Practice Plan: Off Ball Offense & Defense

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3V2 With Ghost Cuts
Diamond Keep Away to the Goal
Offensive Station: Slip Shooting w/ Defender
Defensive Station: Crease Defense Skill Work
4v4 + X

Phase 1: Recognize & Execute – Players will Sharpen their skills within game context and improve execution under moderate pressure. Players should now have a functional skill base. The focus shifts from just “can you do it?” to “can you do it at the right time and make the right decisions?”

Week 2 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

Diamond Keep Away to the Goal

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

Offensive Station: Slip Shooting w/ Defender

A great shooting and inside finishing drill designed by Jim Mitchell of Princeton Lacrosse

Set Up

Put a line on GLE and another with balls about 10 yards away above it. Add a defender in front of the GLE player. Start with a pass down and pick down, but we are slipping behind the the defender. The passes must be deceptive as the defender is trying to intercept/knock down the pass. Once pass inside is completed, player will execute a finish inside

Coaching Points and Principles

2-Player game slips – deception with the slip, act like a pick but slip to space behind
Deceptive passing – Being able to make a pass around an aggressive defender
Inside finishing – Neeq a quick release and add in a little deception with fake or change planes

2-Player Game 3-Player Game Attack College Disruptive - Light Physical Opponent Foundational Skills High School Inside Finishing & Goal Scoring Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Off Ball Offensive Play Positional / Tactical Shooting Shot Release Team Systems & Conceptual Play U12 U14

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Defensive Station: Crease Defense Skill Work

Set Up

Put a defensive player on the crease, and a coach to stand in as a crease offensive player. We are positioning as if the ball is behind the goal, specifically back left and back right. Coach will say “Back left” or “Back Right” and the defender must get win the proper position

Coaching Points and Principles

We want to be able to see our player on crease and ball carrier – head on a swivel and body open to both
Stay in front of crease player, we don’t want the backdoor cut easy
Stick up! So you can check down quickly if they feed the crease

4v4 + X

A great unsettled small area game designed by Jim Mitchell of Princeton Lacrosse

Set Up

Play 4v4 above GLE, and add a player at X on offense. The X player can only transfer the ball, they cannot dodge or shoot, but the defense must play them when they receive the ball. That will create an unsettle situation above GLE as the players move the ball through X

Coaching Point and Principles

Offense – Get them to dominos and find the advantage. Work the 2-3 player game above GLE
Defense – Communicate, protect the house, and slide/recover efficiently.

2-Player Game 3-Player Game 3v3 4v4 5v5 Advanced Anticipation & Recognition College Communication Decision Making Defense Slide & Recovery Game - Live Play High School Intermediate Lacrosse IQ Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Offense & Defense Principles Offense Spacing Principles Small Area Games Small Area Games Team Systems & Conceptual Play U10 U12 U14

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