola, who is a legend in the Westchester area, you know, coached it with the New Jersey pride, right? He was a defensive legend, guys to this day still call him and then go to obviously Royce Simmons Jr. I mean, that's not a really shitty, like, not bad, right? It's pretty good. Um, you know, and I, I really got that core of basics and discipline that I still use to this day, by the way, guys, when I do my D trainings, I'm very disciplined with the way guys even shuffle and people think I'm nuts, but I have been proven to build really good defenseman. So, attention to detail, while others allow them for a shuffle where their hips go up and down. I, no, no, no, no, no. Slower. Right. A little bit more technique. You get it fast. Right, right. You're covering ground, but your hips aren't bound. Like just those things are all Tom Connor type things. So I'd have to say he was a huge influence and, and, and I got lucky right in the right area, the right time at Lakeland High School with the right teammates. Listen, you can't do it all on your own, fellas, like it just doesn't work like that. Uh, you need, you need guys around you in this game. Um, and, and certainly I was lucky enough to have guys around me. Good stuff. Now, were there some, I saw some guys on the 1992 U19 team with Lakeland High School, you know, along with you, were they your high school teammates? They were. Yep. Same h. Yeah. Cool. Anthony De Marone. Think there was three of you guys on there? There was three of us and there was seven of us from our town. Wow. Yeah. That would include Yorktown. Lakeland, like Ley. Yeah. Kohl is his name on there, right? Yeah. It was Lakeland, Yorktown. That's in one town, the town of Yorktown. So when people used to compare, like. Well, Central New York, you can't compare. It's one town. We had two high schools in one town. It was Anthony DeMarzo, who ended up being a four time All American at Delaware, played with me at Lakeland. Christian Johns, who was a two time All American, went to Loyola, unfortunately hurt his back. Um, Jason Foley, who went to Loyola, was a two year starter. He unfortunately ran into some things and, uh, you know, he committed suicide while we were in college. And, uh, Roy Colsey, who obviously, you know, he's my roommate, he's a hall of famer. Dave Marr, number two all time leading scorer for assists at Hopkins. And Rocco D'Andrea, who was A, an All American himself at Rutgers. I think I got'em all. Wow. That's Rutgers at c I'm trying to, and there was some Gordon City guys on that U 19 team. Yeah, there was, was it Kern and, um, Kern and, uh, Mar, uh, not Mar, uh Marvin. Pat Marvin, yeah. Pat Marvin who I happened. Eugene CI saw Pat Marvin. Like six months ago in Long Island, he's living not in Garden City, but I think like a town or Port Washington or something. Yeah, great. Looks great. Still in great shape. Like, you know, he was a good guy. And, you know, we did have coach Moran. So that law, and we had coach Hargraft on that team. But I mean, you know, the guys that think about the, like, I look back and think about nobody like guys arrogantly. No one can question me when I say like, I played with greats. Right. And the one thing that people don't understand when you're, I don't name drop when I'm knowing people like I'm lucky enough to be old enough and in the right spot. But the one thing that I really get a kick out of is when someone tells me, Oh, that kid is sick. Yeah. And I'm just like, okay, so is he Casey Powell? Like, I think, I think when you, when you tell me sick, I think that that four year old American, like going to be a hall of famer, right? But that's what people don't get. I'm like, dude, he's all right. Like, you know, I don't know what to. So, you know, I mean, the guys I played with on that team all the way down to. I mean, what about Evans? Was Evans going to the goal? Oh my God, Evans was on our team and talk about a guy that I'm still great friends with to this day. Talk to him last night. Oh, really? Great guy. Dave is one of the greatest guys in the sport. My wife adores him. My kids know him. You know, he also runs Lake Placid Days, right? So, we look forward to that. I mean, Dave, what an off ball finisher and what a career he had at Brown. Right. If you think about it on that attack, you probably had him ranked in high school as the fourth best, maybe on that attack, but he turned out to be probably the most decorated guy. Right. He was saying he was on our show and he was telling us how he didn't even get an invite. And then someone dropped out, so we got an invite, and it was like 250 kids invited, and then he ends up making the team and being a good player on the team. Not a good, I mean, he ended up, and by the way, what a fun guy, holy mackerel. Forget about the, like the tailgates at UVA just got funner. Right. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm in Richmond, so I'll be there. Yeah. Go ahead, Ron. Rick, talk about, um, So, it's after your freshman year at Syracuse, right, that you play with that U19 team, and we're just, you're just talking about all the incredible players. I mean, you know, you got, you got some amazing teammates you're playing with at Syracuse, and then you go and play with that U19 team. Talk about that experience in terms of your development as a player, your confidence level, and how that sort of sets up the next three years at Syracuse. Well, first of all, anyone that's going to college now, if you're a, there's a huge jump, right? So my first day of practice at Syracuse, number one, I hadn't been beat for that many goals, one on one and one on ones in my career. You know, it's a different level of speed and you have to catch up and you have to have a different level. Like I say, the word discipline, you got to be self disciplined. You know, I never lifted