3V3 Motion Recovery and More!!!! Coach Mahoney, St. Lawrence

Following this, my first podcast with Coach Mike Mahoney at St. Lawrence I was extremely intrigued by this lacrosse drill and cannot wait to put it in my practice plan.

First, are these issues you work hard to emphasize? Do you ever struggle as a Coach with this?

1. We run a Motion and work hard to keep our middies consistently rotating in their triangles…
2. We often slide from the crease and need help keeping our middies focused and communicating as they slide covering a team with a disciplined Motion Offense.

Funny after all these years I have never seen anything like this lacrosse drill from St. Lawrence. I love it!!! Please read through the entire drill and then check out the diagrams below.

This lacrosse drill is exclusively for Middies on offense and your D Mids/LSM on Defense focusing on the unique movement and slides (communication) defensively.

There are three offensive middies in this drill. We begin in our base offensive configuration of two middies up top, and a middie in the crease or ‘high’ crease. Defensively, each is covered by a middie playing defense, your D Mids, and/or LSM. With me so far?

But also in the lacrosse drill is a “Stationary” attackman at X, or what Coach Mahoney refers to as the “transfer “ player. Each groups stays in the drill for three reps.

We pass the ball to begin the drill to one of the offensive middies up top, and we play. This middie:

1. Drives and tries to get inside for a shot
2. Drives and perhaps gets a shot from the outside
3. Drives then passes back to a middie filling his space
4. Or drives deep and then passes the ball to X who then redirects the offense with a pass to the weak side. In this case the player at X is stationary and only there to move the ball quickly to the other side, he does not go to the cage.

And we play, with the offensive middies continually moving.

But the real beauty of this drill is that there is also a strong emphasis on defensive slides from the middies as well, also focusing on strong verbal defensive communication.

As the topside offensive middie drives, we slide to him from the defensive middie in the crease. The top backside defensive middie then immediately drops into the crease. And the original middie playing defense on the original middie driving now also recovers inside and then to the third offensive middie, perhaps now the “fill” middie.

The purpose of the lacrosse drill is to emphasize the continuous motion offensively, and to reinforce the middie slides defensively. Thus we might want to have the defensive players slide aggressively on every move, just to teach where they should be, and to give them a lot of defensive slides reps.

Coach Mahoney explains all this this better than I do… for all Free Members, just click here to listen to Coach Mahoney in his own words,

Love to get your comments below! Or email me, mike@laxcoachmike.com.

A New Jailbreak Scramble from Jacksonville University
Coach John Galloway

Coach Galloway may be a relatively new Head Lacrosse Coach, but he is certainly not new to lacrosse coaches. Coach was awesome on my recent podcast and shared a number of great lacrosse drills. Here we feature a great drill that can be fun and effective for all age groups and talent levels. At JU this is their version of “Jailbreak.”

This is a 6V6 Scramble Lacrosse Drill. It is a relatively straight forward drill with a lot of options, and a unique focus at JU.

The drill begins with six offensive and six defensive players and a goalie,

West Genny on Steroids… Coach Seaman

I have learned so much from Coach Tony Seaman, he was coaching transition lacrosse long before it was as popular as we find today. In my recent podcast, Coach shared a new look on his traditional West Genny Drill that they use in practice at St. Andrews as well as the Denver Outlaws.

Most Coaches run variations of the West Genny 3V2 transition drill with players flying up and down a short field. You can run this drill with new defenders (2) entering the drill waiting in the defensive end, you might run this drill with offensive players sprinting back to play defense, with the last to touch on the offensive end out of the drill as three new offensive players enter the drill with a quick outlet pass from the goalie, or Bill Tierney runs a variation where the new defensive players enter the drill from midpoint in the short field, all kind of variations.

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NEW PRESS RELEASE, LAXCOACHMIKE

For more information contact:
Mike Muetzel, 770-335-2120, mike@laxcoachmike.com

Changing Lacrosse Landscape in Atlanta From
Copperhead Lacrosse

May 25, 2018

Atlanta, GA – Long standing lacrosse company Copperhead Lacrosse announces a change in ownership to a group led by national lacrosse coaching resource Mike Muetzel.

