Practice Plan: Playing & Attacking Space

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Sharks and Minnows 2
Station 1: Space Invaders Game
Station 2: Cradle to Space Race
Station 3: 2v2 Wide Field Game
4v3 Small Field Rabbit Game

Phase 3: Attacking & Creating Space – Focus Points being finding the advantages and playing vs more pressure

Week 7 Practice / 60 Minute Session

Please Note:The practice is designed to bring value across multiple age levels. You can use this as a foundation to build and develop your own practice. With that being said, we highly encourage you to adjust the drills based on your team’s age and skill levels. Lacrosse Drive should always be used as a starting point — you can make drills easier or harder by changing the constraints.

To make a drill easier, you might Increase the playing area, reduce the number of defenders or rules, add time or space to make decisions

To make a drill harder, you might: Shrink the field or add boundaries, add defenders or touch restrictions (e.g., “one-pass before shooting”), or Limit time or space to force faster decisions

Small adjustments to field size, player numbers, and rules can significantly change the challenge level while maintaining the same core learning goal.

Theme Description This practice is designed for young players to gain confidence with player with more pressure. We build it into small area games where they can learn how to get open, get their hands free, and feel confident to play vs an opponent and or the pressure of a time constraint

Sharks and Minnows 2

A fun way to build off the traditional game the kids love!

Set Up

Create a center zone five yards wide. Place three small goals on each end line. One or two players or coaches (sharks) start in the center zone. The sharks cannot leave the zone. Three or four minnows try to carry and dodge past the sharks. After going past, they shoot the ball right away into one of the three small goals. After they pass, the next turn starts. When a minnow loses the ball, he/she becomes a shark.

Coaches Points & Principles

Ball Control and escapes around Sharks
Shooting

Progressions

If you are limited with goals, use whatever you have and balance off that
The shark gets one point for each time they force a dropped ball. When they get four points, they become minnows and pick new sharks

View Drill Page →

Station 1: Space Invaders Game

A fun game for young players to learn how to find and defend space

Set Up

Create 4 boxes of cones in a 15×15 or 20×20 space (different colors if you have it). Add an offensive player with a ball and a defender (with or without a stick). The goal is for the offensive player to make it to each box. Once the attacked gets into a box, they must drop the ball (w/no pressure), re scoop it, and then go try to capture another space. Each player gets 60 seconds to capture as many boxes as possible and they cannot capture a zone they already got

Coaching Point & Principles

Finding the open space on offense and attacking. Using dodges or change of direction to get to space
Defense has to guard all 4 boxes at once, so they should continue to try to reset positioning to drive players away from boxes
Coaches should look for: Do they go to the zone FURTHEST from the defender? Do they fake toward one zone and cut to another? Do they change speed when they see the defender commit?Do kids scan before committing to a zone?

Progressions

Defender has no stick
defender can only shade, no body contact
Add a 5th cone

Anticipation & Recognition Attack Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Defense Defensive Positioning & Footwork Disruptive - Light Physical Opponent Dodging & Escapes Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Small Area Games Small Area Games U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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Station 2: Cradle to Space Race

A fun Race game that works on cradling and ball control, while thinking about space

Set Up

Create a 15 yd wide × 25 yd long channel (cones on both sides). Attacker starts at one end with ball. Defender starts 5 yds behind anywhere on the line.. right behind, to the left, or right, the attacker and on “go”, attacker wins by crossing the far end line anywhere within the channel width.

Coaching Points & Principles

Why no goal? Removing the goal removes the “just run straight” temptation. The attacker must use the full width and the defender’s positioning to find the best path across.
Coaches should Look for:
- Attacker look back to check defender position
- before committing Attacker uses the full 15-yd width rather than running straight
- Change of direction rather than just speed to beat the defender
- Accelerates into space AFTER making the defender commit
Coaches should manipulate if they start to see
- offense running straight line every time
- Is NOT looking to space, heads down
- Players stopping when a defender catches them, OK but urge them to think about changing direction and continuing to run

Progressions

Narrow the channel
Give defender shorter space behind

Anticipation & Recognition Attack Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Defense Defensive Positioning & Footwork Dodging & Escapes Foundational Skills Guided - Token Opponent Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Small Area Games U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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Station 3: 2v2 Wide Field Game

A fun game that works on teamwork and live gameplay

Set Up

Create a 30 yd wide × 20 yd long (wider than normal — this is intentional). Two teams of 2. One small goal each end (or two cone goals 6 ft wide). Regular lacrosse rules apply, passing allowed, carrying allowed. The extra width is the entire teaching tool here. Don’t tell kids to spread out, the wide field makes spreading out feel natural and rewarded. Watch what happens. Play 3-minute games, Winners stay, losers rotate if you have enough players. If small group, just flip possession after each goal.

Coaching Points & Principles

Are kids opening up to space naturally?
Using the attack to space principles
After goals, see if kids can answer questions like, “How did that space open up?”

Progressions

String the field
Add a offensive players that is ALWAYS on offense, like our Rabbit Game

3v3 Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Defensive Positioning & Footwork Game - Live Play Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Offense Spacing Principles Small Area Games U10 U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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4v3 Small Field Rabbit Game

Play this 4v3 or 3v2 with your team to finish practice, rotating players in during 1-2 minute shifts

Set Up

Set this up in a small sided field environment. There will be an equal amount of players on each team on the field (4v4 +1). There will be 1 additional player, as the rabbit. Use a 3 color tank for visual. The rabbit is always on offense, if a team is in transition and the rabbit has the ball, for example, they can turn back the other direction and change the situation on the field. It’s important to give the rabbit some guidelines. We want the rabbit to play offense with both groups, but in certain times change teams. As a coach you can control this by blowing the whistle as the trigger to switch.

Principles & Coaching Points

Awareness on the field
Man down and Man Up principles
Transition play
Quick Ball Movement

Progressions

Add in constraints to make it harder for offense, like scoring off a pass, can’t score off dodges, etc… to get players to focus on ball movement in uneven situations
Play on a smaller scale, 2v2, 3v3, etc..