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Latest coaching articles and tactical notes.
What a great stick skill drill to have players catch and pick up ground balls at different angles and at different distances. This is also a great drill for when you are vastly outnumbered as a coach as you can have many balls going at once.
This drill is also commonly used in hockey and soccer. For lacrosse this not only works on the stick skills of the offensive player but also teaches the defense how to slide and recover as well as handle Man Down or unsettled situations.
Sometimes we just need a simple routine for our face off guys to go through before a game or practice. Something to build the muscle memory and create focus before competition begins. This simple routine can be your answer.
This is a drill to work on 6V6 in transition, ball movement and team defense in a fast paced fun drill. This is a great drill if you are working with a large group of players.
What happens immediately after a loose ball pick-up? Here we focus on ground balls, ball movement, rides and clears all in one drill. Drills that directly emulate game scenarios, are fast-paced, and focus on a number of fundamentals simultaneously in every activity are great and this one certainly does that.
This fast drill encourages a tremendous amount of hustle from the players, the drill offers up a fast 2V1 to 2V2, it is really a shooting drill, encourages players to quickly recognize and ‘make plays’ as well as defenders learning to handle the ball in close quarters close to the cage, as well as attack players playing defense. High pace, high energy will add passion to your practice and get the kids moving and engaged.
Controlling the ball on a face off is key part of the game. This drill works on repetition and technique so that when it is game time you are guaranteed possession of the ball.
This is a great drill to test who should be on man and man down as it forces fast ball movement under pressure. It also forces the defense to work as a unit and rotate to the ball.
This is a great drill to work on communication between your face off man and his teammates coming in from the wing.
The V Drill is a great way to teach the proper mechanics and fundamentals of a double team. Traps and double teams apply to Defensemen and Middies applying a trap to obtain a possession, Attackmen riding, and even, dare I say it, Goalies, who may find themselves at the end of the game down by one getting pulled to help create a turnover. So, knowing how to properly apply the trap is something worth practicing - for everyone.
This drill works on a very specific and underappreciated skill, the exchange pass to the backside. The quickness and accuracy of an exchange pass to the backside often determines whether the defense has enough time to recover the backside. This skill is important for all offenses, but particularly offenses that rely heavily on the dodge-pass-pass-dodge/shoot concept like this 2-3-1 motion offense fade play.
Too often, we have to choose between having our faceoff players practice independently or participating in team drills. This competitive faceoff drill engages the entire team, eliminating the need to separate faceoff specialists from the group.