“We want to thank Copperheads, Tom DeBole and Leigh Schlumper for the strong organization they have built over 12 years, and we are excited to continue to grow the game of lacrosse in the Southern Crescent of Atlanta and into other key emerging areas,” from new President Mike Muetzel.

Muetzel a former US Lacrosse Coach of the Year, GA (McIntosh HS,2007) and Southeast Lacrosse Conference DI Coach of the Year (Auburn, 2013) will head the new ownership team. In 2007, Muetzel coached the Copperhead Dick’s U17 National Championship Team, exclusively with lacrosse players from Georgia. In addition in 2007 Muetzel introduced www.laxcoachmike.com the largest exclusive resource for lacrosse coaches with over 7,000 Member Lacrosse Coaches, authored five eBooks on Coaching Lacrosse, and conducted numerous coaching clinics across the country. For the last 17 years Muetzel has also has been a nationally recognized Corporate Generational Leadership consultant, author and speaker working with companies including AT&T, the FAA, GWU, Motorola, Hilton, Georgia Department of Labor and many others.

Also joining new ownership is David (Coach Carter) Smith. Growing up in Maryland, Referred to as Coach Carter, Smith went on to captain of The University of Tennessee Lacrosse team, where he led the SELC in scoring. Coach Carter also founded and operated and played for the Chicago based Northside Tribe Lacrosse Club. After ten years of post-collegiate play, in 2011 Carter transitioned to coaching with Copperhead Lacrosse. Coach Carter was named Head Coach of The Whitefield Academy MS Lacrosse team in 2014, and joined the coaching staff of The Nike Lacrosse Camp at Clemson University in 2015.
About Copperhead Lacrosse

Michael Neill founded Copperhead Lacrosse with a single travel team in 2004. Partners, Tom DeBole and Leigh Schlumper purchased the Copperheads in 2005 and worked to dynamically grow the company. The program has over 25 Tournament Championships from Baltimore to Denver including the 2009 Dick’s Tournament Championship team, coached by Muetzel. Since it’s inception Copperhead Lacrosse has grow to over 700 in three recreational lacrosse leagues.
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Bucknell “Numbers Drill” with some awesome Twists…
Coach Fedorjaka

I love this coach, if you check out the podcast you too will be amazed at his attention to detail, actually you can listen to Coach describe this awesome lacrosse drill in his own words, Free for all Free Members in the podcast section under “Preview”… read through this then come back and click here…

OK, most of us run some type of version of his “Numbers Drill,” and we have a few versions of this in our article section. Scott Marr from Albany runs something very similar and calls it his JailBreak Drill, it too is in our article section. (use the search box for easy access)

But in this case, Coach Fedorjaka has added some incredible twists as well as a unique variation.

Basic Lacrosse Drill

We start at the midfield line w six lines of offensive players and each line is numbered 1-6. In between the six lines of offensive players we have five lines of defensive players, and again, each line has a number. Coach also has a sixth line of defenders, but with only one or two D Players as this line (#6 Defense) gets very few reps.

Each “rep” is different it might be four on offense and three on defense, and all variations including six on offense and only one on defense or even four on offense and six on defense. Are you with me so far? Sounds familiar, as most of us run something like this.

The Drill begins with a ground ball deliberately rolled to an offensive player by a Coach. Whatever the numbers called for the defense, all defensive players sprint to the “Hub” and play defense from the “inside out.” So even thought the drill begins with a ground ball, it is not really contested, just rolled out to any of the offensive players, then all players spring into the offensive end.

I want to point out that Coach Fedorjaka reinforces with his defenders to always have a defensive player between the shooter and the goalie, always, always.

Twists:

1. The thing I love the most about the very unique way Bucknell runs this drill is the way it begins.

The “Joker Lacrosse Drill” St. Leo University
Coach Brad Jorgenson

Love this drill. Love this Coach. I have been writing up NCAA Lacrosse Drills for about ten years. That is over 230 unique drills or twists on lacrosse drills I have written up between my site and Laxpower.com. This is one of the most unique looks I have seen, and when Coach Jorgenson explained the rational behind this lacrosse drill, I was amazed.

