Practice Plan: Finding Space

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Scan the Field Warm Up With Progressions
5 Player Line Drills – Roll Away with Guided Defense
Bounces and Windups
Musical Groundballs

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 & Objected: Finding Space

Team Principles & Actions:

This practice plan is designed to help U8 players begin to understand space, where it is on the field and how to use it. Through small-sided games and simple activities, players learn to move away from defenders, spread out, and recognize open areas where they can receive a pass or attack. Instead of focusing on positions, the goal is to help young players develop a natural feel for finding space, supporting teammates, and keeping the game moving, all while staying active and having fun.

8 Minutes

Scan the Field Warm Up With Progressions

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

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

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

Tags

Anticipation & Recognition Attack Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Block - On Air (no opponent)Box Lacrosse Defense Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Small Area Games Small Area Games U10 U8

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5 Player Line Drills – Roll Away with Guided Defense

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

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

Progressions

Add in passes
Make the defense unpredictable
Add in Curls or QB passes

Tags

Attack Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Defense Dodging & Escapes Guided - Token Opponent Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Midfield U10 U8

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Bounces and Windups

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

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

Progressions

Force players to use their weak hands
Do on different parts of the field for various shot types

Tags

Anticipation & Recognition Beginner Decision Making Foundational Skills Guided - Token Opponent Intermediate Shooting Shooting on the Run Step Down Shooting U10 U8

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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!

PROGRESSIONS

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

Tags

3v3 4v4 5v5 Box Lacrosse Game - Live Play Ground Ball Battles Ground Balls Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Small Area Games Small Area Games U12 U14

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