weights. I went and started lifting weights. I couldn't guard big people, so I decided, okay, better hit the weight room because These guys all lift weights and they're big and strong. I might be 200 pounds, but am I strong enough to be 200 pounds? You know what? I mean, but you take a huge Acceleration uphill in your in just your game your IQ shoots your skill shoots Your mental edge shoots up typically when you play at the level I did with the guys I you know every year at Syracuse Fellas, I had a player of the year offensively on my team. So I played against someone who was a positional player of the year every day. Right. I played against. Tom Marachek my freshman year, Matt Ryder was the attack when a year as well my sophomore. So think about my two guys Now, how would you do covering those guys? Would you chew those guys up or what? Oh my god. Are you shitting me? Of course? We'll have to get Marachek on Listen to me go right ahead I am going to say this, and it's not arrogance, it's confidence. We're, I'm on this like my helmet's off, alright? Guys, if I got beat for a goal, it was only because I made a mistake. It wasn't because I was good enough. I owned everyone I played in my mind, and I did do a pretty good job. In practices, there were battle royales, absolutely. But yes, how good could I have gotten, right? And how good could I get? Practices were hard, games were easy. That was it. And then, you know, my junior year, Dom Finn, midfielder year, Hall of Famer, Roy, I mean, think about it. Roy Colsey, senior year, Hall of Famer. Like, Pat Marachek, Hall of, I played against three Hall of Famers just in practice for a myriad of time. And, you know, no one wanted to guard Tommy because they didn't want to deal with it. And I was the little runt of the litter, and I was happy to deal with it. And then no one wanted to guard, you know, Matt and I got stuck guarding that because I would guard feeders and I would guard Dodgers and you would change in practice, but that. After your freshman year and then you go play in the world games, which listen, it stunk to play at Hofstra, right? I got to go to Australia. That's what I mean. So like it stunk, but in a way it was awesome because it was a lot of people, right? It was a big home crowd. It was, it was nice to be an hour and a half away from where you live. If something ever went wrong. So, you know, I was really fortunate that I got to play and those practices were challenging. I mean, I always tell people at the next level. It's some people think at the next level, it's really, really difficult, but when you're at the next level, it's just what you are and people can think that's arrogant. They can think that's cocky. I don't really care. The truth is, I earned that spot. I earned it every day. I had to work hard at it every day, right? But there's nothing more. I'm already there. Right. So you found yourself just, right. And as the competition got harder and tougher, you just kept stepping it up. It becomes this. All of us guys. In the mind. Yeah. Think about it. Your mindset. There's no one different at Brown than there is at Syracuse. Even though we had one goal games and sometime early in the career, we blew them out. Like the big difference is there might be a little bit in the athleticism, but there's not much. It's all here. Yeah, it's all up here. If you're mentally strong on a field, you know, one thing I always prided myself in was the angrier I got the more focused I became so I wanted to that's why i'm not in the hall of fame. Let's be frank like I'm not a very well liked guy on a field. I wasn't ever. I, you know, when you tagged me and I'm sitting there, who walks up to two college coaches and tells them how many they have, right? Meanwhile, that's a great memory though. Meanwhile, yeah, it's and, and, and coach lasagna and coach brushy are two good friends to this day have always had a great relationship with them. So I could do that. But like when people hear that you call Greg trainer. I mean, you know, I mean, Craig Catrano on his voice at school and leave a message saying, dude, I dropped three on you. I didn't do that actually. Like, but I knew him, but people take that as, you know, as something that's bad. Right. And it's not. Are you hearing Jay because he's breaking up for me. Yeah, he is. He's got dial up in Richmond. Yeah, he's got swirls running on a little thing to keep his face, though, is immaculate, right? Look at that. I mean, look at that smile. That goofy bastard. Can you hear me now? I can. Oh, there you go. Like to answer your question quickly. You go from. Playing in a national championship, losing it in double overtime to, you know, moving right back to a dorm in Long Island and you end up, you end up winning a world championship at that level. You know, I mean, how much better can it be for a guy who just, you know, left high school? Yeah. And Rick, as you were saying, right, that mental part, you're just gaining more and more confidence. And it's, and as you say, there's, there's a difference between arrogance and confidence you've proven to yourself, whether every day in practice against Tom Marichak, or now against literally the best guys in your age in the country that you can play with anybody, right. And that, and that's gotta give you an incredible mental edge, as you said. I mean, I was a bigger, more physical guy. Like, you know, you're a big guy, right? So like, I. I'm going to be honest with you. I was never turned away by, I don't even care. Like people don't want you to use the word. I use it all the time. Like being a really great defenseman these days, you have to learn to be controlled violence. You have to have controlled violence in your life. And that's the truth. I really enjoyed the controlled violence of it all. And when I left college, it was really tough