Lacrosse Playground: Who is behind Random Shot and how did it come in to fruition?
Dominick Fuccillo: My Uncle used to stand in the backyard and shout out a corner for his daughter to shoot at. He saw such an improvement in her reactions on the field from the drills that he called up his former college roommate who was a mechanical engineer and the Random Shot was born. The Random Shot uses a module with a built in motion sensor that picks up an athlete running by and shouts out a target to shoot too. This allowed my cousin to practice the drills by herself and offered a fun interactive way to practice that really improved my cousins shooting and agility. I ran the idea by my former teammates at Princeton and they really believed the machine helped with their shooting and especially their agility. With the encouragement of parents, coaches, and players my Uncle and I decided to introduce the Random Shot to the lacrosse world last January.
LPG: Very exciting! Seems like this took a good amount of research to perfect your product.
Dominick: We worked with our engineer, legal and manufacturing teams for over a year in the development process. We consistently improved the product and created an extremely reliable, durable, and cost effective electronic system.
LPG: Just judging by the testimonials and videos on your website (www.getrandomshot.com) athletes and parents alike are both quite fond of Random Shot. What is it about the Random Shot that makes them so much better?
Dominick: Why the Random Shot makes any level of athlete better is that it forces them to react and be put on the spot. I look at players practicing all the time and I see the same mistakes that result in poor game performance. I’ll see high school and college kids lining up their shot for five seconds before they shoot. In a game you can’t do this and you need to react in split seconds when you’re dodging and shooting. Practicing by making a lazy dodge and dropping your stick to try and pick off the same top shelf corner every time might look cool but it doesn’t help your game too much. The Random Shot forces you to make a dodge at a specific point, keep your stick and body balanced through the dodge, and be able to react to shoot anywhere. As a result kids will dodge better and shoot faster with much greater accuracy. I’ve used the Random Shot with kids just starting and professional lacrosse players and because it forces the player to react as fast as they can it will push any level of athlete to get better.
LPG: Can you give us a better understanding of the speed training and the varying options?
Dominick: There also is a great agility component to the Random Shot that with just 10 minutes a day will turn any athlete into a freak. If you put the targets on the ground and run back and forth to the targets it calls out, you will learn how to stay balanced and not take false steps when changing direction. More importantly you will be dead tired about 30 seconds in and really have to force yourself to work harder.
LPG: What is the feature that lacrosse players should look forward to the most?
Dominick: The feature that kids should look forward to the most is the fact that the Random Shot is a fun, interactive way to improve their game greatly. Coaches also really enjoy the Random Shot because they can work with the defense while the offense does shooting drills and work with the offense while the defense does agility drills. The Random Shot was a US Lacrosse product of the week and after 8 months of sales we are yet to have one complaint and only shining reviews. It has been purchased by youth programs, parents, players, college coaches, and even lacrosse legend Gary Gait Purchased one for his kids.
For more information on this product check out www.GetRandomShot.com.