The context of the conversation in the recent podcast was around transition drills. The culture of the St. Leo Lacrosse team is extremely fast paced, what I used to think of as true transition, “get it up and down” lacrosse, but Coach Jorgenson gave me, and gave all of us something to think about in a new context.

To me, transition drills or transition lacrosse is not about just “fast breaks,” although that might be a part of it. It is about quick ball movement off of a ground ball. Or off of a slide, double-team, or a ride… But Coach Jorgenson described his players always having the transition green light in a 5V5 transition scenario, and then how he reinforces it through this lacrosse drill.

The Cannon Drill, Utah
From Coach Holman

I was really impressed in the recent podcast with Coach Holman and their new DI Program. I am going to love watching this program develop.

Coach Holman has put together an incredible coaching staff and a total group effort in the development of true game scenario lacrosse drills. One of the more unique aspects of his practices are the focus they put on poles playing offense in the drills and consequently the “shorties” in defensive positions in drills even the attackmen.

I think every college coach I have interviewed (more than 157 hours worth) runs this drill. We first wrote up this drill in our article section from Coach Cottle. It is a full field transition drill that begins with two lines of three players at the face off wings and we begin with a ground ball. But at Utah they had a pretty awesome twist to develop offensive skills in their poles, and a number of different scenarios.

Love to get your thoughts below, or email me, mike@laxcoachmike.com

Robert Morris Short Shot Clock to Make Practices Great!
Andrew McMinn, Head Coach

I fell in love with this great Coach on our first podcast with Andrew McMinn, Head Coach Robert Morris. He is a great DI Coach, creative, passionate and originally from a non-traditional area background.

As we talked Coach emphasized their use of a “Short Shot Clock.” Actually, perhaps initiated in lacrosse drills for riding and clearing, now it is a part of their practice culture, and I can see the huge benefits. In essence, when the ball goes over the midline, immediately there is a 15-second shot clock to a shot.

If you are unable to have a scoreboard clock on the field simply have a coach start a verbal 15-second countdown.

Key Attributes of This Technique

1. Implement a “Push” Transition mentality
2. Teach Offenses to be aggressive
3. Capitalize with as many reps as possible, while keeping lacrosse drills to 7-8 minutes

I get a lot of emails regarding the slow pains of working on Rides and Clears. Using this creative technique we can speed up the pace, allowing more reps, more engaged players, and a lot more fun. As soon as we clear in the drill past midfield, the countdown begins.

At Robert Morris they use the same concept of the Short Shot Clock to work on Face Offs, Coach suggested by adding the Short Shot Clock to the Face Off work, they can average three face offs per minute. Thus in 7-8 minutes, the get in 20-25 face offs. Very Cool eh?

Coach was also quick to point out, they still focus on 6V6, they just treat 6V6 as a separate element in practices.

Click Here to listen to this great coach describe this practice concept for all free members,

Final note, this works even better by adding a competition element to this technique. A stop is a point, and a score is two points, love it!!

Please share your comments below! Or mike@laxcoachmike.com

Building Leadership Within Your Lacrosse Team
With some help from Head Coach Michigan, Coach Conry

Not sure why we got to this subject towards the end of my recent podcast with Head Coach Kevin Conry from Michigan, but I learned a lot.

Let me begin by suggesting I enjoy an outside reputation as a pretty good, but in my eyes not great coach. Or perhaps 35-40 yrs counts for something. However there are lacrosse-coaching areas that I am not so good at all, coaching goalies, coaching the minutia of face offs, … and Team Leadership within the Team. Actually I am terrible.

