A Lesson In Deception: NCAA Final Four Gets Twisted

Deception is a key to being a great shooter. This Final Four weekend, we saw an extraordinary amount of twister finishes being used to deceive goalies and increase angle. Let's dive deeper.

If you watch the top scorers in lacrosse history, you’ll notice 1 key theme: deception. Deception is the ability to deceive, to make someone think you are doing something you’re not. We can be deceptive shooters, throw no look feeds, bait finishers, disguise slide packages and more. Deception is key. If you watched any of the NCAA semifinal action, men’s and women’s, 1 deceptive finish kept occurring over and over: the Twister 🌪️.

Not to be confused with the women’s lacrosse “twizzler”, the twister is becoming increasingly popular in field lacrosse.

There are a few ways to shoot a twister, but let’s quickly unpack the how and the why.

Why Shoot a twister?

The twister is a deceptive shot because it changes the angle of the release. It can be hard for the goalie to read it coming out of the stick. The shot starts on one side, and the shooter manipulates their top hand so the stick starts to move towards the opposite side of their body as they release. 

My former teammate Josh Byrne also identifies a twister as simply turning your wrists to the outside as you release, manipulating the path of the stick less, but the head of the stick more. Jamie Munro has used the terminology "curveball" for this as well. It can cause goalies to make an incorrect read of the ball coming out of the stick. This way might work better because you alter your stick path and angle less. Take a look: 

Besides deceiving the goalie, there are 2 other reasons I see twisters as extremely functional and important for all shooters to start exploring.

1- Increase Your Angle

By bringing your top hand over, you could increase your angle back to the middle of the field. Brian Tevlin demonstrated this in his GWG in the semifinals. Bringing his right hand over allowed him to maintain some angle as he quickly ran out of real estate down the right alley.

Study  here how TJ Malone uses a quick twister finish to increase angle on the doorstep. Instead of switching to his left, or throwing fakes to catch the goalie, he makes the choice to twister around him and keep it in his strong hand. 

2- Avoid contact on your release

Avoid a defender & their check by releasing the ball on the other half of your body. When you are cradling across your body, but still want to release the shot and keep it protected, this is a great shot to shoot.

Let’s first look at Kayla Martello off the 8 meter for Boston College. She protects beautifully, fights to finish across the front of the goal, and then twisters back around the goalie.

Jake Taylor's Twisters

Jake Taylor left fans bewildered at the confidence and creativity he used with his twisters. One is off this cut down. He is a strong righty finisher so he plays to his strength. He catches the BTB pass and twisters short side. The release of the twister, when placed near side, can often get goalies guessing far. He had to one up Kavanagh on the creative feed, didn't he? 

His game tying twister, was more exaggerated and more insane. Almost a sidearm release across his body, all you need to see is the goalies reaction to know that this was pure deception. 

This extreme version was reminiscent of the Tufts twister, down the right alley, that went viral. Who would think to do that? There is something to be said for playing to your strong hand, getting your stick back to the middle, and being deceptive. More players should be working on this.

Check out Pat McIntosh for UVA. This is an unbelievable twister that he actually twists around the goalie, but gets the ball to the far pipe. It’s all about angles. The goalie tries to take away his angle and the low angle twister was a great choice. Zed Williams pulled one of these off against Hopkins back in my NCAA days too. The stick has eyes! 

Recently I’ve picked up squash. I’ve only played a few times, so I’m a work in progress to say the least. Some of the guys I’ve played with will comment and give compliments to players, saying “good choice.” That’s exactly what this is. It's more than just a shot. Making a choice, or decision, to use one release compared to another. You don’t have time to think. Ask yourself, "what have I trained and worked on in my game so that when the pressures on and the moment is big, I can execute my choice?"

One of my only regrets in my own development growing up was not pushing myself to do more creative feeds and finishes. BTB's and other shots were considered "tricks" or "fancy" or "showing off", not functional. You never know when you could make a big play with a shot or feed like this (yes you can twister on feeds too!)

Enjoy the NCAA men's finals. I’ll be there and if you see me, please stop me and say hello! Let’s go!

- Coach Class

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