The 3-3 Zone is an effective and easy-to-teach ride in lacrosse. Its primary objective is to shift the attack and midfield lines laterally across the field to force the clearing team into making challenging passes. This zone ride removes the easy option of manipulating an attackman near the midfield line and ensures robust backup to counter any attempts to run through the defense for a clear. However, an open clear remains the best way to counter this ride.
Each attackman covers one-third of the field between the restraining line and the midfield line.
As the ball moves to one side, the attack line shifts laterally toward that side.
The backside attackman takes a deeper position to cover a player staying onside at the midfield line, allowing the other attackmen to shift towards the ball.