Playing & Keeping Advantages

Playing & Keeping Advantages
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 Donut Passing Diamond Keep Away to the Goal 32 Break Game Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4
Donut Passing - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
Set Up Put players in groups of 4 or 5 and spread out on the field. Place one player in the middle, and have them start with the ball. They will find a perimeter teammate to pass to, and follow their pass. The new ball carrier goes into the middle, finds another perimeter player, gets a give and go, and then finds a new teammate. Coaching Points & Principles		Passing – Have soft hands and make good passes Communication – Players should be calling for the ball Target – Off ball teammates would have stick up as targets
Diamond Keep Away to the Goal - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
A fun and engaging groundball and transition drill that works on both offensive and defensive teamwork & spacing 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 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		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
32 Break Game - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
A fun & fast paced transition game for youth players that helps build game IQ! Set Up Create a small field area game, using the retraining area or cones. Put 2 attack and 1 defense on each end, and midfielders lined up on the sideline. A coach with balls, will roll a live ground ball in, and players will play a live game. In this game, there will always be a 3v2 on each side, so the offense has the advantage. When there is a dead ball, coach can roll a new contested ball in, or start a new group! Coaching Points & Principles Progressions Play 4v3, set up 2 midfielders of each team If you don’t have goalies, turn the goals upside down to make it harder to score		Offense – Find the advantage! play fast by finding an open teammate to get the best shot! Defense – Communicate, play zone like where you need too pressure the ball with backside support to play the next pass
Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4 - Link to Drill	Set Up	Focus Points
A great game to build team offense and defense IQ! Set Up Put player on field in a 4v4. The offense will start with their backs turned to coach, and coach will tell which defender is the slide/help. Offense can turn back and get set, on whistle, the defender guarding the ball leaves the field and the directed help player slides to the ball. The offense must read where the slides are coming from and move the ball to find the best shot. The defense must slide, rotate, and recover to try and get the offense back to neutral by the time their 4th player gets back into play! Coaching Points & Principles Progressions Play 3v3 with the youngest players Build to 5v5 and 6v6 for youth, high school, and college levels		Offense – read the slides, move the ball to pressure Defense – Slide, Recover, Communicate

Jump to a Section

Donut Passing
Diamond Keep Away to the Goal
32 Break Game
Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4

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.

Donut Passing

Set Up

Put players in groups of 4 or 5 and spread out on the field. Place one player in the middle, and have them start with the ball. They will find a perimeter teammate to pass to, and follow their pass. The new ball carrier goes into the middle, finds another perimeter player, gets a give and go, and then finds a new teammate.

Coaching Points & Principles

Passing – Have soft hands and make good passes
Communication – Players should be calling for the ball
Target – Off ball teammates would have stick up as targets

Block - On Air (no opponent)Decision Making Foundational Skills Intermediate Passing Positional / Tactical Team Passing U10 U12 U14 Women’s Lacrosse

View Drill Page →

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

32 Break Game

Set Up

Create a small field area game, using the retraining area or cones. Put 2 attack and 1 defense on each end, and midfielders lined up on the sideline. A coach with balls, will roll a live ground ball in, and players will play a live game. In this game, there will always be a 3v2 on each side, so the offense has the advantage. When there is a dead ball, coach can roll a new contested ball in, or start a new group!

Coaching Points & Principles

Offense – Find the advantage! play fast by finding an open teammate to get the best shot!
Defense – Communicate, play zone like where you need too pressure the ball with backside support to play the next pass

Progressions

Play 4v3, set up 2 midfielders of each team
If you don’t have goalies, turn the goals upside down to make it harder to score

Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4

Set Up

Put player on field in a 4v4. The offense will start with their backs turned to coach, and coach will tell which defender is the slide/help. Offense can turn back and get set, on whistle, the defender guarding the ball leaves the field and the directed help player slides to the ball. The offense must read where the slides are coming from and move the ball to find the best shot. The defense must slide, rotate, and recover to try and get the offense back to neutral by the time their 4th player gets back into play!

Coaching Points & Principles

Offense – read the slides, move the ball to pressure
Defense – Slide, Recover, Communicate

Progressions

Play 3v3 with the youngest players
Build to 5v5 and 6v6 for youth, high school, and college levels