First and Second Slide Strategies Without a Crease Player
In men’s lacrosse, when there’s no offensive player in the crease, the first slide in a man-to-man defense should come from the adjacent defender to the on-ball defender, providing immediate support. The second slide follows from the next adjacent defender or the recovering defender, ensuring all offensive players remain covered. Strong communication, quick recognition, and coordinated movements are key to executing these slides effectively.
Circle Box Team Defense Concept
I had a very athletic defense with a very low lax IQ. They understood how to get after the ball carrier, press and stay on their bottom hand. But they did not understand off-ball team defensive concepts. Thus I created a few Defensive concepts they could follow regardless if we were in a zone, man to man or even man down.
Pros & Cons of Pressure Defense
Many teams, especially less experienced or skilled teams, can not handle pressure. When I coached games where both teams are less skilled I found a lot of success in forcing the offense to make quick decisions. Typically I found that they would go to the goal and run into the defensive help. Obviously putting pressure can work in other situations as well.
Lock 2 Defense
The idea of a Lock 2 Defense is simple: your two short sticks shut off and the long sticks play defense. This works fantastically against teams that are not well balanced on offense -- short sticks shut off the best two offensive players to let the long poles play!
Adjacent Slide on Defense
When using an Adjacent Slide defense the goal is to lock off the crease, denying the ball to the man in front of the goal.
5 keys to Disciplined Defense
5 key points in the critical areas of coaching Checks vs. Position, Recovery, Angles, and coaching how to react to picks even with ‘match-ups’ in mind.