Practice Plan: Ball Control and Finishing

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Fishing Game!
Station 1: Zig Zag Cradling w/ a Shot
Station 2: Dodge the Line to 1v1
Station 3: Shoot to Score Relay Game
Musical Groundballs

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

Week 8 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. They will play in uneven games where they are forced to find the open teammates to create scoring opportunities.

10 Minutes

Fishing Game!

A game to start practice where players are working on a foundational skillset while thinking about space

Setup

Create a playing area, around 30×30 yd grid. Make 2 players the Fisherman, they have no sticks at all. All other players are the “fish” and they run/cradle the ball in their stick and swim around. The Fishermen try to tag fish with two hands. Tagged fish freeze in place for 5 seconds (hold stick overhead to show everyone), then re-enter as fish. Don’t tell fish HOW to move or dodge. Let them naturally find space and get to that space. The fishermen are the constraint, Fish will naturally discover direction changes, changes of pace/direction, because those are the solutions that work, let them discover.

Round 2 twist: Fish can “unfreeze” a frozen teammate by tapping them on the shoulder while carrying their own ball. Now it’s cooperative and chaotic, perfect for this age.

Note: If a player drops a ball while cradling, they must scoop the ball the right way (No Rakes!) or else they are considered a tagged fish

Coaching Points & Principles

Cradling and Ball Control – Continue to make sure players are working to keep that ball in their stick with a cradle
Finding space and running away from fisherman
Dodges and escapes – Players will naturally do the Face/Split/roll dodges

Progressions

Add a constraint- more fisherman makes it harder

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8 Minutes

Station 1: Zig Zag Cradling w/ a Shot

Set Up

Place cones in a zig zag patter about 5 yards away from each other not he side of the field. A Coach will be on the opposite side of the field to assist. The drill starts with the player cradling the ball through the cones. We want to emphasize exchanging hands depending on the cone we are running to. After players make their way through the cones, they will make a pass to coach for a Give and Go. You can make it a pass or a groundball back to the player. They will finish with a shot on cage.

Coaching Points and Principles

Ball Control – Try to keep the stick head closer to the shoulders/head area, it make for more stick protection and an easier hand exchange. Dont hand the stick low
Accelerate at the cones, try to have players change speeds, by planting at the cone, and accelerating to the next
Make a good pass to coach, and be read to get the ball back for a shot
Step Down shots – think about our windup shooting as players shoot.

Progressions

Shorten length between cones to make it hards for more experienced players
Have the players roll dodge at each cone
Add a second line on other side of cage doing the same drill

Station 2: Dodge the Line to 1v1

A good drill to work on ball control and dodging a sliding defender

Set Up

Put cones in a zig zag slalom type line, each 2-2 yards apart. The player must run quickly to each cone (they can stay one handed as this about ball control and playing fast) At the end of the slalom, 1 defender who is 5 yards away from the end, will slide to the player and they will play 1v1. The slalom is a constraint, it organizes rapid weight & balance shifts, change of direction, and footwork changes without the coach saying “practice your footwork”. The live defender creates the affordance for those same movements in a real context. Rotation: attacker goes, then becomes the waiting defender. Defender goes to back of line. Line keeps moving, high reps, low standing.

Coaching Points & Principles

Ball control – cradling in a fast paced environment with quick body movements
Sliding on defense – working on taking a good angle and breaking down
Playing 1v1 and trying to dodge to space. Offense should try to make 1 move only, and then GO!

Progressions

Have the defender be closer so less time to react
More experience players, make them change hands at every cone
do on the wing, to teach getting to middle on offense and trying to prevent that on defense

Anticipation & Recognition Attack Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Decision Making Defense Defensive Positioning & Footwork Defensive Stick & Body Contact Dodging & Escapes Game - Live Play Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Positional / Tactical Shooting Shooting on the Run U10 U12 U14 U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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8 Minutes

Station 3: Shoot to Score Relay Game

A fun game that works on ground balls, shooting, and teamwork!

Set Up

Put players into 2 teams on the wings. Put balls in the middle of the field between the 2 teams, and then add a cone about 8 yards from the goal. The first player in line, must go scoop a ground ball, get to the 8 yard cone, and shoot. Once they shoot, their next teammate can go, like a relay race. The team with the most goals after a 1 minute session, wins

Coaching Points and Principles

Get clean ground balls, for speed and efficiency
Take good shots, us a proper to make it harder to score like a net
Hustle! need to work hard to win

Progressions

Make scoring area smaller and more difficult
Players must spring back to line before teammate can go

Beginner Block - On Air (no opponent)Foundational Skills Ground Balls Intermediate Shooting Shooting on the Run Small Area Games Small Area Games Step Down Shooting U10 U12 U14 U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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15 Minutes

Musical Groundballs

SET UP

Create a small field using cones and put all the players shoulder to shoulder about 8 yards away from the game area. Coach will place as many balls -1 in the game area, than there are players. You have 8 players, use 7 balls. On the whistle, each player must go get a ball, and bring it back to the start line. The 8th player who doesn’t win a ball, can play defense and try to steal until everyone has returned back to the start point. Continue this progression until its 2v1 and you can declare a winner!

PRINCIPLES AND COACHING POINTS

Ground Balls, Competing, Hustle, hav fun!

PROGRESSIONS

Use less balls to make game go faster (8 players 6 balls, then 6 players 4 Balls…