My dream/fantasy is to one day call a time out at the end of a close game and be prepared with a concise plan, anxious to communicate and encourage my team. In my “Time Out” fantasy, as the players approach two or three of my players tell me to go sit on the bench, “they have got this…”

I think I have modified my coaching style to address the unique characteristics of Millennial players, even spoken at LaxCon on that very subject. And as some of you know I have written books on the subject in my Leadership Consulting work at the corporate level, so I have 20 years of research. But I yearn for better leadership with this generation on my lacrosse teams, at least in my experience, not speaking for anybody else.

Young players today are not going to automatically respect authority figures simply because they have the title of Coach or regardless of how many Coach of the Year Awards you might have. More so than with any previous generation of players respect needs to be earned by coaches everyday with the practice plan, the preparation by the coach, as well as the communication style, but that is another article.

Choosing “Leadership” oriented Captains has been a challenge for me. Here are techniques I have tried…. Yet rarely in the last ten years have been satisfied,

Traditional

Shooting, Conditioning, Transition and More…
Coach Andrew Fink

Coach Andrew Fink starting a new DIII Program at University of St. Joseph in Connecticut following a great run at Mt. Ida shared his practice philosophies in a recent podcast.

I loved interviewing him and was intrigued by his practice philosophies that open with a lot of stickwork/touches both short and long passes, and conditioning all combined together. And the he uses this same 40- minute script to begin each practice. Although it is not as monotonous as it sounds, as he is very tuned in to making sure the players are looking forward to a shooting finish in may cases. And he emphasized each drill or element of the script including the one we highlight below is only 6-7 minutes, with only one or two exceptions.

This lacrosse drill is a great example…

OK, this is a Shooting Drill, but even after ten years of podcasts I have not heard anything like it, I can imagine the players love it. And it has so many benefits.

Picture this: We have two lines at the midfield line. As in almost all of his initial drills these lines include attack, middies, D Mids, LSMs and poles all mixed together. This is a point of emphasis for Coach as he is transition based, and wants his LSMs and Poles to be aggressive carrying into the offensive end… all the time.

Unbelievable Great Transition Drill from Roanoke
Coach Bill Pilat

OK, it is a consistently great program, and a consistently great Coach. They have been a transition team for a long time and Coach Pilat shares a key drill we had not seen before, and you are going to love this!! 341 Wins, 13 straight willing seasons, and 70% win percentage, the highest in ODAC.

First, I am going to describe the drill the way they run it at Roanoke . Then we will share some ideas for teams with slightly smaller rosters.

This drill is configured in three segments. Almost like three separate zones of the field. First, inside the Restraining Lines we have three Attack and three poles and a goalie at each end. All of these players must stay below the Restraining Line. So we have an “offensive zone” at each end.

Next we have three middies from each team located in the middle of the field between the Restraining Lines. Thus a “middle of the field zone.” With the single exception detailed below, all middies must stay between the Restraining Lines. I would incorporate LSM’s and D Mids in this six. Might not even be a bad idea to incorporate a pole inis mix as well. Thus we have three distinct zones where players are located, …. As we begin there is an exception for one middie.

5V4 GB Transition into fun!!
Coach Eric Wolf, LIU

OK, I now have a man crush on this great young coach. His practices are fast with five-minute drills and at the same time focus on fundamentals. This lacrosse drill is pretty straightforward, but an absolute blast to run. He gives credit to Coach DeLuca (Cornell, Duke, now Delaware.)

The drill has five offensive players and four defensive players at one end, with a goalie in the cage.

At the other end, the cage is moved forward to the opposite side Box, with the cage and a goalie at the opposite Restraining Line.

Coach Berkman, Salisbury Designs 2 New Lacrosse Drills

OK I admit I am extremely biased. Coach Berkman is a friend, a mentor, and has been an incredible positive influence on any success I have had as a lacrosse coach. In the recent podcast he shared four new drills he had designed for this year, this team, and as you might expect they were awesome. There is a good reason why he has 530 plus wins, 30 Consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, and 12 national DIII Championships.

Before the podcast he shared his practice plan w me and I laughed as I saw 4 min drills that I could only imagine were electric to watch.

In this case he has taken it to a new level. He rarely runs any drills two days in a row keeping in interesting for the players. He uses shooting drills for touches, (sound like my site so far?) but he is perhaps best at integrating game scenarios into even basic fundamental lacrosse drills.

