Great Clearing Drills Like They do it at Limestone
Coach JB Clarke
OK, so every once in a while we get a great lacrosse drill from a great lacrosse coach that just absolutely blows my mind! I have over 150 published articles on lacrosse drills, five eBooks on lacrosse drills and this lacrosse drill is truly innovative and amazing! Even for me!
We just interviewed Coach JB Clarke again from Limestone coming off of his 2014 DII National Championship. As I prepared for the podcast I was intrigued by their .904 Clearing percentage in 2014. The national NCAA Lacrosse average for clears ranges from 85% to 87 or 88%.
Let me back up a bit… Coach Clarke and I have often discussed “crunching” the field for drills. In other words, putting out cones (or hash marks) to confine the area for the drill. The idea being if we can play 3V2 for example in a confined space, and move the ball effectively, when we get more space it seems to be easier for the players as the site lines and spacing just seem to open up. The purpose is to encourage much more quick passing, to a quick look at the cage. We “crunch” from the top or from the bottom, we “crunch” from side-to-side in just half the box, mostly all with an offensive emphasis…
Coach Clarke has taken the concept to whole new level, he is “crunching” the full field to work on clears. Amazing stuff!
In the most basic format, he “crunches” the field from the sides of the box, now we have imaginary new boundaries all the way down the field to work on clears in a more confined space for the clearing team. For the special purpose of this lacrosse drill, the space in each ‘alley’ all the way down the field is gone. So now in essence we need to clear the ball in a significantly ‘narrower’ area all the way down the field. The purpose is to encourage much more quick passing, only in the clearing game.
If you have a youth team, or a smaller roster and usually just clear past midfield, the same advantages are there for you. Disclaimer — OK, spacing and the ability to throw longer re-direct passes with both hands is still really really important. This does not in any way diminish us working on these critical fundamentals… however, this unique drill serves a slightly different purpose…
Actually Coach Clarke begins the basic drill by forcing the goalie and the three poles (three attack men riding) throw three passes even before they begin to clear the ball. Cools so far eh? Please just Click on the diagrams and they will expand for you,