Off Ball Play & Spacing

Off Ball Play & Spacing
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	Activities 2v0 Ground Ball w/ Give and Go Backdoor Cut Shooting 3v3 Bumper Game Small Field Unsettled Game
2v0 Ground Ball w/ Give and Go - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
An easy drill to do with all ages, to work on ground balls, passing, and off ball movement Set up 2 line of players about 8-10 yards apart. Star a ball in 1 line, the play will roll a diagonal ball to teammate about 10 yards out. Once the roll the ball, they mirror their teammate as they go to scoop it. Once possession happens, a quick pass back over to the teammate mirroring. Lastly, players who made pass, will cut back to middle for a give and go pass, and then restart the ball in line with 2 new players Coaching Point & Principles		Ground Balls – Scoop through, no raking Eyes up and quick passing! Communicate Passing and Catching on the run
Backdoor Cut Shooting - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
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		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
3v3 Bumper Game - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
A live action small sided game that works on off ball play and ball movement Set Up Create a small sided game using cones, starting with one goal to the nearby restraining box. Put players of each team, alternating around the playing area, as the bumpers. Its a live 3v3 game, and to trigger the offensive possession, a team must pass it to a bumper first before attacking the goal. For example, if team 1 turns it over, team 2 would start their possession, and pass to a bumper to trigger the offense. Player for 1 minutes, add in new players. Play for 10-15 minutes and make it a competition. Coaching Points and Principles Progressions or Constraints Play 4 v 4 All off ball play starts with a Pick		Defense – pressure the ball and all off ball players / Communicate Offensive – off ball play like picks, action to space, and using bumpers to work on give and go’s
Small Field Unsettled Game - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
Add Bonus Points for all goals scored on a Give and Go!		Find the advantage – revery rep is an extra player. We want players to recognize the open teammate and get a good shot off Zone like defense – playing 1 player less, we need to cover the ball, and have backside help on every rep! work on your slide and recoveries here

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2v0 Ground Ball w/ Give and Go
Backdoor Cut Shooting
3v3 Bumper Game
Small Field Unsettled Game

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.

2v0 Ground Ball w/ Give and Go

An easy drill to do with all ages, to work on ground balls, passing, and off ball movement

Set up

2 line of players about 8-10 yards apart. Star a ball in 1 line, the play will roll a diagonal ball to teammate about 10 yards out. Once the roll the ball, they mirror their teammate as they go to scoop it. Once possession happens, a quick pass back over to the teammate mirroring. Lastly, players who made pass, will cut back to middle for a give and go pass, and then restart the ball in line with 2 new players

Coaching Point & Principles

Ground Balls – Scoop through, no raking
Eyes up and quick passing!
Communicate
Passing and Catching on the run

Advanced Beginner Block - On Air (no opponent)Box Lacrosse College Foundational Skills Ground Balls High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Passing Team Passing U10 U12 U14 Women’s Lacrosse

View Drill Page →

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

3v3 Bumper Game

Set Up

Create a small sided game using cones, starting with one goal to the nearby restraining box. Put players of each team, alternating around the playing area, as the bumpers. Its a live 3v3 game, and to trigger the offensive possession, a team must pass it to a bumper first before attacking the goal. For example, if team 1 turns it over, team 2 would start their possession, and pass to a bumper to trigger the offense. Player for 1 minutes, add in new players. Play for 10-15 minutes and make it a competition.

Coaching Points and Principles

Defense – pressure the ball and all off ball players / Communicate
Offensive – off ball play like picks, action to space, and using bumpers to work on give and go’s

Progressions or Constraints

Play 4 v 4
All off ball play starts with a Pick

Small Field Unsettled Game

Add Bonus Points for all goals scored on a Give and Go!

Set Up

To start create a small playing area. Put a goalie in each cage and split your group up into two teams. Put two lines of each team behind their goal on their respective defensive side. The game will start with one team having an advantage with a player going 1v0 against the goalie. Play till there’s a shot or a save and then two new players in the defensive end will come in and they will transition down the other way and play 2v1. They will play until a dead ball. Two new players come in from the defensive end and now they’re going back the other way 3V2. We are going to continue this until we get to 6V5 And then you reset and then start another game with the other team having the first advantage.

Coaching Points & Principles

Find the advantage – revery rep is an extra player. We want players to recognize the open teammate and get a good shot off
Zone like defense – playing 1 player less, we need to cover the ball, and have backside help on every rep! work on your slide and recoveries here