Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/24/20
From Press Release
Philly’s Grant Ament has teamed up with Rob Pannell and the A3 Lacrosse app (by Attack Academy) to provide online coaching and lacrosse instruction to young players at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The app offers free drills, premium video packages, and a unique 1-on-1 coaching portal creating a complete learning experience–the partnership brings together two powerhouses in a time when youth players are away from their teams and coaches.
The collaboration between Ament and Pannell was born out of a friendship they struck up when Ament – a Haverford School alum who was a Tewaaraton Award finalist last year for Penn State and – suffered the same injury as Pannell in 2018.
Pannell reached out to PSU head coach, Jeff Tambroni, who he played for at Cornell, offering to speak with Grant about the injury. Pannell had become a fan of Ament, who was leading the nation at the time in points, to lend some advice to the rising star.
“Rob shot me a message after I broke my foot to advise me on the process and make sure I was making the right decisions for the future,” remembers Ament. “I’d never gotten to know him on a deeper level before, but I was a huge fan of his, so it was a cool moment. From that point on, he has been nothing but a great friend and mentor to me in life beyond lacrosse.”
Pannell, who was playing for the NY Lizards at the time, knows a thing or two about the college game–he won the 2013 Tewaaraton Award and nominated for an ESPY for best collegiate athlete in 2011 while at Cornell.
“I had been following Grant for some time after meeting him at a camp that Tambroni ran,” said Pannell. “I was drawn to the way he quarterbacked the offense and his vision, he reminded me a lot of myself. More than anything when we met, he was respectful and my type of guy. When I saw that he broke his foot, I immediately reached out to Coach to see if I could help in any way.”
From there, the bond was formed: Pannell continued to mentor Ament as the two trained together in the offseason–Ament even coached at one of Pannell’s Attack Academy overnight camps. Pannell was building his Attack Academy App (A3 Lacrosse) at the time and the two had loose plans to bring Ament to the platform once his collegiate career came to a close.
Unfortunately, that day came sooner than expected when last month the Coronavirus forced the NCAA to cancel spring sports, leaving Ament without the second half of his senior season. Although the NCAA offered all affected athletes an additional year of eligibility, Ament decided to move on from his time at Penn State.
“It was a tough decision, but I am really excited for what is next in my lacrosse career,” said Ament, who was third in the nation in scoring when the season was stopped.
After the emotion from the decision subsided, Ament quickly realized that there were hundreds of thousands of young lacrosse players at home who also had their seasons taken from them, very few of which had the access to instruction he did. So he linked up with Pannell, who had already launched his Attack Academy App, to expedite their previous partnership plans.
The two got quickly to work and now have the A3 Lacrosse app in full form, with over 50 lacrosse videos to watch. The app represents a new wave of online learning. Like most platforms, it offers instructional videos and drills to practice, but its novelty is in the 1-on-1 coaching, where young players are able to receive direct coaching from their favorite players.
Users upload videos of themselves to the app–whether it be a highlight tape, game film, or just a backyard workout–and select which pro they want to review their film. Then the selected player, Ament or Pannell, watches the film, takes notes, and delivers audio and text feedback to the player directly through the app.
“It’s crazy,” states Pannell, “as a young player, I would’ve killed for the chance to get individual instruction from the pros. But to provide that opportunity for the next generation is pretty special.” In a time when kids are away from their normal teams and coaches, the A3 app offers unique access to elite level coaching.
The A3 Lacrosse app is currently available on the Apple App Store and is free to download. New videos are available continually.
About the Attack Academy
Own the Island. The Attack Academy is a training academy designed to increase offensive players’ skill level and lacrosse IQ. Started in 2017 by Rob Pannell, the Attack Academy runs dozens of camps all across the country with an emphasis on speed, agility, and conditioning. This year, they released the A3 app to extend the reach of that instruction beyond physical camps in hopes of creating a camp without limits.
@attackacademy theattackacademy.com