to find that, right? That, that out. That's what people don't really understand. Like, I didn't just go around trying to start fights on people. I would go into a summer league and be like, okay, here's what we got. I'm going to make sure that I fester and create this anger so I can really be effective. And dudes next to me be like, what is wrong with you? Like, why are you talking smack to me? And I'm just like, they didn't get it. I had to create that in my mind and go to a place. And I realize that now that I'm 50, that I did that, right. I didn't realize it when I was in my twenties, no one realizes what they're doing in a mindset until you take a step away and look at it from a different standpoint. And none of us really look at, you know, I love lacrosse. It's done so much for me. And it's done so much for my family right now. Let's be honest. I do clinics. It's not they're not free Right. Like I told you earlier i'm living in new jersey. I have the house in syracuse My daughter was at img. She now she's going to college to play lacrosse at stony brook How lucky am I? To be able to do that all simply because I picked up a six foot stick when I was younger Hey. Hey Rick. Jay talks a lot, you know, and I mean, I know I'm sure you two will talk about your skills training work, but he talks a lot about that mindset piece and teaching kids that mindset. As you got older, you, you learned that what you needed to do to get at that optimal level of performance and that anger and creating tension, right? Was that thing. Yeah. What have you learned over time about different ways people, you know, kids or players get in that mindset? Cause I imagine it's, you find different things that channel that for different people. Yeah. I mean, for me, I use lacrosse as an outlet. I had a mom, uh, get diagnosed with cancer when I was 13 or 14, and I use that as my outlet of life. Right? And then I learned how to use that continually to be when I got over the line every all the problems I had, and we all have issues in our lives. We all have stresses. I learned to just take that and put it by the wayside for the two hours. I was there And it saved me in a lot of ways I don't know if people really understand that it saves you Because it gives you a mental break

Jay: 24:56

How about if we transition to. J m l and let's do that. We'll get into a little bit of the mindset. We'll do a mindset minute here.

25:05

One of the techniques that Brian Cain talks about is having in your mind that you are crossing a threshold when you're getting on to your playing field. And that's what Rick Beardsley is talking about right there. You cross that line and you are in a world of intensity, you are completely absorbed. You are in the zone and you are an animal and you are in the jungle and you were determined to be king of that jungle. I know Dr. Rob Gilbert loves to talk about lions and the reason he likes to talk about lions. Is because they're not the biggest, they're not the strongest. They're not even the fastest animals in the jungle, but they are the Kings of the jungle. Because of their mindset. Aline we'll hunt down any animal and its territory and it does not care how big the pray is, how fast the pray is or how terrifying the prey may seem. They just get together with their teammates, their pride and make it happen. They make it happen with daring, with cunning and with ferocity. And if you want to Excel in the game of lacrosse. You need to make the decision that every time you cross that line and step onto the field, you are transformed. Transformed into something as tenacious, as ferocious and as confident as the king of the jungle. And if you have that as your mindset, It will be well on your way to becoming a legend. Uh, legend. First of your rec team then of your travel team. Then of your high school team and eventually your college and or professional team. It's as simple as flipping a switch off in your mind. Making the decision that you're good enough to be great. And if you're not currently good enough, you'll do whatever it takes to get good enough to work and learn and push yourself until you are great until you are the king of the jungle. And if you want to learn more about the skills, the lax IQ and the mindset it takes to become your best. Then download the Jim McMahon lacrosse app today available at Google play and the apple app store. All right You hungry lions out there we will return to our interview in progress

Ron: 27:17

Like you, you either work hard and separate, or you, you know, if you can't separate the net, then guess what needs to happen, you need to figure out how to separate or find a way to continue to enjoy the game because often we allow kids to quit so quickly and you can't allow people to quit. I made mistakes. In my life up until yesterday, right? You know, I quit on my high school team because of a parent like that was a bad mistake, you know, three years ago. That was a terrible mistake or four years ago. That that's, that's a mistake I made. Would I now gut it out? You bet you, I totally would, but I make mistakes, but that sport. Has taught me how to rebound off those mistakes. And what we do is a direct correlation. When people ask me what I do for a living, I don't tell them that I work at Mercury Screen Printing and I sell apparel. And I do clinics on the side. I tell them I do lacrosse. And I also sling tank tops. Like, and I do enjoy, you know, I make, make light of it. I make a significant living at my day job and I'm able to use it to help build kids. Because the stuff that I'm doing is really important to me because in the position alone that we're in, we're at the infancy of the position and the training in it. Not many guys are doing it. I mean, I even came up with, guys, I wrote a 33 page manual. Yeah, I saw that online that we're