Catch & Connect

Catch & Connect
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	Activities Half Field Partner Passing with Shuffle Diamond Keep Away Game Diamond Keep Away to the Goal Midfield 3v3 w/ Transfers
Half Field Partner Passing with Shuffle - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
Get the legs moving and the sticks warm with this passing drill! SET UP Pur your players in partners, and start them at the on the side of field around restraining box. They should be 3-5 yards apart, depending on you skill level. The players will shuffle down the field, passing the ball back and forth. There are 2 progressions, the first one the players will keep their sticks up field matching teammates (left line is lefty, right line is righty). The second progression, players would catch the ball cross face (behind them) pulll stick back across face, and pass back (no hand exchanges) PRINCIPLES & COACHING POINTS		Try to get the ball in an out of stick with 1 cradle or less After player makes pass, recoil and get stick back up for a target!
Diamond Keep Away Game - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
Start with a 2v2 GB, and then add in the 3rd offensive player to make it 3v2		Ground Balls Offense – Make good passes, a teammate should be at an adjacent cone. If the player with the ball carries, the offense should move like a carousel maintaining their spacing. Defense – Communicate, who has ball! Need no play the ball, and have backside zone since we are playing with 1 less player. One the ball is passed, a new defender should slid to the ball, and the previous defender on ball needs to get back inside for backside supper and help. Keep stick UP to try and knockdown passing
Diamond Keep Away to the Goal - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
Use the 1 Attackman as a transfer, they can pass, but can’t shoot		Ground Balls Offense – Make good passes, a teammate should be at an adjacent cone. If the player with the ball carries, the offense should move like a carousel maintaining their spacing. In transition to the goal, find the open teammate/advantage and get a good shot on cage Defense – Communicate, who has ball! Need no play the ball, and have backside zone since we are playing with 1 less player. One the ball is passed, a new defender should slid to the ball, and the previous defender on ball needs to get back inside for backside supper and help
Midfield 3v3 w/ Transfers - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
A live 3v3 game that emphasizes finding scoring opportunities 2-3 passes away from initial dodge Set Up Put 3 offensive midfielder and 3 defensive midfields on the playing field. Add in 2 transfer attack players around goal line extended. The game starts with a live 3v3, if a midfielder dodges the alley, and they don’t have an outlet, they can move the ball to a transfer player, who can then look for backside scoring opportunities amongst the midfielder. Coaching Points and Principles Progressions Add in token defenders with the attack, making passes a little harder put 4v4 in the midfield area		Work out of your team sets/spacing with the midfield offensively. We want players to see how we use dodging to create offenses by getting the defense to slide Defense can slide, double teams, and need to protect the crease using their “house” principles

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Half Field Partner Passing with Shuffle
Diamond Keep Away Game
Diamond Keep Away to the Goal
Midfield 3v3 w/ Transfers

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.

Half Field Partner Passing with Shuffle

SET UP

Pur your players in partners, and start them at the on the side of field around restraining box. They should be 3-5 yards apart, depending on you skill level. The players will shuffle down the field, passing the ball back and forth. There are 2 progressions, the first one the players will keep their sticks up field matching teammates (left line is lefty, right line is righty). The second progression, players would catch the ball cross face (behind them) pulll stick back across face, and pass back (no hand exchanges)

PRINCIPLES & COACHING POINTS

Try to get the ball in an out of stick with 1 cradle or less
After player makes pass, recoil and get stick back up for a target!

Diamond Keep Away Game

Start with a 2v2 GB, and then add in the 3rd offensive player to make it 3v2

Set Up

Set up cones in the shape of a diamond in the playing area. You can make it larger to force longer passes but the stand length should be about 8-10 yards away from each other. On the sideline, set up 3 lines of each team, depending on your group size. They should be alternating (dark, light, dark, light, etc..). Coach rolls a ball into the field (doesn’t have to be inside the diamond), and the team that picks up the ball is on offense. Another teammate from the winning team will join, giving them an advantage (4v3). At this point the game-play will move to the cones, and the defense has to stay inside the diamond while the offense needs to stay out. Play keep away for 30 seconds or until coach blows the whistle for a new group!

Coaching Points and Principles

Ground Balls
Offense – Make good passes, a teammate should be at an adjacent cone. If the player with the ball carries, the offense should move like a carousel maintaining their spacing.
Defense – Communicate, who has ball! Need no play the ball, and have backside zone since we are playing with 1 less player. One the ball is passed, a new defender should slid to the ball, and the previous defender on ball needs to get back inside for backside supper and help. Keep stick UP to try and knockdown passing

Progressions

Make the groups smaller (2 lines of each color) so it turns into a 3v2 for more spacing at younger ages
if you have more than 4 players (5v4) we can put an offensive players on the crease who can rotate in and out during the keep away play
Add go to the goal

Diamond Keep Away to the Goal

Use the 1 Attackman as a transfer, they can pass, but can’t shoot

Set Up

Set up cones in the shape of a diamond in the playing area. You can make it larger to force longer passes but the stand length should be about 8-10 yards away from each other. On the sideline, set up 3 lines of each team, depending on your group size. They should be alternating (dark, light, dark, light, etc..). Coach rolls a ball into the field (doesn’t have to be inside the diamond), and the team that picks up the ball is on offense. Another teammate from the winning team will join, giving them an advantage (4v3). At this point the game-play will move to the cones, and the defense has to stay inside the diamond while the offense needs to stay out. Play keep away until coach blows a second whistle, and then its live to the goal!

Coaching Points and Principles

Ground Balls
Offense – Make good passes, a teammate should be at an adjacent cone. If the player with the ball carries, the offense should move like a carousel maintaining their spacing. In transition to the goal, find the open teammate/advantage and get a good shot on cage
Defense – Communicate, who has ball! Need no play the ball, and have backside zone since we are playing with 1 less player. One the ball is passed, a new defender should slid to the ball, and the previous defender on ball needs to get back inside for backside supper and help

Progressions

Make the groups smaller (2 lines of each color) so it turns into a 3v2 for more spacing at younger ages
if you have more than 4 players (5v4) we can put an offensive players on the crease who can rotate in and out during the keep away play

Midfield 3v3 w/ Transfers

A live 3v3 game that emphasizes finding scoring opportunities 2-3 passes away from initial dodge

Set Up

Put 3 offensive midfielder and 3 defensive midfields on the playing field. Add in 2 transfer attack players around goal line extended. The game starts with a live 3v3, if a midfielder dodges the alley, and they don’t have an outlet, they can move the ball to a transfer player, who can then look for backside scoring opportunities amongst the midfielder.

Coaching Points and Principles

Work out of your team sets/spacing with the midfield offensively. We want players to see how we use dodging to create offenses by getting the defense to slide
Defense can slide, double teams, and need to protect the crease using their “house” principles

Progressions

Add in token defenders with the attack, making passes a little harder
put 4v4 in the midfield area

3v3 Advanced College Game - Live Play High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Offense & Defense Principles Small Area Games Small Area Games U14

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