Practice Plan: Off Ball Offense and Defense

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3V2 With Ghost Cuts
Offensive Skill Station: Backdoor Cut Shooting
Defensive Skill Station: 2 Stick in Lanes Drill
33 Arc Game
6V6 BUILD UP WITH BUMPS

Phase 3: Create Under Pressure: Introduce Train to Compete elements while staying developmentally appropriate. This is where players begin learning how to create advantages intentionally, not just recognize them.

Week 7 Practice / 75 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

3V2 With Ghost Cuts

Set Up

Create an 8×8 box using cones. Put 3 offensive players on the perimeter and 2 defenders in the middle. The offense is to play keep away. The offense must make a backdoor cut after every pass, cutting to open space. The defense must always pressure the ball and constantly sliding and recovering

Coaching Points & Principles

Offense – Moving with and without the ball, passing, and maintaining good spacing
Defense – Pressuring the Ball, sliding/recovery

Progressions

Make the box smaller and harder, or bigger and easier depending on skillset
Play 4v3 or 5v4

Tags

3v2 4v3 5v4 Advanced Decision Making Defense Slide & Recovery Foundational Skills Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Offense Spacing Principles Passing Small Area Games Team Passing U10 U12 U14

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Offensive Skill Station: Backdoor Cut Shooting

Set Up

Put a line of players up top with the balls, a second line on the wing, and put a coach up top near the players starting with the ball. The drill starts with a pass down to the wing, and then that player who passed it, cutting BEHIND the coach/defender. They will receive a pass from the teammate the just passed to (live a Give-n-GO) and finish with an inside shot!

Coaching Points and Principles

Cut behind coach/defender – we want to get our defenders to turn so make a cut behind their head for a backdoor cut.. when cutting keep your stick up as a target for your teammate!
Passer – Move your feet, don’t stand still and pass and you need to LEAD your teammate.. a pass behind them can make it much hard to catch and finish

Tags

Attack Beginner Foundational Skills Guided - Token Opponent Inside Finishing & Goal Scoring Intermediate Lacrosse IQ Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Off Ball Offensive Play Shooting Team Shooting U10 U12 U14

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Defensive Skill Station: 2 Stick in Lanes Drill

Set Up

Put Cones in a square pattern about 5 years apart. The defensive player starts at the top cone looking back at their teammates. They will drop step and side run in a zig zag pattern through the cones with emphasis on keeping their stick up in the middle of the field.

Coaching Points & Principles

Side runs – this is mimicking a recovery type scenario when a player is dropping into help on the crease during play
Stick up – VITAL for all defense when playing OFF-BALL. Sticks up allow opportunities to steal or knock down passes

Progressions

Make the distance between the cones wider to make it easier, or more narrow to make it tougher and a conditioning type drill

Tags

Advanced Block - On Air (no opponent)College Defense Defense Slide & Recovery Defensive Positioning & Footwork Foundational Skills High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Positional / Tactical U10 U12 U14

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33 Arc Game

Add in Constraints to build off this weeks lesson with Picks

Offense Scores off a Pick Play – 2 points
Defense Knocks down passes – 2 points

SET UP

Set up in front of the cage an arc using cones, that is about 10 yards away from the goal. Start in a 3v3, but you can build up to 6v6. The rules of the game are as followed

The offense can only score inside the arc OR
Outside the arc in any fashion
Play for 15 seconds reps
Flip teams after every rep, keep score

PRINCIPLES & COACHING POINTS

Encourages off ball play, to get open inside the arc.. use backdoor cuts, picks, etc..
Defense must communicate through off ball ball play to protect the HOUSE
Use point system to encourage certain typer of goals (2 points inside the arc / 1 Outside)

PROGRESSIONS

Add in Constraints/rules like must pick off or on ball
Build up to 4v4, 5v5 – Makes it harder for offense as it’s more crowded inside.

Tags

2-Player Game 3-Player Game 3v3 4v4 5v5 Advanced Anticipation & Recognition Game - Live Play High School Men’s Lacrosse Offense & Defense Principles Small Area Games Small Area Games U14

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6V6 BUILD UP WITH BUMPS

Set Up

Put 4 offensive lines around the high and low wings. You will add a defensive line at x behind the cage, and another line at the point. Give the defenders numbers, and make sure the point and x lines are opposite. For example, the point Lines will have players 1,3,5,etc.. the line at X will have 2,4,6,etc..

On the whistle, coach will throw a ball in to an offensive line and call a defender number out. If they call “One”, that player will sprint and approach the offensive player receiving the ball from coach. They will play 1v1 until the play ends by a shot, turnover, or defensive takeaway. Coach will then add in the next defender, say “Two”. That player would be coming from X and coach will throw a new ball in to another offensive player and they play 2v2. Continue until you reach 6V6.

Coaching Points and Principles

Defensive – Approaches, focus on approach angles and keeping the offensive players away from center of field.
Defensive – Communication: When the new defender is called in, they may be too far away from the new offensive player. In these situations, the new defender can bump a closer teammate to the ball, as you may do duing a recovery situation
Offensive – Be a good dodger and attack the space or find ways to create the space you want. In the 2v2 + scenarios, you can work on picks and or on and off ball action

Progressions

Add in constraints to focus on a particular situation. For example, if the team needs to work on off ball offense, tell them on every rep that is 2v2+, off ball players must do some form of action like a V-Cut, Screen, etc..

Tags

3v3 4v4 5v5 Advanced College High School Men’s Lacrosse Offense & Defense Principles Small Area Games Small Area Games Transition U14

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