So here I want to share two of those that are really extensions of the same concepts. The first is a 3V2 that begins with a 1V1… So I can hear you saying “we already do that… nothing new here” but read on….

1V1 to 3V2 Salisbury Style

So we begin with four lines of offensive players, and four lines of defensive players set up in a “Diamond” around the Box. There is a line at each GLE wing, a line up top, and a line behind. Although we have four lines of each, only three lines of offensive players and two lines of defensive players are in the drill at a time, they change w each rep, and it is fast so players have to be engaged.

Wednesday is “Compete Day! at Merrimack”
Coach Mike Morgan

I really loved the recent podcast with Coach Morgan. He is extremely organized and infuses his passion in every practice. Often in season they step up the tempo and competition with a Wednesday Compete Day.

The entire 1 hr podcast with Coach Morgan is available for all Members, Free and Premium, click here

Most all of us have seen the benefits of creating competition in practice drills, and keeping score in a specific drill. In the case of Merrimack it goes up a notch or two…

The compete day is not just a single drill, but three drills run back to back with a cumulative score for running… and often can get chippy and at the very least highly highly competitive. The entire sequence runs for 15-20 minutes or so, thus extending the competitive element far beyond an eight minute lacrosse drill.

Competition Drill #1 — 8 Lines

This is a half field fast paced lacrosse drill that begins with a scramble ground ball into a 4V4. At the midfield line we have three lines of white, three lines of blue, of to the side down low we have a single white and a single blue.

Coach rolls out a ground ball and we play. If the offense scores they get a point, if the defense gets the ground ball and clears to the midfield line they get a point. We play to 5 points then very very quickly on to the next lacrosse drill in the Compete Day.

Competition Drill #2 — 4V4 in a very unique way…

Coach Morgan blew me away with the general dialog on practice drills and here is a great example. This drill kind of starts with a 5V4 then into a 4V4 and then a build up element as well,

This drill begins at the midfield line with a face off specialist facing off but by himself. In essence it is a skeleton face off. The FOGO pinches or pops, then brings the ball down to the offense and defense, four on offense and four on defense, then the FOGO returns to midfield. And we play 4V4 at the offensive end.

The offense scores a point if they score a goal, the defense gets a point if they get the ball, and clear just up to the 30 yard line to keep the reps of the drill moving fast.

Then immediately, another “skeleton” face off, but now the FOGO passes off into a 5V5, we continue then the next rep, same thing but into a 6V6. This “compete” segment usually is another 8-10 minutes.

Now it gets awesome!!!

Competition Drill #3 — 5V5 Pick your team!

This final drill is a single rep or you could play to three or five however…

The “White” sends out there five best players, and “Blue” sends out their five best offensive players and we play. The other players are not in the drill but engaged and cheering as this is the last element of competition day.

It is typically just five players on offense and defense, however they may play where they can sub out a player to keep it interesting on some days,

You gotta love this eh?

If you listen to the full podcast free for all of our members, these drills come on about the 21 minute mark into the podcast, just click here,

Mason Dixon Lacrosse Drill
From our Podcast w Mike Murphy, Penn

In our recent podcast with Mike Murphy from Penn, Coach described how he has dramatically increased the pace and competitive element in his lacrosse practice plans since our last podcast three years ago. The competitive nature comes from the way he has split his roster into four different teams, he refers to as “Tribes” (named after Indian Tribes) that compete as teams daily and weekly in practice.
But the pace comes from quick transition drills, right up my alley eh? This drill he refers to as the “Mason Dixon” lacrosse drill. I was not familiar with the drill but when I took it to practice this week some of my coaches were familiar with the drill.
In its basic configuration it is a 3V2 “back to front” that quickly evolves into a 4V3 “front to back.” It might take your players a day or so to really get the hang of it, but our kids loved it.
For a HS roster split your team into two groups, each group has attackmen, middies and poles. Our kids love it when the poles get to play offense.

