Starting at X and Moving Above GLE
Starting a man-up offense with one player behind the goal (X) forces the defense to respect the feeding threat and maintain their initial setup. Once the play begins and everyone moves above GLE, it disrupts defensive rotations, creates better shooting angles, and increases the chances of an open look.
Side Diamond Wheel
A 4-man wheel on the side in man-up offense forces the defense to rotate, communicate, and cover multiple moving players, increasing the chances of a missed slide or an open shooter. The constant movement creates better passing angles, skip lanes, and shooting opportunities, making it harder for the defense to stay organized and react in time.
Half Triangle Rotation
Shifting offensive sets—moving from no men in the crease to two, then to one—can create confusion for a zone defense, but it often disrupts the offense as well. Using half rotations within the midfield and attack triangles simplifies movement, keeping the offense fluid while forcing the defense to adjust without unnecessary confusion.
Pull and Reverse
A 2-2-2 man-up play uses precise ball movement and synchronized off-ball rotations to force defensive adjustments, creating gaps for cutters and wide-open shooters. The structure ensures constant offensive options, with built-in resets that maintain spacing and pressure on the defense.
Double Triangles High & Low
Running a man-up offense with a midfield triangle rotating together and an attack triangle rotating together forces the defense to constantly adjust, creating natural overloads, 2v1 situations, and open passing lanes. This structure maintains spacing, facilitates quick ball movement, and naturally generates picks and seals, making it easier to exploit defensive breakdowns for high-percentage scoring opportunities.
Cut Fill Look Backside
This Men’s Lacrosse Man Up play effectively forces the defense to rotate and adjust, creating gaps and confusion in their formation. By drawing attention to the cutter and crease movements, it opens up high-percentage scoring opportunities for the opposite wing.
Top Corner Wheel
This man-up set positions all six players above the goal line, creating constant scoring threats with coordinated rotations that challenge the defense to stay organized. The top-right rotation shifts defenders, allowing the offense to exploit the weak side, while stationary players maintain readiness to pass or shoot quickly.
4 Man Diamond Rotation
In this lacrosse man-up setup, a 4-man rotating diamond at the top works in unison to create movement, while two players remain low at goal line extended (GLE), ready to capitalize on defensive breakdowns. This formation forces the defense to make quick decisions, creating mismatches and opportunities for high-percentage scoring.
Understanding the 6-Man Offensive Rotation (Wheel) in a 3-3 Man-Up Set
In men’s lacrosse, man-up situations are prime moments to exploit your extra player and create high-percentage scoring opportunities. A dynamic 3-3 offensive set with a 6-man rotation keeps the defense guessing and opens up lanes for easy shots. Dive into the strategy that could change your game.
Crease Overload Deception Man Up Play
This man-up lacrosse play starts in a 1-4-1 formation and transitions into a 4-2 to confuse the defense. After passing the ball to the player behind the goal (at ‘X’), the crease attackman moves below the Goal Line Extended (GLE), overloading one side of the field. This shift forces the defense into tough decisions, allowing wing attackmen to sneak into the soft spot on the crease for high-percentage scoring opportunities.
1-3-2 Bottom Triangle Carry
This is a very clean man up that many of us can run. Sometimes a simple rotation and change in direction of the ball is enough to throw a defense off. Video included
Rotating Motion Box offense with 2 men in the crease
The 1-4-1 Rotating Motion Box offensive scheme is great for dodgers as it creates space. It makes it very easy to bring the top two defenders into the crease which creates good matchups on the perimeter. Keep in mind that strong takeaway defenders HATE being trapped on the crease as they want to play the ball to be more proactive in creating a turnover. These aggressive and now pent up strong defensemen have a tendency to slide very early leaving the crease men open.
Adjacent Triangle Rotation Man Up
It may look chaotic, but it is actually very simple. Two triangles rotate simultaneously and continuously towards the goal, from top to bottom and across from each other. This constant motion keeps the offense dynamic and the defense off balance, creating numerous opportunities for scoring.
1-3-2 Double Go Overload
The 1-3-2 Double Go Overload uses ball movement and misdirection, and finishes with two simultaneous cuts to overload the crease.
Man up Wheel
The basic premise is to pull a defender out of their zone, making the rotation awkward. It is shocking how many looks open up just from all the players on the permitter moving in sync.
3-3 to a 1-4-1 man up set change
In the video in the article we show how Cornell effectively uses changing the set from a 3-3 into a 1-4-1 to get a quick goal. Sometimes giving a different look is all you need to throw the defense off.
3 Man Wheel Around X Extra Man Lacrosse Play
This play is a twist on a simple 3 man wheel by having one part of the wheel circle around the goal through X. This play provides many different looks and nicely resets the formation to run the play again. You can also flip the wheel and run it on the other side if you want to get it to the lefties.
Man Up 2-3-1 crease overload with a wing clear and fill
This man up play follows the basic concept of overloading a side of the zone and forcing a defender in a zone to cover multiple players and/or communicate with his teammates at a high level.
3 Man Wheel Off Ball Extra Man Offensive Play
This play is a simple 3 man wheel off ball that makes our best left handed feeder the QB of a play that offers him many options to choose from. This play provides many different looks and nicely resets the formation to run the play again. You can also flip the wheel and run it on the other side if you want to get it to the lefties.
Double Back Side Overload
This is a great man up play out of a 2-3-1 set as it has many looks in the course of the rotation, overloads to one side and ends in the same set it began in making it easy to continue with your offense.