Great 3V2 from York College
Head Coach Brandon Childs
First, in my recent interview with Head Coach Brandon Childs (CAC 2014 Coach of the Year) I was impressed with this young coach, especially the unique twists he puts into his practice plans.
Next, perhaps the most frequent comment I get on my site is the huge number of variations we have for running 3V2 lacrosse drills in lacrosse practices. We have over 25 variations and counting. And why not? The 3V2 configuration encourages quick ball movement, there is always a player open, fundamentally teaches defensive slides, communication and slide recovery, and the drills establish a fast pace of practice with very quick reps.
In addition, college coaches tell us that most (80%+) goals in any game come from some sort of transition off a GB, breakdown, or just a break… But most of all, the 3V2 drills are great because we can run them effectively with almost any size roster, with any talent or skill level, any age group and with a multitude of variations. We can dramatically change the drill by where we position the players. For example three offensive players up top and two defenders coming in from GLE, or two offensive players behind, and a pole up top and a pole from the wing, and as many variations we might dream up, just keeping in mind they need to directly emulate a true game scenario.
Put these concepts together and add a few more twists, and we have this variation of a 3V2 lacrosse drill from Coach Childs that I cannot wait to put in my practice plan. I was also impressed with the way Coach Childs strongly stresses “offensive communication” suggesting even before the ball arrives via pass to a player, his adjacent teammate is already yelling his name and “next”.
We have talked before about the benefit of ‘crunching’ the field or forcing the players to run the drill in a more confined space. We also love to keep a drill different by adding an additional offensive and a different defensive player (“Add One”) to build up the drill as well as keeping it interesting for the players. At York, they have a great way of combining these elements. OK, I can hear you saying we are already doing all that…
So in this case, the unique way they run the lacrosse drill at York comes from where the drill begins, and how it initiates, not only in the first rep of 3V2, but in the next build up to 4V3, and possibly even 5V4. Perhaps like you, I have run these drills basically in two different ways.