Practice Plan: Off Ball Offense and Defense

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Hot Potato Activate Game
Give & Go Drill
Read the Movement of the Defense (w/ Give and Go's)
Scoop and Chase Small Sided Game

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

Week 9 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 think about off ball movement on offense and defense. Players should always think about moving without the ball and keeping the defense on their toes!

12 Minutes

Hot Potato Activate Game

A fun game to start thinking about moving off ball and actions after a player passes the ball

Set Up

Put players in Groups of 3–4 around the field within a grid like format using cones. One ball per group. Add 1 “chaser” who tries to tag the ball carrier (no stick needed for chaser). Group passes the ball around to keep it away from the chaser. THE MOMENT you pass, you MUST immediately run at least 5 yards to a new spot before you can receive again. No clustering. No standing next to your passer waiting for a return pass, your teammate mu run towards you to get their hands free. Players can’t run to the same safe zone they just left

By forcing movement after every pass, kids begin to experience that passing creates opportunity for THEMSELVES, the passer moves into space that opens up once the defender follows the ball. This is the foundation of give-and-go without naming the concept.

Coaching Points & Principles

Players always moving after every pass
If tagged, players switch roles

Progressions

Make the grid bigger for easier space
add another chaser

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12 Minutes

Give & Go Drill

A good drill to work on passing at this age and the idea of always moving.

Set Up

Put player in groups of 6 around the field, 2 players will go at a time. The group will have 3 cones on each side, that are 10 yards apart each. Player A is the initiator andstarts with the ball, and make a pass to teammate directly across. Player A will spring to either side cone of theirs, and try to get a pass back while running, like a give and Go. Player B will then spring to mirror their teammate, so they can make another pass across, and then player A will spring back to the middle cone catching the ball on the run again. Flip roles, and once both players have gone wing to wing, rotate players (each group should be about 1-2 minutes)

Coaching Points & Principles

Catching the ball on the run (like a give and go).. players should always keep their stick UP as a target when moving off ball
Passing and Catching – Make sure the kids are doing the right passing and catching concepts (good target passes around teammates head / choking up to control the catch, etc..)

Progressions

Put a defender in the middle, as a token defender, so each player needs to move to get open
Cones further apart, more running

Beginner Block - On Air (no opponent)Decision Making Foundational Skills Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Offensive Play Passing Team Passing U10 U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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15 Minutes

Read the Movement of the Defense (w/ Give and Go's)

Add in bonus points for the offense, if they score off a give and GO. Compete and play a point system and see if players can naturally find the solutions. Here is an example

Offense: 1 Point for a goal, 2 points for a give and go goal

Defense: 1 Point for a save, 2 points for an added completed clear after the save

Set Up

Put player on field in a 4v4. The offense will start with their backs turned to coach, and coach will tell which defender is the slide/help. Offense can turn back and get set, on whistle, the defender guarding the ball leaves the field and the directed help player slides to the ball. The offense must read where the slides are coming from and move the ball to find the best shot. The defense must slide, rotate, and recover to try and get the offense back to neutral by the time their 4th player gets back into play!

Coaching Points & Principles

Offense – read the slides, move the ball to pressure
Defense – Slide, Recover, Communicate

Progressions

Play 3v3 with the youngest players
Build to 5v5 and 6v6 for youth, high school, and college levels

Scoop and Chase Small Sided Game

Set Up

Split the group into two teams, and put them in alternating lines at the midfield. On a Half field, we would have 4-6 lines of each color, being a full team drill. If working in smaller spaces like video, you can do 3-4 of each color. The drill starts with coach rolling a live ground ball into the play. The first player in each line will go try to win the ground ball. Which ever team wins the ball, gets the ball to the goalie and initiates a clear. If you don’t have a goalie, just have the players clear to a Coach up top. Once they successfully clear the ball, they will go back in on offense, and attack the goal. Coaches can manipulate the rules or constraints to make uneven situations or get players to explore other team concepts like picks, off ball play, etc..

Coaching Points and Principles

Ground balls – players should be working hard to win ground balls to start the drill
Clearing – Team is spread out and finding open spaces
Even & Uneven scenarios

Progressions

Add extra players in on offense to creat uneven looks
Number the lines up top, so only select players go into the drill (1,2,3,4 would be a 2v2 groundball play)
Shot Clock – Once on offense, create a shot clock to speed up play