definitely, it's here about that, but what's that all about? I mean, it was, it really started as a checklist. Like, dude, I'm not going to lie. He was so sick of kids showing up at a clinic and not even knowing how to do a basic breakdown. They'd come to it. And again, I'm not ripping on anybody's club or their high school, but it can hold everybody else up. Like I do some skills training too. And it's like, dude, these are the basics. I don't understand. This is the first thing I was taught. Yeah, just your butt end on the end of a stick, like to get it, like get a good stance, be balanced, hands in front. Those things that you think are happening that you take for granted because. You've done them. You were taught them. That was expected of you. That was a basic. So when I saw all this, I mean, what really triggered it was I, I went and did a clinic about a month and a half. No, I was like two months, a month and a half ago. And I said, all right, we're going to go over pick play. I did a certain pick drill, which I posted on my Instagram, right? Boom, boom, switch, communicate. It's just, you know, put it, just put a, you know, put one of those jumping things in your gym in the middle, right? Like those blocks. Kids didn't know how to position themselves on a pick. They didn't know the verbiage that you need to use on the pick. They didn't know under, over marry up ship. They didn't know any of those words. Now, am I ripping on anybody who doesn't know that by all means? No, that is why I created what I created and I'm not plugging it guys. I have sold 200 more. Hey, we're happy to plug it. I mean, we're all about the kids getting. Better. That was one of the main reasons we wanted to have you on here because you had skiller it, it started as a checklist six, and you have things like this available. So yeah, let's, it started as a checklist. Uhhuh, a little 12 thing checklist. I designed right off myself. Pecking away. Mm-Hmm. And then I was like, I'm gonna take it further and then I'm gonna take it further. And then as I think of things, I'm gonna take it further. And these are truly just my thoughts, but what it is in the, what I created. Was for those kids that don't know where to start. Don't know what to do. Like when I grew up, basic lifting workout, I had no idea. Did bench pressing curls in my garage. That's what Guidos did in Westchester. Like that's what I did. I didn't know the value of what a squat is, what a deadlift is and how many to do it. Right. I didn't know, like, I trade my own training on ground balls. Like I would pick up my stick every, you know, I played three sports and I would pick up my stick on Sundays. I would pick up my stick when I had daylight. I knew enough that lacrosse was my thing, but so I just created and it keeps to, it keeps growing every day. And I tell people yo, don't check my grammar figure it out This is me a guy with his 800 on his sats And if it helps guide those people along Which I think it will, just to give you a good core of being a good physical person, understanding an attitude, um, you know, understanding stick technology, understanding getting some checks, round ball work, shooting with a pole. Because I'm personally, so you know, to get a good d stick, a good d pole, get a good handle, for us it's shooting. I don't think it's wall ball. It's shooting. Shooting is big part because you understand where your balance is, where your strength is, and that's all shooting is, is right. Think about it. You always told shooting to a corner is a hard pass to a corner, right? Because with a deep hole, it's about getting that strength. Right. So that's awesome. I'm going to put a link. I want to put a link to this on our show notes for sure. Because, you know, I've been skills training now, maybe I coached youth lacrosse for like 18 years and then did some skills training. Andy Towers gave me some tips there and I've been doing that for three or four years and love it. But there's just so much that people need to learn. And this is what's going to make the sport great. You know, people like yourself, you've been doing this since 96, you know, right after you graduated. And you've got so much great playing experience yourself personally, but you're also connecting it with all the players from today. Coaching. So I think it's just awesome. I appreciate that. Hey, can I, uh, I, I'm gonna jump in here and Jay, I think we knew this was gonna be an interview where the script was meaningless. Jay Well, I wanna ask both of you a question. I mean, you've got, you've got two U 19, uh, world champions. Mm-Hmm. You got two guys who are multiple time All Americans. One on the defensive end and one on the offensive end. Mm-Hmm. And the thing that I, Rick, it's interesting, you're like Nona's, one of the great takeaway guys, I think. You've been talking about defense a bunch on this podcast, and you hadn't even mentioned the word check until a minute ago, right? And Jay, when I hear you talk about what it makes, it takes to become a great offensive player. It's all about the fundamentals, right? So I want to ask each of you, Rick, you got a new kid coming to your clinic. You see the raw talent. What are the three things, right, that you say you got to build that foundation from the ground up that can get you to become a great takeaway defenseman, but you'll never get there if you don't do these three things. And then Jay, I'd love to hear you do the same on the offensive side. You know, what are the three things that you got to develop to become a great offensive player? You go ahead. to hear the answer to that intriguing question, please tune in next week, as we continue with our series until we meet again, here to, hoping you find the twine. We're signing off here at the Get the LAX coop. Thanks again so much. We will see you the next time.