To begin, we have three offensive lines at the End Line, behind the cage, and one line carries in to begin the drill (lets refer to these as the white pinnies.) At the top of the Box, or a few steps in we have two players (blue pinnies) who will play defense. And we play 3V2….

Coaching tips: the offensive players need to sprint to get to their spots above GLE, their spots and “spacing” are critical. Defensive players need to stay “on top” of the cage, in a 3V2 no need to cover the player behind, but their must be defensive communication.

So, we play out the 3V2, are you with me so far? Immediately after a stop or a goal, the three former offensive players stay in the drill (white pinnies) while the two defenders exit the drill. However, from the four lines (blue pinnies) at the Restraining Line a player immediately carries into the drill with his other three teammates and now we are 4V3, Blue w four, White w three. And we play 4V3.

After a stop or a score we immediately start a new rep w Three players from Behind and Two from up top, and we continue back into the 4V3.

At Penn they run this about three minutes, we ran it for five minutes.
This is so cool…. Now we switch the Blue Pinnies go behind and the White Pinnies go up top! And we played another five minutes.
To take it up a notch, keep score and make it competitive,

Click Here to listen (free for all free members) as Coach Mike Murphy explains this better than I have,
Love to get your thoughts below!

Mike@laxcoachmike.com

Targeted Creative Lacrosse Drills
Jason Lange, Montevallo University – 32 Keep A Way

After my recent podcast with this young coach, I was struck by his creativity, and began to give a lot more thought to my own personal practice plans. Incidentally, as it Corona Virus time the full podcast is free to all members, take the time to be a better coach, click here and listen to the entire podcast,

It is interesting that I interviewed and did a podcast with Jason four years ago (when he was at Pfeifer,) and in just four years his practice plans template has changed dramatically. Most of us think that great coaches have a plan or template and stick to it, just inserting drills to keep it interesting. I am amazed on my site how the good coaches are always changing the way they practice.

In the podcast Coach shared a drill that was born out of his own creativity and driven by a specific skill set that was not great in a recent game. I want to share the specifics, but the point here is much bigger than the individual drill,

In this case his young team struggled a bit in a game with quick double teams and heavy pressure. Not unusual for a young team correct? But in this case Coach addressed the issue with a new lacrosse drill.

Picture this; the field is laid out with a three to five stations, all the same, several squares defined by flat cones. The size of the four-corner square is 12×12 or even 10×10. In each square we play a 3V2 Keep-A-Way in the tight confined area. For this lacrosse drill, all players are mixed, our poles are playing offense, our attack is playing some defense and so on…

A group of five enters the box, three on offense, two on defense. And we play Keep-A-Way in the tight box. The play continues in each box until the defense causes a turnover, or the ball goes outside the box. With this stipulation, each rep or set might be just 10-15 seconds per group. And bang we have a new group…

Although we run a ton of 3V2 “Crunch Drills” (small space 3V2 we have a number of these on the site or email me) the go to a goal or a shot, offense usually plays just offense, etc… In this case by having multiple boxes depending on the size of your roster, everyone, each and every player is getting a lot of reps to reinforce the identified fundamentals.

Now Coach puts a twist on the drill, as the offense is playing in the box, we add a stipulation, it forces a pick and requires a pass out of the pick. And we are reinforcing “step away” techniques, or perhaps behind the back passes if your team can handle it… or pass and pick, encouraging the defense to double team the pick and so on…. Just be creative. All this goes on for just 5-7 minutes then on to the next drill on your practice plan.

This a great lacrosse drill and an interesting addition to your practice arsenal, but the point for coaches is even bigger…

In this down time, perhaps review part of a game film, and challenge yourself as a coach to design or search on-line resources for a drill to address the identified fundamentals. Try and create a twist on the drill that keeps everybody moving, again perhaps in multiple locations.

I know for me, and I think for many coaches, we have a ton of drills on file and just plug them into the practice plan. Taking a bit of time to adjust or create a twist on a drill directly from a game film makes all of us better lacrosse coaches. Keep it fast and keep it fun!

Please leave your comments below!