Practice Plan: Playing in Transition

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Partner Passing – Short & Long
Station 1: Continuous 4v4 Game
Station 2: 3v2 to 2v1
Restart Game
3/4 Field Scramble

Phase 2: Sustain & Re-Attack: Players will emphasizes on Maintaining advantages and extend possessions. This is the heart of the Train to Train phase. Players must learn how to continue attacking once the first action doesn’t immediately score.

Week 6 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

Partner Passing – Short & Long

Set Up

Put players in lines, about 5-8 yards away. They will run while passing the ball back and forth keeping their hips upfield, it’s not a shuffle. Players will catch and throw with their upfield/outside hand. One line is catching R and Throwing L, and the other is doing the opposite. Once they get to the end of field, they will cure to the outside and now throw longer passes going back to where they starters. Have them run the width of the field as 1 rep. Complete again so players can work on their opposite hands

Coaching Points & Principles

Keep your stick up as a target for your teammate when you don’t have the ball
Short Passing – Make good passes keep the ball in the air so your teammate can make an easy catch
Long Passes – try to lead your teammate so they don’t have to stop running

Station 1: Continuous 4v4 Game

A fun way to play small area game and developing offensive and defensive game IQ

Set Up

Create a small playing area (30×35) and split your players up into 2 teams. Line them up on the sideline. We are going to play a 4v4 game with some added constraints to build in game awareness

8 Seconds to Clear / 10 Seconds to get a shot off once over midfield
Sub on the fly – No Horns – Forces players to know how and when to sub off

Optional Added Constraints

Initiate every offense with an on or off ball pick
2x Points if players score off ball from a pass, pick, or quick stick

Coaching Points and Principles

Spacing – Transition spacing and riding gapes to move the ball up the field quickly
Subbing – Try to sub in a strategic way so you aren’t playing with a disadvantage’
Maintain gaps and coding spaces with shallow cuts and picks

Progressions

Play 5v4 for the youngest players so there is always an advantage – Keep an extra offensive player in at all times but the goalie can not clear it full field to them.. the team must clear the ball first

4v3 4v4 Advanced Beginner College Decision Making Game - Live Play High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Small Area Games Small Area Games Transition U10 U12 U14 Women’s Lacrosse

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Station 2: 3v2 to 2v1

A fun small area transition game that gets everyone playing offense and defense

Set Up

Bring the goals to the restraining line, and split your players into 2 teams. Start with a 3v2 on 1 side of the field. Once the play ends or a turnover, the last player to touch the ball on offense needs to spring back on defense. The 2 defenders just in, transition back the other way and play 2v1. Once that ends, start a 3v2 the other direction and repeat

Coaching Points & Principles

Transition – Play fast
Early offense
Find the advantages
Communication

Progressions

For youngest players, start with a 4v2 or shorten the field
Add in more constraints like a shot clock
Play all with weak hands

2v1 3v2 Advanced Beginner College Decision Making High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Small Area Games Small Area Games Transition U10 U12 U14 U8

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Restart Game

A game that forces the offense to find quick advantages off restarts and the defense to communicate and get into proper positioning

Set Up

On half field, play 4v4. Give the offense a 15 second shot clock. Play until one of the following happens

Shot/Goal
Goalie Save/Def Clear
Defensive Clear

Once one of this has happened, coach blows the whistle and rolls a new ball in to the offense into a random area. The Defense must get back into the house/hole area to protect the goal, and the offense must move quick to find scoring opportunities.

Coaching Points & Principles

Fast restart – Offense should try and take advantage of a defense that is spread out, and attack open space to get them to slide/rotate
Defensive communication – Off restarts, they need to match up and make sure they are supporting for help/slides
Play 4v3 for the youngest players so there is always an advantage

4v3 4v4 Advanced Beginner College Decision Making Game - Live Play High School Intermediate Lacrosse IQ Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Small Area Games Small Area Games Transition U10 U12 U14 Women’s Lacrosse

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3/4 Field Scramble

SET UP

Put 3 attack and 3 defenders down on one side of the field in front of the cage. At the far restraining box, set up 3 offense lines and 3 defense lines, alternating by color. Each line has a number, to start the drill, coach gives the numbers going in and hands the ball to the offense. The offensive team must push the ball in transition while the defense has to communicate at talk through the situation.

PRINCIPLES & COACHING POINTS

Have coach change up numbers (4v3, 5v4, 6v5)
Encourage to try and find solutions for quick scoring options
Discuss slow breaks when occurs, and encourage moving the ball through X

PROGRESSIONS

Tell Defense to play different types of D
Add in contraints, like goals need to finish off a pass