Slide-Rotate-Recover and More!….
Coach Greg Paradine, Lenoir Rhyne
We just finished our first podcast with this great coach who has been able to accomplish amazing things entering his fifth season at this up and coming DII program.
In the hundred plus hours of interviews since I began the website, two things are true, coaches are looking for more unique defensive drills, and college coaches are focused more on the ‘Recovery’ than the slide itself. This drill we these talking points, seems to hit all the marks.
The Basics
The basic lacrosse drill configuration is five defenders against six offensive players, but with a ton of great lacrosse fundamental coaching points. The key is that the defense is playing in this drill exactly as they would in an ‘Even’ scenario, Man to Man everywhere.
As we play, the focus is to leave the offensive player farthest away from the ball open… this is one of the keys to the lacrosse drill, thus we are constantly rotating and moving on defense. As the ball moves to an open offensive player we are now sliding and then recovering back to the inside (many refer to it as ‘The Hub’ or ‘In the Paint’… an area six to eight yards in front of the cage.)
Thus the defenders are constantly on the move as the offense moves the ball. Keeping in mind that this is not a Man Down scenario, we are playing this Man to Man, tight on the ball, even behind the cage. Again, it has to be, Man to Man with the farthest player away as the only ‘open’ offensive player.
Coaching Focus Points
Although it sounds pretty basic, the success in coaching this lacrosse drill, as always, in in the detail. In my case I spend increasingly time in the ‘recovery’ phase.
However in this drill, although we are sliding we are in the words of Coach Paradine, “Slow to Go.” In other words, the initial slide does not occur until a defensive teammate has released the sliding defender. This an awesome way to reinforce additional communication above and beyond things like “I am hot.”
The focus here is to always a defensive player or players, “in the Paint.” The goal is to never allow an inside look, and to force the offense to shoot from the outside. The unique aspect in the way they coach during this drill is even the sliding player does not slide until he is released, this focus forces increased communication, especially once the ball is quickly moving with the offensive players.
As we are constantly moving defensively… once we slide, the defense focuses on the ‘Paint’, on the recovery side…
1. Find the offensive player in the paint
2. Cover them
3. Communicate
If the offense does score we want it to be off of a skip pass, never from inside. I look forward to your thoughts, just add them below or email me at mike@laxcoachmike.com!
To listen to Coach Paradine do a much better job of explaining how they run this lacrosse drill, and how they coach it just click here… and click Preview! For all Free Members!!
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