This warm up drill focuses on cradling and ball control, and will get the kids warm in early practice
Set Up
Set up a designated area on the field using cones or lines. In this case, we are using the center circle, which is a good space for the size of this group. Every player will have a ball and will run/cradle through the area. They need to keep their HEAD UP while they are running so they dont run into a teammate. You can see in the video, players are naturally also getting some escape work in when they need to change direction to not hit a teammate!
- Progression 1 – After they have been running for 15-20 seconds, coach will blow a whistle and every player will stop, bounce away a little bit, and get their hands up like they want to make a pass. Have them hold position for a few seconds
- Progression 2 – Once coach blows the whistle, they must find a teammate and exchange balls with, by rolling it out for a ground ball (Communicate!)
Coaching Points and Principles
Progressions
- Instead of a ground ball, pass to a teammate to make it more challenging
- Make the space smaller and more challenging, or larger for less experienced players
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- Run and cradle with your stick protected, close to your shoulders
- HEAD UP! Dont look down, keep your eyes up so you are running into space that doesn’t have another player
- Look for natural escapes like Jabs, splits, etc.. and reinforce great job to the kids
- Communicate – When you get to the ground ball progression, communicate with teammate so you both expect the same thing
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A progression from our 5 player line drills that works on ball control, stick protection and escapes!
Set Up
Put players on the sideline in groups of 5, and a coach about 8-10 yards away. The players can start with a ground ball, it just carry. They will cradle the ball up to coach, who will shade them to force a roll away. We want players to pop their hats away to the outside from the defender, exchange hands, and either carry back to line or make a pass to next player in line
Coaching Points and Principles
Progressions
- Add in passes
- Make the defense unpredictable
- Add in Curls or QB passes
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- Cradling – keep the stick protected up by the shoulders
- Roll Away – Drive off inside foot, and pop your hands away to protect stick, LET THE STICK LEAD YOU, then exchange hands
- Carry the ball back to line, or make a pass
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A shooting drill that builds off our Windup Shooting
Set Up
Start the players on the wing with the ball. Have them bounce away from coach, since we are also teaching spacing principles and learning how to create your own space. After they bounce, they will wind up and hop like a step down, and the coach will either shade high or low. The player with ball will take the space the coach gives them
Coaching Points and Principles
Progressions
- Force players to use their weak hands
- Do on different parts of the field for various shot types
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- When players bounce, make sure their hands get up and loaded
- Wind Up, make sure they are taking the hop step like they are going to shoot
- TAKE THE SPACE – recognition the space coach is giving them to attach
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This is a fun game to get the kids warmed up and competing!
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
PROGRESSIONS
– Use less balls to make game go faster (8 players 6 balls, then 6 players 4 Balls… |
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- Ground Balls
- Competing
- Hustle!
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