The drill that turned into a game time strategy

This started as a concept to work on man up vs man down while incorporating some fast break transition.

The concept was simple.
Do a 30 second Man down vs Man up.

if the defense recovers one of their attackmen can come over to get the ball and you have 4v3 break going the other way with trailers as the offensive team needs to get back. (Great way to teach them to take care off the ball)

Same thing happens if time expires, at the end of 30 seconds the coach blows the whistle and the offense must put the ball down and a defensive player picks up the ball and goes. (Great way to teach playing off of the quick whistle)

The coach started to observe that the man down was scoring more then the man up team.
If the defense could run a quality man down then the offense more often than not did not score.
If the defense got possession and quickly got the ball upfield then more often than not they did score.

Then the coach thought… why not try this in a game?

A lacrosse purist head would explode at such an idea. But for a creative out of the box thinker… why not?

Doing this time to time in the game brought success and certainly through the other team off. Added the wrinkle of sending the attackmen over at random time to pressure the or double the ball carrier up top created opportunities.

Depending on the level of the teams many teams have a certain group with a certain mindset when they are even as opposed to man up. It takes them time to make the adjustment. Thus if they are not ready for it you may have success.

Especially if you are playing a team that does not have a strong man up offense.

Would you try this in a game?



Joseph Juter

Architect of Laxplaybook, globetrotter, and passionate strategist of the game we hold dear.

https://instagram.com/laxplaybook
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3-3 Zonde Defense

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Clearing 101 for new coaches