Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast Ep. 61 - Boston University Head Coach Ryan Polley - a podcast by Jamie Munro

Ryan Polley - Head Coach at Boston University 

01:02 Coach Polly's Coaching Journey 
-Starting in high school
-Introduction to lacrosse at Malvern 
-The competition of other sports
-Playing two years of basketball in college
-Trying lacrosse
-The decision to coach girls lacrosse and start a program 
-Moving into the accounting world while coaching 
-Leaving it all on the table to go to Yale 
-Making the transition to Boston 
-The experience of learning shooting space 

12:30 Mentors and Stories Learned Along the Way
-Coach Polly's Mother as a mentor 
-The introduction to coaching 
-Learning from coaches 
-Learning how to do a career and coach
-Learning from Andy Shay
 -Learning about the life outside of lacrosse
-Understanding recruiting philosophy 
-Climbing out of the hole at Yale

21:50 Creating and Evolving the Culture at BU
-The timing of everything 
-The process of getting the job at BU 
-Studying the blueprint of other club teams that had transitioned to D1
-Recruiting like a mad house at first 
-Needing senior leadership at first 
-Non-negotiables learned from Coach Polley's Mom
-Time of collecting reflections after the Loyola game 
-Accountability
-Motor Hard Work 
-Compete
-Family 
-Instilling accountability 
-Reading books 
-The cycle of leadership styles

33:19 Instilling Quality Control In a Culture
-Starts with the assistants
-Listening to the players opinions
-Open dialog with the other coaches

35:53 Difference Between Hard Work and Motor
-Hard work happens over a length of time 
-Motor is in the moment 
-Bringing a good attitude to a 6 am lift

37:01 Player Development Philosophy 
-Part whole philosophy 
-The first week of the year 
-Working on skill development in smaller numbers 
-Laying down a foundation of individual skills before complete team work 
-Live vs scripted time during practice
-Working on decision making in drills
-The development of athletic IQ from Basketball

45:19 Offensive Philosophy 
-Up Tempo-Free flowing 
-The difference when you don't have a dominant player
-More sharing of the ball
-Taking the opportunities that arise
-Playing 6v6 during the week
-Using West Genny 
-Using 4v4 and 5v5 drills

50:55 Defensive Philosophy 
-Personnel based 
-Best year was a "slide when you need to" year 
-The use of the automatic slide defenses
-Searching for an identity 
-Balancing sliding early and being able to rotate efficiently

55:49 Playing in the Patriot League 
-The coaches in the conference
-Murderers row of a conference 
-The parity of the Patriot League 
-The changing of the guard 
-The importance of being a 1 or 2 seed 

59:57 Recruiting 
-Starts with the transfers
-Commitment to academics
-Athleticism 
-Stick skills-Toughness
-Character
-How to tell if a dodger is really breaking a defender down 
-Judging IQ 
-Assessing off-ball play
-On ball vs off-ball play for defensemen 
-Recruiting Canadians

Further episodes of Phi-Lacrosse-ophy Podcast

Further podcasts by Jamie Munro

Website of Jamie Munro