A fun passing drill to work on stick movement, spacing, and O/D Principles
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
Progressions
- Make the box smaller and harder, or bigger and easier depending on skillset
- Play 4v3 or 5v4
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- Offense – Moving with and without the ball, passing, and maintaining good spacing
- Defense – Pressuring the Ball, sliding/recovery
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A drill to teach the WHY of backdoor cuts and always be on the move without the ball!
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 |
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- 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
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A great skill drill to work with your defensive players on stick control and footwork
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. Add in a ground ball at the end
Coaching Points & Principles
Progressions
- Make the distance between the cones wider to make it easier, or more narrow to make it tougher and a conditioning type drill
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- 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
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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
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- 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)
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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
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..
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- 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
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