Two Handed

Rant: Coaches Who Think Lacrosse Players Have to Be Two-Handed

Ah yes, the holy grail of lacrosse coaching advice: “You have to be two-handed to be a great player.” If I had a dollar for every time I heard a coach say that, I could fund an entire season of summer tournaments. Look, I get it—being able to use both hands sounds like a great idea in theory. But in practice? The obsession with turning every player into a perfectly balanced, ambidextrous machine is not only unnecessary, but sometimes downright detrimental.

Let’s break it down: not every player needs to be two-handed to be successful. Some of the best players to ever pick up a lacrosse stick were absolute monsters with just one hand. I’m talking about legends who could dodge, pass, and shoot using their dominant hand—and they did it so well that defenders couldn't stop them even if they knew it was coming. Why? Because they mastered their craft. They honed their skills to the point where they didn’t need a weak, half-baked left hand to “throw off” the defense. They just dominated with their strong hand.

But here’s where it gets infuriating: coaches who make it their personal mission to force every player to be equally proficient with both hands. These are the same coaches who turn every practice into a relentless parade of left-hand dodges, weak-hand shooting drills, and pointless “two-handed” exercises that do more to frustrate kids than to help them develop. And what does this accomplish? Usually, nothing. A player’s weak hand remains weak, and they end up being mediocre at everything instead of elite with their dominant hand.

Let’s be real for a second. Lacrosse isn’t a game of perfectly balanced symmetries. It’s a game of deception, quick thinking, and exploiting your strengths. If a player’s strong hand is so dominant that it consistently gets the job done, why waste time forcing them to use their off-hand in every situation? Sure, there’s value in developing that skill to a functional level. But making it a hill to die on? That’s just outdated coaching philosophy.

Great players aren’t great because they can switch hands at will—they’re great because they use their strengths and outsmart their opponents. Coaches who live and die by the “you must be two-handed” mantra are missing the point. Lacrosse is about maximizing your unique abilities, not fitting everyone into the same rigid mold.

What really matters is lax IQ, footwork, vision, and creativity. Stop treating lacrosse like it's some equation where having two equal hands is the magic solution to all problems. Some of the best players I've coached or watched didn’t give two cents about their off-hand. They developed their dominant hand to a point where they could fake, dodge, and snipe with such precision that they didn’t need a second hand to be successful. They made it work because they knew how to play the game, not because they could shoot equally well with both hands.

So, here’s a message to the “two-handed or bust” crowd: relax. Let your players develop their strengths instead of forcing everyone into the same mold. Not every lacrosse player needs to be perfectly ambidextrous to be elite, and not every scenario on the field requires a switch of hands. Work on game IQ and decision-making, and stop pretending that two hands will fix everything.

P-Mac